The Mediating Effect of Interpersonal Trust on Virtual Team's Collaboration

This article examines the relationship between task-communication and five collaborative processes by exploring the mediating effect of interpersonal trust in a virtual team's environment. A multiple mediation model was developed to examine this relationship where cognitive-based trust and affective-based trust are defined as mediation variables between task-communication and the five processes of collaboration. The main results of this study show a significant correlation with a large effect size between task communication, trust and collaboration. Also, interpersonal trust is playing an important role as a mediating element in the relationship between task communication and collaboration. This is where the emotional side of trust is no less important than the rational side, if not even more, in some collaborative processes.

Making Sense in Pitch Darkness: An Exploration of the Sociomateriality of Sensemaking in Crises

A brief failure of one item on the display of the information system (IS) on Flight AF 447 wrought havoc in the coordination between the pilots and the aircraft, leading to the loss of all 228 lives on board. In this essay, we ask the following question: How can the very instruments supposed to ensure our safety and make organizations more reliable lead a team to destruction? We propose that the imbrication of material and human agencies in such highly automated systems drives an attitude of “mindful indifference” (i.e., the capacity for experienced operators to distinguish problems that could turn into critical ones from problems that can be tolerated on account of the overall system reliability). An abrupt change in this imbrication provoked emotional distress and focused the pilots’ attention toward the machine, instead of triggering an organizational process of sensemaking. We highlight the role of leadership in such situations.

Sociomateriality and Information Systems Research

This paper provides an elaboration and comparison of two main streams of "sociomateriality" research within Information Systems (IS) discipline. Through the rapid and controversial emergence of discussions around sociomateriality, IS research has become entangled with the radical ideas derived from quantum mechanics. The philosophical elaboration of the implications of quantum mechanics, as formulated by physicist/philosopher Karen Barad, has provided a source of inspiration and a basis on theorizing for many IS scholars. Agential realism (AR) questions the Cartesian assumption of inherent and fixed demarcation between matter and meaning, and reworks many taken-for-granted assumptions underpinning much of IS research. In contrast, some IS scholars have sought to preserve the more conservative and established assumptions, and (re)turned to critical realism (CR) in order to fit sociomateriality to IS theorizing without radically reworking the Cartesian assumption. Thence, while both make references to 'sociomateriality', their conceptions build on largely different foundations, and use very different vocabulary to describe the phenomenon of interest that easily leads to confusion and to philosophically incongruent theorizing. By elaborating and juxtaposing the two perspectives of sociomateriality and related concepts (ontology/epistemology, matter, agency, time and space), this paper extends and contributes to the prior discussions (1) by providing generic research frameworks; (2) by outlining and explaining the related lexicons; (3) and by foregrounding challenges and opportunities to conduct sociomateriality research.

Online Stakeholder Interactions in the Early Stage of a Megaproject

The purpose of this article is to examine the network structure of online stakeholder discussions in the planning stage of a UK public megaproject, High Speed Rail 2. By providing new rail connections between London, Birmingham, and Manchester, this project is highly complex as it is embedded in a network of stakeholder relationships that may support or oppose the project. Data drawn from Twitter were analyzed using Social Network Analysis and inductive analysis of user profiles and content. Findings indicate that the majority of online stakeholders oppose the project and form stable clusters. Larger clusters within this network may attempt to deploy power directly in the form of a manipulation strategy, whereas smaller clusters may seek to ally themselves with more powerful groups, a pathway strategy. Overall, the methodology is a useful complement to existing methods and may provide real-time insights into the complex, evolving discussions around megaprojects.

Online Gaming to Find a New Job – Examining Job Seekers' Intention to Use Serious Games as a Self-Assessment Tool

Serious games can be used as self-assessment tools in recruiting processes. We develop a model explaining jobseekers' intentions to use these applications, which help them to gain a realistic idea of the job at hand and allows them to submit their application only if the job truly fits their individual profile. Drawing on organizational justice theory and the technology acceptance literature, our model is empirically evaluated using data from 1,882 jobseekers. The results indicate that jobseekers' intention to use self-assessments is driven in particular by its perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, perceived enjoyment, and perceived selection fairness. In contrast, the issue of privacy security has no significant impact on jobseekers' intentions. For firms, using serious games as a self-assessment tool can lead to a reduction in the total number of unsuitable applications they receive.