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The Agora project recognises that effective communication is a key to achieving successful project outcomes. One of its objectives is to develop an integrated communications environment for both internal and external communications. Collaborative workspace software to support asynchronous communication is seen as the core application within such an environment. Requirements for such software were developed, together with an evaluation plan. Three collaborative workspace products (Web4Groups, BSCW and AltaVista Forum) that passed preliminary criteria were selected for detailed evaluation. Results showed that BSCW met Agora's needs most closely and the project is currently in the process of implemention.

Addresses the changes to organizations and to work life resulting from technology‐ enabled changes in the global economy. Postulates that collaboration, as distinct from co‐operation, and collaborative computing are undervalued and underutilized at present. Recommends an approach to incorporating collaboration, collaborative computing and groupware technology into work in order to maximize organizational knowledge and performance.

How can action research be made more rigorous? We discuss in this paper action research, positivism and some major criticisms of action research by positivists. We then examine issues relating the conduct of IS research in organisations through multiple iterations in the action research cycle proposed by Susman and Evered. We argue that the progress through iterations allows the researcher to gradually broaden the research scope and in consequence add generality to the research findings. A brief illustrative case is provided with a study on groupware introduction in a large civil engineering company. In the light of this illustrative case we contend that effective application of the iterative approach to action research has the potential to bring research rigour up closer to standards acceptable by positivists and yet preserve the elements that characterise action research as such.

The concept of teams and teamwork is increasingly becoming an important key to productivity and employee satisfaction in the contemporary workplace. This paper looks at the concept of teams and teamwork and several innovative ways of using teams. Among the innovative ways of using teams are globally networked teams, team‐based strategic planning, flexible‐jobbing, the horizontal corporation, and the virtual corporation. The use of computer‐mediated communication technologies and other groupware technologies provide a workable, reliable, and flexible base of systems for creating the platforms for virtual teams and virtual organizations. An overview of current information technology available for supporting teams and which types of information technology are most valuable in enhancing the new team applications is briefly addressed. Supporting technologies include groupware for facilitating communication, supporting information storage and retrieval, and supporting decision making. Lastly, the many competitive advantages to the use of virtual teaming in the global environment as well as its managerial implications and strategic recommendations for improving the performance of virtual teams are presented.

Owing to shorter innovation cycles, increasing competitive pressure and the need for more flexibility in an uncertain business environment, we need more efficiency and effectiveness in education and training. Computers provide an added degree of freedom that can be used both within and external to traditional classroom environments and can be coupled with new as well as “tried and true” structures and techniques. This paper presents results of a survey of Austrian and German enterprises and universities as part of an extended research program.

This research aims at finding out how the efforts of Korean enterprises to convert data and information into knowledge are related to the use of information technology. It also aims to come up with plans to efficiently introduce external knowledge by applying information technology.This research was conducted focusing on the cases of enterprises that are carrying out knowledge management by applying information technology and the result shows that Korean enterprises place high value on the application of information technology in introducing knowledge management. However, the use of information technology is not common to all enterprises in four kinds of knowledge conversion. For an organization to efficiently acquire and apply valuable knowledge, the boundary of an enterprise should be extended, and for this, the enterprise should be changed into an extended knowledge enterprise, which is founded on the trust and compensation of all the interested parties. In an extended knowledge enterprise, its first consideration is to acquire knowledge that can efficiently manage and control the interests of customers, suppliers, public institutions, and competitors that exist in the surroundings and to acquire the core knowledge that can make those people and institutions participate. In addition, the organization should possess knowledge base and information communication technology that can smoothly convert data and information into knowledge, by efficiently connecting them.

Creativity and innovation concern the process of creating and applying new knowledge. As such, they are at the very heart of Knowledge Management. This paper first creates a framework in which to discuss these issues. It goes on to explore how our creativity is “blocked” in a variety of ways, including deep‐seated beliefs about the world. Finally, this paper takes a brief look at two tools to support Knowledge Management and creativity: dialogue and groupware.

Today′s increasing use of electronic documents raises the question: will it be necessary to change the core concepts of author and work within the tradition of Anglo‐American cataloguing when dealing with electronic documents? Describes the current definition of author and work as given in the traditional Anglo‐American cataloguing and presents two systems working with electronic documents, electronic office systems and groupware.

“Groupware,” “groupwork,” “workgroup computing,” “computer‐supported cooperative work,” and “distributed processing” are buzzwords that refer to a new way in which personal computers are being used in offices. Personal computers hooked together into local area networks (LANs) represent the latest stage in the evolution of automated technology. Of the eleven million personal computers in business, over 950,000 are arranged in some sort of LAN set‐up. The future for this configuration of computers and workstations will grow enormously in the next few years. By 1991, a conservative estimate of 6.7 million computers will be linked together in LANs in the workplace.

This paper presents research on the managerial reasons for the relatively slow up‐take of teleworking. Different definitions for telework are contrasted. It is proposed that an isolationist conception of telework predominates in the early teleworking literature and that this perception, coupled with outdated labour legislation and managerial attitudes towards staff supervision contributed to the relatively slow up‐take of telework. New forms of team‐based organisation of labour supported by groupware technology are proposed as a progression from isolationist telework into telecooperation.