COMM470

1. COMM470 The Virtual Office Joseph Lewis Aguirre

2. COURSE OBJECTIVES- WS1 VIRTUAL VERSUS REAL-TIME COMMUNICATIONS • Identify the elements of the basic communications model. • Define asynchronous communication versus real-time communication. • Specify the technology appropriate to the message. • Apply effective and efficient online communication techniques.

3. WS5 Learning Team Assignment Demo Website emphasizing customer service operations in a global environment: • Benchmarking - Website Analysis: Five companies • Web Host Selection • Website Content • 4Ps + 2I = Π • Viral Marketing

4. Attributes of Virtual Communication a) There is always some form of mediation (electronic or otherwise) between the sender and receiver. b) It is asynchronous c) Each type of virtual communication carries its own personality (e.g., formality or informality, urgency, level of detail it can present). d) Each type of virtual communication is subject to its own varieties of "noise" that can disrupt or distort the message. e) The communications skills needed depend on the medium mediating the communication, and are more oriented toward content than context.

5. Attributes of Virtual Communication f) The nonverbal clues of real-time communication are missing (although each type of virtual communication has its own nonverbal clues). g) Because there is no opportunity for immediate questions or feedback, the sender must include all the details needed by the receiver to fully understand the message.

6. Attributes RT Communication a) The communication can be either mediated (e.g., telephone call) or unmediated (e.g., face-to-face communication). b) The communication is synchronous c) There can be a rich set of nonverbal clues present to help participants interpret communication content and meaning. d) Although the medium used adds its own characteristics, it is the personality of the communicators that imparts the formality, urgency, and level of detail to the communication.

7. Attributes RT Communication e) The communications skills of the communicators are balanced between the content and the context of the message. f) Noise can also be a factor in disrupting or distorting the message, but the types and sources may differ from those in a virtual communication. Because there is opportunity for immediate feedback, the sender and receiver constantly negotiate the level of detail required for the message to be fully understood.

8. COURSE OBJECTIVES- WS2 CHARACTERISTICS OF TECHNOLOGY-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION • Distinguish the types of technology-mediated communication. • Describe the characteristics of virtual communications media. • Apply the basic communications model to virtual communications media.

9. COURSE OBJECTIVES- WS3 WORKFORCE COMMUNICATION DEPENDENCY • Analyze the ways in which virtual technologies enable communications in the global workplace. • Identify key changes that affect the flow of information in a virtual workplace. • Propose ways to use new media to optimize organizational communication.

10. COURSE OBJECTIVES- WS4 E-COMMERCE COMMUNICATION • Identify the similarities and differences between the virtual and the real-world customer. • Distinguish the difference between the world of e-commerce and the real world in terms of customer communications. • Determine which traditional customer communications can and cannot be successfully ported to the world of e-commerce. • Assess what new communications techniques are uniquely available in the world of e-commerce. • Demonstrate how the use of multimedia technologies creates effective e-commerce sites.

11. COURSE OBJECTIVES- WS5 CUSTOMER SATISFACTION VIA E-COMMERCE • Examine the customer satisfaction expectations of e-customers. • Assess the communications techniques that e-merchants can use to satisfy customer expectations. • Translate new communications technologies into a vehicle for enhanced customer satisfaction.

12. Creating a New System “It must be remembered that there is nothing more difficult to plan, more doubtful of success, more dangerous to manage, than the creation of a new system. For the initiator has the enmity of all who would profit by the preservation of the old institutions and merely lukewarm defenders in those who would gain by the new ones. —NiccoloMachiavelli

13. Generalized System Control Input Processing Output Environment System Components, Relationships, Boundaries, Interfaces, Constraints

14. Modem Communications System Control Modem Modem 00100010101000110001111111000110001 Message Message Received Destination Info Source Noise

15. Generalized Communications System Control Transmitter Transmission Channel Receiver 00100010101000110001111111000110001 Message Message Received Destination Info Source Noise

16. Modem Communications System Control Modem Modem 00100010101000110001111111000110001 Message Message Received Destination Info Source Noise

17. Decision Making Framework Information Characteristics Decision Structure Pre specified Scheduled Detailed Frequent Historical Internal Narrow Focus Business Professionals Operational Management Efficient, do thing right Structured Tactical Management Business Unit Managers -Effective, right thing Ad Hoc Unscheduled Summarized Infrequent Forward looking External Wide Scope Semi Structured Strategic Management Executives, Directors -Transformation Un Structured RELATIVE TIME SPAN

18. Decision Making Context Management Level Organizational Design Concurrency Maturity

19. Decision Structure Structure Non- collaborative Collaborative Weighted Committee Individual Consensus Majority Weighted Consensus Majority

20. Decision Strategies Optimization Satisficing Elimination by aspects – eliminate all alternatives that fail with respect to a particular aspect Instrumentalism – muddling through – compare alternative courses of action to the current one Mixed scanning – search for, collection, processing, evaluating and weighing of information. The importance of the decision determines the degree of scanning Analytical Hierarchical Process – decompose the overall decision objective into a a hierarchic structure of criteria, sub-criteria and alternatives

21. Input Devices Special Purpose Processors Primary Storage Cache Memory Output Devices Secondary Storage Devices Computer System Components Central Processing Unit Control Unit ALU

22. Virtual Reality Head Mounted Display

23. Virtual Reality University of Illinois at Chicago CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment)

24. Virtual Reality VT™ CAVE™ Virginia Tech

25. Virtual Reality Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) http://www.web3d.org/contact/sitemap.html

26. Group Characteristics • DMs with a common decision making problem • Shared interest in a collective decision • All members have an opportunity to influence the decision • For example: local governments, committees, boards etc.

27. GD Benefits + Pooling of resources • more information and knowledge • generates more alternatives + Several stakeholders involved • increases acceptance • increases legitimacy - Time consuming - Ambiguous responsibility - Problems with group work • Minority domination • Unequal participation - Group think • Pressures to conformity...

28. Strategies to Improve GD • Brainstorming • Nominal group technique • Delphi technique • Computer assisted decision making • GDSS = Group Decision Support System • CSCW = Computer Supported Collaborative Work