Understanding Group Use of Communication Technologies in an Unanticipated Incident Environment
Chuang, Michael Yunon
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/84542
Description
Title
Understanding Group Use of Communication Technologies in an Unanticipated Incident Environment
Author(s)
Chuang, Michael Yunon
Issue Date
2005
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Michael Shaw
Judith Gebauer
Department of Study
Business Administration
Discipline
Business Administration
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Psychology, Cognitive
Language
eng
Abstract
While emergency management still remains an uncharted domain for information systems (IS) scholars, this study, as cognitive IS research, is dedicated to better understanding the complexities of group use of communication technologies in an emergency environment. Emergency response is framed as a group problem solving process under stress. The sudden change in technology use as a result of technological breakdown is identified as the prime issues to account for, while technology characteristics are analyzed from cognitive IS perspectives. Several socio-cognitive factors significant to emergency organizations are articulated, including cohesion, goal commitment, fit, mental load, and satisfaction. Attitude change, cognitive dissonance, attention, and communication modalities are identified to develop the hypotheses. In the factorial experimental design, the letters-to-numbers task is used, since it approximates a crisis event where the group members collaborate with each other to ascertain the configurations of a system. Modes of sudden change in technology are manipulated while the socio-cognitive statuses of the group are observed. Results indicate that text technology enjoys better robustness, as it enables a group to maintain its socio-cognitive statuses in the event of interruption via cognitive dissonance theory. Cognitive flexibility theory, important in technology-mediated learning research, is also extended and applied in this study since its scope corresponds to the behaviors of fit and cohesion. Sensory modality is also explored for its significance in future cognitive IS research in emergency management. This study contributes to IS research, in that it analyzes and frames the complexities of an emergency environment within IS perspectives and theories, so that a model that predicts and explains technology use issues in an emergency environment can be formulated. Thus, emergency management is formally incorporated as a domain of cognitive IS research. This research yields theoretical and practical insights to both IS academia and practitioners for future research directions and issues of technology use in emergency environments.
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