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After information systems (IS) implementation, many organizations report that system underutilization causes the failure to meet expected IS investment returns. It is imperative to understand the way to leverage employees’ fullest potential in the IS usage. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Anchoring on absorptive capacity (ACAP) theory, the authors develop an employee innovation model. Using survey data and structural equation modeling, this research investigates how perceived organizational levers affect innovation with IS usage (INVU) by introducing individual ACAP as a mediator.

The authors find general support for the research model through a survey of 205 employees using SAP business intelligence systems in China. The empirical data shows that three interrelated components of individual ACAP significantly contribute to INVU. The findings also suggest that, both fairness of reward and job autonomy are key organizational levers for the utility of individual ACAP. Furthermore, their effects on INVU can be fully mediated by individual ACAP.

The authors empirically unpack and validate individual ACAP in IS innovation situation. The findings provide academics and practitioners with an understanding of how management can inspire employees’ potential in implemented system innovation.

The deployment of assistive technologies affects well-being and productivity at industrial workplaces. Augmented reality (AR) is one of these technologies that has become increasingly deployed in manufacturing facilities to assist employees on the shopfloor. This paper aims to shed light on users’ experiences with AR-based assistance systems, specifically on the sense of autonomy users experience during an AR-assisted assembly task. Based on that, this paper draws implications for the design of future industrial workplaces to improve workers’ health, well-being and productivity.

The authors conducted a laboratory experiment with 117 participants. Within semi-structured interviews, the authors asked the participants about their general experience, as well as their sense of autonomy and responsibility.

The study results indicate a limited perception of autonomy. Connected to this, the participants took over a passive working attitude and experienced a limited sense of responsibility concerning the output of the AR-assisted assembly task. At the same time, however, the participants still attributed assembly errors internally.

AR-assistance holds both benefits and risks for worker’s health, well-being and productivity. With this study, the author aims to increase the understanding about the perception of autonomy and control at industrial workplaces. Thus, the authors conclude with design implications for developing and implementing assistive technologies in a way that beneficial effects for employees can be achieved.

The main objective of the paper is to assess selected taxonomy building tools to review their features and capabilities for supporting development and deployment of taxonomy functions.

A checklist of desirable features and capabilities of taxonomy tools was used for assessment focusing on development, deployment, display, and information environment supported. White papers and product information datasheets on vendor sites were consulted to analyze features and capabilities of selected taxonomy tools.

The review indicates that more than 50 per cent of the selected tools support automatic and hybrid taxonomy building; about 80 per cent allow import and export of taxonomies and vocabularies; and all tools reviewed support classification and tagging. User interfaces, for maintenance, and display in facets, are supported by some tools, while, some have also integrated other visualization tools, or modules to provide clear representation of contents, and relationships.

Analysis is based on review of white papers and product information sheets and is therefore limited to indication of availability features and capabilities. The review does not assess performance of tools which would require use of tools and feedback from actual users.

The checklist used for assessment provides a useful template for organizations interested in assessing tools for taxonomy implementation. A summary of features and capabilities of selected taxonomy tools may also be useful in selecting tools for taxonomy application projects.

Little research has been reported in the literature on assessment methodology and evaluation of taxonomy tools. This study makes a good contribution to the literature on this important aspect of research and makes available useful practical information as well.

Corporations balancing real estate holding (CRE) costs with recruitment-retention increasingly use activity-based flexible offices (AFO) to right-size environments for a mobile workforce. In this layout, workers have the option to select between a mix of unassigned workstations and alternative work settings (AWS) that support autonomy and mobility. The open layout encourages visibility and access to colleagues to enhance communication and collaboration. Nevertheless, studies into the effects of AFO environment attribute effects on worker needs and work outcome are sparse. Therefore, this study aims to focus on understanding how environmental features and psychological or job needs impact observed and perceived satisfaction, communication, collaboration and perceived productivity.

Data were collected in a case organization piloting an AFO before implementation across their CRE portfolio. A mixed-methods approach was used, including systematic observations, space syntax and surveys collecting information on the observed and perceived satisfaction, communication, collaboration and productivity.

Collaboration instances were higher in AWS, especially more visible and accessible open areas, supporting higher impromptu interactions and enhanced perceptions of productivity of team members and cross-team members. Privacy requirements linked to a greater demand for enclosed AWS. Team communication satisfaction depended on how easily teams were located. Almost half of the user teams clustered within workstation zones corresponding to territoriality needs. Job autonomy satisfaction depended on the availability of preferred workstation or AWS, enabling private, uninterrupted work that enhanced perceived productivity.

The case study findings indicated a correlation between the AFO environment and worker needs impacting workplace satisfaction, communication, collaboration and perceived productivity.

The findings form this case study indicated that a fit between the AFO environment and needs impacted workplace satisfaction, communication, collaboration and perceived productivity.

The new “agenda of choice” in public services emphasises service users' needs and agency. The ideals of consumerism and user involvement have set new challenges for professionals. This paper aims to explore the effects of consumerism and user involvement at the level of day‐to‐day service delivery, looking at the encounters between professionals and service users.

