Computer Networks and ISDN Systems 26 (Suppl. 2 double issue) (1994) S119-S128

Public computer systems - A challenge for organizational learning

Ake Griinlund* Umeii University, Department of hformatics S-901 87 Urned, Sweden

Abstract

The ‘Electronic Highway’ is most often discussed as a network of computers and cables, but it is also a service infra- structure and as a new communication medium bringing individuals and organizations together in new ways. Public Com-

puter Systems (PCS), computers employed as an interface between organizations and their clients, are discussed as actors in client-organization relations in terms of the nature of the service delivered, the focus in terms of activities in the

business process, role changes on part of professionals and clients, and the communicationa! style of the systems. It is concluded that PCS are not just information delivery machines, but also actors in a dialogue. Different designs of PCS

will lead to the action space on part of the human actors changing in different ways.

Keywords: Client-organization encounter, Conversation, Communication, Electronic highway, Public computer systems

1 Introduction

The concept ‘Electronic Highway’ has lately

become the talk of the town. The word ‘highway’

alludes to optical wires, high-performance com- puters, and multimedia techniques, but of course

data communication takes place also on country

roads. Already today there are several networks in business. Most of them are connecting differ-

ent sites of one company, or two or more com- panies that do business together, but there is also an emerging consumer market. The novelty of electronic highway discussions is not only its

technical innovation, but it also concerns the tar- get groups; products and services are not only aimed at large companies and intra-organizational use, but also at small companies and the home

market [ 11.

Electronic highways can be discussed in sev-

eral ways:

l As a physical structure, including the cables

and computers that handle the message ex-

change.

*Corresponding author: Email: gron@informatik.umu.se

As a service structure, including the kinds of

services provided on the highway, commer-

cial opportunities, terms of delivery and

payment, different designs of delivery, and so on.

As a communications structure. When communication changes from using one media to another, this means a big change.

Computer mediated communication has al-

ready provided new arenas for interaction among university people and in some areas

of education, like distance tuition; electronic

markets will provide new ones for clients and organizations.

The physical structure includes several new products; national and local networks of optical

wires, compression techniques that make for fast- er data transfer, pocket size computers providing mobile access to the networks [ 18, 341, the im- proved desktop computer integrating electronic mail, fax, voice mail, and video [12], and the in- teractive TV [14, 341.

0169-7552/94/$07.00 0 1994 - Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved

S120 ~ke GrOnlund / Public computer systems - A challenge for organizational learning

The s e r v i c e s t r u c t u r e engages business people informal networks are examples of the issues in discussing electronic markets and consequent- involved. ly redesigning their business strategies, and com- puter people in developing presentation techniques • Among companies who are tied together by like multimedia and systems for conferences and systems for electronic data interchange (EDI), co-working known as 'groupware ' . As an exam- electronic mail, or shared databases[16, 26, pie, the increased use of electronic mail has led 27, 28, 29, 30]. Problems include data qual- to the need to develop 'enhanced mail ' , which ity, security, authority, responsibility, control, does not only mean inclusion of voice and vid- decision making procedures, coupling of dif- eo, but also, perhaps more importantly, different ferent organizational cultures, routines, etc. devices for managing mail, in order to simplify use and avoid information overload on part of the • Between individuals and companies that receiver [35]. meet at electronic home markets [8, 23, 32,

33]. This is an unexplored area. Important is- As for the c o m m u n i c a t i o n s s t r u c t u r e , discus- sues include privacy, vulnerability, security,

s ions on c o m p u t e r med ia t ed c o m m u n i c a t i o n credibility of the systems, how to design (CMC) have focused on general issues that the service in order to make them readily acces- computer medium brings up, like sible, how to best design the client-organiza-

tion communication, etc. • special tasks that CMC involves; moderating

discussion groups, ' teleteaching', etc [10]; • In the public sectors, that will have to change procedures and regulations if they are

• special characteristics of the communication going to make use of the potential of that may occur, like ' f laming' [20]; electronic communications. Issues include

organizational design, authority, privacy, • special grammatical devices that evolve due public access to official records, secrecy, se-

to the character of the medium, like the use curity etc.[4, 6, 7, 25, 31, 36]. of ' smileys ' .

