Groupware
A powerful requirement for businesses to effectively compete in today’s global market place is the ability for collaboration between business units, work teams and individuals. The value of collaboration is its potential to contribute toward increasing productivity, reducing costs, growing profit and improve service or product quality (Alavi, M., 1994). Technology that has been designed to support collaborative group work is referred to as groupware. This impacts on the way people communicate with each other, the way people work and even the structure of an organization.
Groupware are technology based tools that facilitate groups of geographically dispersed people to share knowledge and information using computer based
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Groupware classified as different time/same place facilitates members who may only be available during certain time periods, yet are in the same relative location. Applications which assist in this include document management and group calendaring applications. Finally different time/different place explains the process of information exchange where group members are present at different times and are situated in different places, for example members who are geographically dispersed and subsequently operate in different time zones. Applications that facilitate this typically include email, voice mail and bulletin boards (Ellis et al., 1991).
Groupware which do not fit into any of the simple to complex scenarios mentioned in the previous paragraph fall under the application level category. These tools focus more on application level functionality and tend to be less comprehensive than the previously discussed tools. This category of groupware according to Ellis et al., (1991) is intended to give a general idea of the breadth of the groupware domain. Ellis et al., (1991) identify six categories of application level tools which include; message systems, multiple user editors, group decision support systems, computer conferencing, intelligent agents and coordination systems (Ellis et al.,
”For example in a campus environment, professors working on the same project can send broadcast messages to one another without the necessity of belonging to the same department. This can reduce traffic if the multicasting capability of IP was previously used”[2]. The concept of Virtual work groups seems to be a good one in theory but in practice this does not work properly.
Some companies try to implement new ideas and ways to increase efficiency and productivity in the workplace. This is a great idea for companies to increase the output of the product or service they are performing for the consumers. However, not everything goes so well when implementing new ideas. There are hardships that need to be overcome, the costs of implementing a new system can be overwhelming at first, and many others. I will describe to you some of the hardships of adding new groupware to a system that is already in place. Also have you ever wondered what a wiki does or what it could do
A collaboration tool that I believe would fulfill our needs at The Broadway Café would be a Groupware System. Groupware is
In my opinion, group work is a type of cooperative learning that helps people to accomplish a certain task in a faster and more effective manner. Team working also helps to achieve the tasks that are impossible to finish by one individual. However, if people in a group have a lot of conflicts, group work will not be able to achieve as much as we expected. There are many reasons which lead to dissatisfaction in group work such as individualism as well as conflicts in opinion and time.
| Employees in geographically dispersed locations can work together in virtual teams using video, e-mail, and the Internet.
A team is different from a group and have its own unique traits.A group interacts primarily to share information and to make decisions to help each member do his or her job more efficiently and effectively. There’s no need or opportunity for work groups to engage in collective work that requires joint effort. On the other hand, work teams are groups whose members work intensely on a specific, common goal using their positive synergy, individual and mutual accountability, and complementary skills. The four most common types of teams are problem-solving teams, self-managed work teams, cross-functional teams, and virtual teams.
Virtual Team on the other hand is a group of people working across time, space, and organizational boundaries which communication links are strengthened by the internet. It should be noted that virtual teams can also mean individuals spread across different cultures and languages. (“Virtual Team - Origin, Definition and its Scope,” 2016). More so, this team of geographically dispersed professionals working together as a unit despite distance are committed to achieving a single objective, holding one another mutually accountable.
The Groupware fiasco begins with a struggling human sciences and humanities department at a university that has just experienced radical changes. The dean of the HSH division, Dr. Susan Pollard, enlists Dr. Eve Gordon to increase the efficiency of the division in her absence and decides the division’s secretaries - suffering from poor communication, gossip and animosity about unfair workloads - will complete a Groupware project to improve the situation. This paper analyzes factors that contributed to conflict; examines the pros and cons associated with group decision-making and; discusses
I agree with Alana, concerning time, and how it may have an impact on low/high contact group development. In addition, low/high contact culture interaction may have an impact in the participant’s status difference, trust, value, and communication. In the event of considering that the group member’s vital source of communication is via internet, this will have an effect on the time messages are submitted or received. Trust, in the virtual environment, is similar to a statue wearing a blindfold, while hoping that your partners will be reliable and dependable. The status of a group member is irreverent, (in the online groups I have participated in), last but not least, a person patterns assisted me with recognizing a classmates’
The rapid advances in database technologies and their ability to integrate across enterprises, creating a single system of record that can unify all the diverse information assets of an enterprise, is accelerating. No longer are businesses needing to stay siloed and focused on a specific area of their operation due to the partitioning of databases, platforms and groupware. A groupware application that cannot span the entire system of record throughout an enterprise is limited in terms of its strategic impact and
Some members have careers that demands their time during the day and since we are all in college, some also have classes during the night. To counteract this challenge, our group decided to communicate with one another using Groupme. This way, no matter how busy each member is, we can all stay connected to achieve the goal of the group. Although we cannot meet face-to-face, Google Docs affords us the opportunity to work together in real time.
If I had written this report on tools for communication, designed for global organisations, the practical implications would have been difficult to asses. I would have also asked friends and family to help me test tools in order to put together an accurate analysis. Furthermore, what learnt from communication and collaboration with team 405, is all the different meanings and interpretations other viewpoints defined how to complete the tasks. Moreover, upon reflection, I have strengthen my skills in effective communication, providing encouragement and sharing ideas.
Groups are a crucial feature of any company or organisation. If an organisation is to function effectively it requires collaboration and co-operation among its members by working together in a group based activity. Mullins, J defined groups as 'any number of people who interact with one another are psychologically
The article states that geographically distributed teams will face difficulty in the exchange of information. Teams must use a common language, with agreed upon attributes. These types of teams develop software systems individually, which must then work together. This would require great coordination through effective communication. The article makes the point that Conway’s law dictates that teams coordinate their efforts, while Frederick Brooks suggests that this is not so easy to achieve. Advancement in communication technologies has helped to tackle some of the communication barriers that distributed teams face. The article justifies the study by stating that existing research is not clear on the benefits of applying Conway’s law to this specific situation.
The project utilizes a virtual team approach with members remotely located in various locations. This presents unique challenges, but virtual teams in real world contexts are able to overcome barriers in similar ways to face to face teams. It is suggested to develop virtual work spaces where team members have clear goals, are required to communicate with each other, and accept the possibility of working with current team members again in the future (Thorley 2016). Much of the project work is coordinated through conference calls. The team at SUU acts as note takers on these calls.