The paper applies an ethnographic approach. Observation data were collected at two Finnish drug treatment institutions: a needle exchange and health counselling service, and a specialised maternity clinic for pregnant women. Data from each institution consist of seven to 12 months of participant observation notes, which were subsequently systematically coded and analysed comparing the two institutions.

The promotion of new ideals does not automatically result in the empowerment of service users or the erosion of professional power. The two institutions differ greatly: institutional context and gender shape the everyday realisation of the new ideals. In both institutions, however, professionals have adopted new practices and rethought their role. The cultivation of service users' choice and agency can become valuable professional capital, a new kind of “know how” that can also be used by the professionals to justify the importance of their work.

The paper provides a nuanced and contextualised insight into “how” the ideals of consumerism and user involvement are translated into everyday encounters between service providers and users.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the ethical implications of Google's Knowledge Graph. The paper argues that in the advent and implementation of said Knowledge Graph, the role of Google in users' lives and the power held by Google as the key intermediary of information must be scrutinized.

Revisiting existing literature on Google and its impact on knowledge culture, the paper seeks to assess whether the implementation of The Knowledge Graph represents a significant shift in the nature (or use) of the service.

The paper concludes that the extension to Google Search, The Knowledge Graph, can serve to radicalize Google's position as a key intermediary of information in users' lives. Rather than simply serving as a gatekeeper supplying the user with an array of links matching a given query, Google now conveniently disseminates information on their own site, roughly rendering the remainder of the web superfluous. Considering both the commercial nature and the opacity of the service, Google as a de facto solo editor of information is worrying from both a democratic and ethical perspective. A culture of emphatic insistence on convenience and consumption is likely to contribute to the impediment of autonomous information retrieval and digital literacy.

The paper must be considered a preliminary inquiry into Google's reliability as an editor of the body of knowledge. As of yet, no literature specifically has remarked on The Knowledge Graph.

This paper examines whether the newest extension of Google Search, The Knowledge Graph, poses any significant changes to the assessment of the service and its role in the culture. Fostering critical, digital literacy in search engine users is deemed of even more vital importance to society with the implementation of The Knowledge Graph. This paper, preliminary and far from exhaustive, seeks to initiate a discussion on the future responsibilities of Google, scholars and users in securing the ideal of critical digital literacy.

How can microcomputers best be integrated into the business system? It depends on the type of application. Microcomputers allow decentralisation and user autonomy. Large clerical data‐processing applications can be left unaltered, and the big “number‐cruncher” jobs will still need the mainframe computer, but the mainframe′s time will be freed up by the “loss” of small calculation jobs that can be done on the microcomputers, along with spreadsheet and word processing applications. Software and hardware needs, data security, microcomputer network linkage, computer viruses and electronic mail are also discussed.

In intelligent tutoring systems (ITS), learners were often granted limited authority and are forced to obey the decision of the system which might not satisfy their needs. Failure to grant learners sufficient autonomy could yield unexpected effects that hinder learning, including undermining learners’ motivation, priming learners’ aversion to the algorithm. On the contrary, granting learners overwhelming autonomy could also be harmful as the absence of learning support would also have a negative impact on learning. As such, this study aims to design and implement an intelligent tutoring system that offers learners proper autonomy.

The main learning activity in the system is doing exercises, and by finishing exercises learners could earn virtual coins. Based on item response theory, exercises are administered to learners with proper difficulty. Based on a recommended difficulty parameter predicted by the system, learners could manually modify the difficulty of the exercises, they could earn more credits by finishing more challenging exercises. Meanwhile, a pedagogical agent is embedded. Learners could customize the agent’s personality jointly with the system to create the learning context they prefer.

A intelligent tutoring system with proper learner autonomy (LA) is designed and implemented.

Few previous researches have noticed the potentially important role that LA plays in ITS. Learning might be facilitated using such a design.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a conceptual framework for assessing what are the possibilities and pitfalls of using algorithmic systems of news personalization – i.e. the tailoring of individualized news feeds based on users’ information preferences – for constructive conflict coverage in the context of peace journalism, a journalistic paradigm calling for more diversified and creative war reporting.

The paper provides a critical review of existing research on peace journalism and algorithmic news personalization, and analyzes the intersections between the two concepts. Specifically, it identifies recurring pitfalls of peace journalism based on empirical research on constructive conflict coverage and then introduces a conceptual framework for analyzing to what degree these pitfalls can be mediated – or worsened – through algorithmic system design.

The findings suggest that AI-driven distribution technologies can facilitate constructive war reporting, in particular by countering the effects of journalists’ self-censorship and by diversifying conflict coverage. The implementation of these goals, however, depends on multiple system design solutions, thus resonating with current calls for more responsible and value-sensitive algorithmic design in the domain of news media. Additionally, our observations emphasize the importance of developing new algorithmic literacies among journalists both to realize the positive potential of AI for promoting peace and to increase the awareness of possible negative impacts of new systems of content distribution.

The article particle is the first to provide a comprehensive conceptualization of the impact of new content distribution techniques on constructive conflict coverage in the context of peace journalism. It also offers a novel conceptual framing for assessing the impact of algorithmic news personalization on reporting traumatic and polarizing events, such as wars and violence.