• In society at large. If important parts of the The discussions have naturally been related to communication about societal matters leave

such activities that have already become (more or the streets, the workplaces, and the newspa- less) computerized; distance tuition, mailing, con- pers for the more secluded data communica- ferring etc. Focus has been much on individuals, tions networks, society will have to learn to sometimes on groups, but the electronic highway master a new arena [17, 37]. will affect communications also in other contexts:

The opening of electronic markets brings about • Within companies that use electronic mail, not only commercial opportunities, it also means

video-conferring, teleteaching, etc [22]. New changing the relations between companies and routines, changed roles and tasks for their clients. Selling and buying via a computer professionals, and possible undermining of network is different from going to a shop, even organizational hierarchies by strengthening of if multimedia (or virtual reality) techniques may

A.ke Griinlund is a lecturer at the Department of Informatics at Ume~t University. Research interests are focused around computer supported communication, including CSCW, DSS, HCI, and computer use in education. Currently the most engaging work concerns client-organization interaction, including a joint venture involving public sector organizations, universities, and private corporations concerned with developing IT tools for supporting a 'one stop shop' approach to public service. The project includes issues of privacy, credibility, regional development, and democracy.

Ake Gr6nlund / Public computer systems - A challenge for organizational learning S 121

make the shop shelves visible from home. Both 3 PCS and cl ient-organization producers and clients will have to learn to man- communicat ion age a new medium. The electronic consumer market is in its infancy, and I am not going to The word ' communica t ion ' means 'making speculate about its commercial potential. I am common' or 'bring together ' . Its origin is the going to study it as a phenomenon; what does it Latin words communicat io , which means 'mutual mean to del iver services by means o f computers?, benefit', communico; 'making communal ' , 'share and how do publ ic computer sys tems encroach with' or 'take part in', and communis; 'commu- into the cl ient-organizat ion encounter? nal', 'public' [2].

2 The cl ient-organization encounter If people are to communicate their different views of the activity they are engaged in, this is

Clients and organizations meet in different what is brought together. When service is deliv- ways, depending on the type of organization as ered face-to-face, the common-making procedures well as on the clients involved [5]. Regardless of are well known to most of us, at least in situ- the nature of the organization, the encounter be- ations we have grown accustomed to. When elec- tween an organization and its clients is influenced tronic media are concerned, most of us are ama- by a number of factors. Danet [9] provides a teurs. Experiences from the few years of email model for what she calls the 'client-practitioner use show that the transition from voice/face-to- encounter ' , the situation where not only two face communication to written/electronic commu- people but an organization and a client meet nication brings along several complications [19]. (Figure 1). This is a fact even though the use of email is so

far typically confined to socially fairly homo- genous groups of professionals.

Previous encounters How can computers be used in the client-or-

ganization encounter from a communication per- Environments Organization spective? It is easily seen that all aspects Danet

Values Professionalization Norms Staff relations brings up under 'situation' change:

Subcultures Bureaucratization Socialization Goals • Physical setting; Using a PCS, the client and

the professional need not be at the office at Situation the time of the encounter.

Physical setting Previous Encounters • Social setting; Clients may use the

Time PCS from home, possibly involving family or Available information friends in the activities, thus making them Participants' tactics Participants' identities socially different.

Encounter ° Time; Clients and professionals may be sep- Resources transferred arated in time. Also, the time spent on the Procedures encounter does not have to be limited by Interpersonal styles office hours, a line of people waiting, or

other factors pertaining to office encounters. Evaluation

Ensuing encounters • Available information; The PCS may include information unknown by both the profession-

Figure 1: The client-professional encounter in context 9, p 384

s 122 ~tke GriJnlund / Public computer systems - A challenge for organizational learning

al and the client, thus interfering in discus- what does it mean to introduce an electronic actor sions by providing additional knowledge, in the dialogue?

• Participant 's tactics; Tactics quite obvious The model in Figure 2 is intended as a start- ly have to change if the situation changes in ing point for discussing such issues. The catego- the above mentioned respects. Also, a sophis- ries are based on Danet 's model, but instead of ticated PCS can be said to have a tactics of giving a complete description of the client-organ- its own, since it provides some possibilities ization encounter I have tried to capture the and not others, acts in certain ways and not aspects that compu te r s change di rec t ly . My in others, etc. suggestions for categories to start with are the

following; • Part icipant 's identities; PCS provide a cer

tain anonymity, giving users some oppor- • The medium (system type). PCS may be tunity to act 'under cover' , which may inflict more or less automated; they may replace on their tactics, staff, or they may support traditional face-to-

face meetings. As for the 'encounter ' , changes include the

following: • The use in situations (task complexity). What parts of the business process does the PCS

• Resources transferred; Only information re- support? sources may be transferred. On the other

hand, a PCS may bring more information and • The way the PCS support these tasks (sys- more computational power to the encounter tem complexity). The design of the PCS must than the human actors alone, obviously match the characteristics of the

task; a system for supporting purchase • Procedures; You do different things when procedures (a relatively fixed task, clearly

interacting with a computer than directly defined for any particular product) may be with a human; you have to master the key- expected to have a different design than a board and window-based interfaces instead of system aiming at facilitating choice (a task face-to-face interaction, that may be performed in many different

ways, not only depending on the nature of • Interpersonal styles; It is known that people the merchandise in question, but also on the

behave differently in electronic mail systems client). than in face-to-face encounters. In addition,

a PCS may be said to have a 'style ' of it • The actors' roles (function). PCS may move self, it behaves in certain ways independent tasks from professionals to clients, as a con- of the human actors involved. In one of our sequence the different actors' influence may case studies, it was found that the salesper change the activities. son and the client at occasions joined forces

to 'beat the system' , the system was con • The nature of the interaction (communica- ceived as an independent actor in the activ tional style). People have different inter- ity [13, 21]. actional styles, but so have computer sys-

tems. Further, the interactional style is not These are just examples of changes PCS may only related to the persons involved, but also

bring about or be employed to bring about. The to the activity in question; you probably examples bring up several issues; just what does behave somewhat differently when arranging it mean to change communication from face-to- your mother 's funeral with the undertaker face situations to electronically mediated interac- than when organizing a honeymoon trip with tion? How do changes in the physical and social the travel agent. environment affect the communication? And just

~tke GriJnlund / Public computer systems - A challenge for organizational learning S 123

The points above are summar ized in F igure 2. 3.1 Complexi ty & nature

Le t me now e x p l a i n my u n d e r s t a n d i n g o f the factors. Since the first poin t in F igure 2 involves The c o m p l e x i t y and the nature of a se rv ice a lot of t rad i t ional issues regard ing automation, may make it more or less sui table for de l ive ry let me for reasons of brevi ty skip it for now and over e lectronic media. A more complex service

d iscuss only the other three, which are not much typ ica l ly requires much interact ion, which makes d iscussed so far 2. it harder to make it ava i lab le on e lec t ronic me-

dia. I have chosen the terms complex i ty o f the

service and complexi ty o f the sys tem to capture

Sys tem type Fully public The computer replaces staff.

Semi-public The computer is used directly in the client-organization encounter, but not as staff replacement.

Indirect Computers are used to support staff or client but not directly in the co-encounter.

C o m p l e x i t y & n a t u r e .... of task Computer mediated services may technically range from simple

money retrieval to complex conferring, and .....

.... of system .... the computer system may be more or less advanced in terms of functions provided and interaction possibilities. It seems the important thing is not the complexity and nature per se, but the match between the nature of the service and the nature of the system.

Funct ion Role change move staff tasks to clients, perhaps also vice versa.

Role make existing roles more clear/efficient, for instance by providing the reinforcement front personnel and/or the client with computer support to make

them perform better in a traditional physical setting.

Independent At electronic markets, services may be mediated by other human actor actors or by automatic tools.

C o m m u n i e a t i o n a l s ty le Helping Matters regarding the service can be discussed, but the

service itself is not a matter of change.

Lecturing The service is fixed, user can only ask for delivery.

Conferring The service may be adjusted according to user input.

Figure 2: Dimensions of computer employment in the client/organization encounter.

this p roblem. Wha t is in teres t ing is not each of An i l lustrat ion: The au tomated te l ler represents these aspects separate ly , but the relation between a fa i r ly s imple service that is de l ive red in a fair- them. ly s imple way; I f there is money on your bank

account and you can ident i fy yoursel f , you may 2 [13] discusses also the point 'system type'.

S124 ,~ke GrOnlund / Public computer systems - A challenge for organizational learning

withdraw it, otherwise not. The relation between described above, turns out not to be a reserva- the nature of the service and the nature of the tion problem at all but a problem of finding. The system is good. Of course there is more to bank problem of delivering services like this is not service than withdrawing money, but this activ- primarily a complexity problem, but a problem ity is very often performed independently, regarding the nature of the service. The major

problem is defining the service properly. But Other services are very different, even though since conferring is typically more complex than

they may include such simple operations. Consid- information delivery, it becomes also a complex- er the activity 'making a flight reservation'. This ity problem. activity seems simple enough, but it often in- volves several complicated choices that are not Systems for ' f inding ' must be designed for always best made in advance: inquiry and communication rather than just infor-

mation delivery because they must deal with 1.There is most often more than one carrier activities like the 'f l ight reservation problem' ,

available. Price and service often differs activities that often change during the course of among them in ways that are not easy to events. compare;

3.2 Function 2.There are often equally feasible transporta-

tion alternatives, sometimes a train may be Communication ultimately involves people at a good substitute for a plane; both ends of the wire, but also a medium and

possibly intermediaries. This means using elec- 3.Travels often come in 'packages ' including tronic media holds a potential not only for de-

not only transportation but also accommoda- livering the service differently, but also for re- tion, transfers, meals etc. Often, a charter designing the structure of business and the rela- flight is a good alternative even on a busi- tion between a client and an organization. Chang- ness trip. es may be seen as being at different ' levels of

tangibility', PCS employment may: 4.Often travels have more than one purpose,

for instance business trips might be combined ° Move tasks from clerks to clients. This is with family weekends. Many airlines offer what the automated teller does. This is also cheap tickets if you stay away over the currently done in supermarkets, where the weekend, which means staying away longer cashiers often only handle the money, regis- is cheaper. This makes the time of departure tration of the items is delegated to the cus- and return a matter of discussion, re- tomers by means of a publicly accessible considering points 1 through 3 in a different bar-code reader. light.

• Change status/position among actors. When 5.The problem situation may change suddenly, tasks are performed differently, the actors'

for instance when during the discussions status in the activity changes. In the super- with the travel agent you discover that bring market example, the cashiers turn into super- ing your husband or wife along will cost you visors rather than direct actors. Principally, virtually nothing extra. You might then de- also the payment procedure can be handled cide to turn the trip into a combined busi- by a machine that reads the customers' credit ness and pleasure one. cards. If such a system would be implement-

ed, the cashiers could be replaced by a guard When these activities turn out to be so com- at the exit, who would see to it that custo-

plicated, it seems that computerizing only the mers do not try to walk out without paying. procedures for purchasing the ticket does not The guard, in turn, could be replaced by an make much sense. The 'reservation problem', as automatic gate which opened for one cus

,~ke GriJnlund / Public computer systems - A challenge for organizational learning S 125

tomer at the time after payment. But of • They might be able to access and/or compile course the cashiers also have a different role; data from several sources, or in other ways they often have to help people to find items perform more advanced operations. Several in the supermarket and answer questions organizations have already made a lot of in- about products. Automating the registration formation publicly available on Internet. leaves a potential not only for replacing staff, Most of these services do not - as yet - but also for redesigning operations; to the include advanced searching facilities, but extent that helping customers finding or there is at least some help. For instance the choosing products is a bottleneck, business Mosaic TM 'World Wide Web browser ' pro- might improve at that point, vides a 'hotlist' facility, which at least makes

it possible to remember important addresses, • Relocate power. If tasks are moved from one thus facilitating compilation of data.

actor to another, the different actors' ability to influence operations changes. If the cash- • They might be able to input data to the sys- ier performs the bottleneck tasks, her activ- tem, thus taking active part in operations ities are the most influential; speeding them [17]. up means better throughput, slowing them down means problems. If the cashier is only There are no insurmountable technical obsta- a supervisor, the clients have the key posi- cles that provide good reasons for limiting the tion; it is their behaviour that matters; how clients' PCS-mediated access to the organization they manage the technology, how they use it, to automated teller-type activities. what they think of it, etc.

There might certainly be other reasons, of If redistributing tasks among actors also means course. PCS hold a potential for organizational

changing power relations, it seems a discussion change. If PCS are employed for advanced oper- of PCS must include a discussion about the roles ations or for business redesign, they challenge the of clients and professionals respectively; what balance of the organization,. Experiences from the roles do they have, what roles should they have? Citizen Offices have shown this to occur [3, 7].

Role changes may be designed by the service PCS may be used to bypass professionals or provider, but they may also occur due to the departments, thereby making them in effect ob- involvement of intermediaries. In the supermarket, solete. PCS thus have a strategic potential. roles may be changed by moving the cashiers from the cash desk to the shop floor, making 3.3 Communicational style them helpers rather than supervisors. At electronic markets , services may have to change due to In Danet 's model, two points were made inter- mediation by other actors than the primary serv- personal style, which referred to the way people ice provider or by automatic tools, or due to new act during face-to-face encounters, and partici- forms of competition, pants ' tactics. When the encounter occurs via a

computer, the medium has a 's tyle ' of itself, it PCS do not only provide organizations with appears as something to the human actors, it

new ways of meeting their clients, they may also behaves [24]. It also has a ' tactics ' in that the give clients access to organizations in new ways: communica t ion may be des igned in d i f ferent

ways. Finally, the (human) actors may develop

• They might directly access the rule system of new tactics in using the system for their purpos-

the organization (as opposed to indirectly via es. some person);

By 'communicat ional s ty le ' , I will refer to • They might get in touch with other people organization-client communication. The problem

than the operative staff; is not (only) how to interact with the computer,

S 12 6 like GrOnlund / Public computer systems - A challenge for organizational learning

but how to interact with your clients (on behalf be very different [13]. It was observed that the of the organization) or with an organization (on communicational styles of the PCSs were largely behalf of the client). What I want to discuss is modelled on the traditional communicational style what kind of interaction forum the system pro- of the front personnel; the PCSs seeked to auto- vides the human actors with. What action space mate traditional client-organization relations. It does it leave them? was also found that this strategy caused some

problems in that it sometimes tended to amplify I suggest the following categories for dis- negative traits of the traditional situations, mak-

cussing this communication3: ing (parts of) the systems appear like caricatures of the human professionals.

• Helping. In this case communication is used to individually support a client. Paulsen A hypothesis that might be made at this point [11] uses words such as mentorship, appren- is that PCS should be seen as educational sys- ticeship and correspondence. For PCS, this is tems; in order to serve as means to de l iver about helping the client use either the sys- complicated services they must be able to func- tem or the service, tion as vehicles for bringing views together. The

travel agents' and the travellers' views in the case • Lecturing. In this case, one person distributes above, other views in other contexts. To do so,

information to several recipients; the lecture, they must be conferring in their style, allowing the symposium, the panel, etc. (also) for exchange of views in a non-formal

manner. The communicational style of the system • Conferring. What distinguishes this category must match the communication problems.

from the others is that here the service itself is not given, it is a matter of negotiations. 4. Conclusions Compare the travel agency example above; In that case, neither client demands nor the In this paper, I have discussed PCS as actors service were predefined as wholes. There in client-organization relations. I conclude that: were several well-defined elements, but those might be combined into very different solu- • PCS may be used in many different ways tions. In such a situation, lecturing is not a solution, because the clients' situation ob- • The employment of PCS is a strategic issue, viously must be represented. Supporting because might be a solution, but probably not a good one,given the huge amount of possible • The design of the PCS employment affects combinations. Conferring means bringing to the client/organization relations. PCS are ira- gerber several competitors and by means of portant actors in the client-organization dia- good communication finding good solutions logue. They do not just serve as information to problems without each of the participants delivery machines, they are parts, actors, in having all the relevant knowledge or having a dialogue. Therefore, they must be careful- to go through all the steps needed to find it. ly designed with respect not only to existing This is how a good travel agent helps you. relations, but also to what changes in the re-

lation are considered attractive. Different de- It should be obvious from the above that the signs will lead to the action space on part of

communica t ional style must be related to the each human actor changing in different ways. nature of the service in question. Still, there is nothing said so far about just what this relation • PCS should be seen as educational systems; should be like. In another paper, I have discussed in order to serve as a means for delivery of a study of three PCS implementations with regard complicated services they must be able to to their communicational style and found them to function as vehicles for bringing views to-

gether.

3 The c a t e g o r i z a t i o n is b a s e d on [11] .

~ke Gri~nlund / Public computer systems - A challenge for organizational learning S 127

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