Overview of Scholarship
My
work focuses on two main themes:
1)
How
technology impacts individual and group behavior
2)
The
use of technology in real time medical consultations (telemedicine)
I
discussed these two main themes in my personal statement and will map out below
the progression of various pieces of work and their relationship to one
another.
Technology impact on individual
and group behavior
My
research is primarily focused on how technology impacts individual and group
behavior (see personal statement for additional overview of my research). At the individual level I study how we can
modify computer interfaces and group interactions to alter an individual’s idea
generation capabilities. My findings include the fact that when an individual
is exposed to different types of creative ideas they produce more ideas that
are similar to the types of ideas they are exposed to, regardless of their own
natural idea generation tendencies.
Furthermore, the type of ideas an individual produces can be altered by
introducing different creative techniques using technology. Both of these findings imply that creativity is not a static attribute one
either possesses or does not possess, but rather it is something that we can
enhance and modify based on the types of ideas one is exposed to and the idea
generation techniques used in an electronically enabled communication
forum. Furthermore, I would not argue
that one is either creative or not, but that there are different forms of
creativity (paradigm preserving and paradigm
modifying) and each type is beneficial in its own way. Sometimes a company is looking to
incrementally improve its processes; in this case paradigm preserving ideas may
be sought. Other times an organization
may be looking for radical ideas that may benefit from paradigm modifying
ideas. Finally, in order to increase the
number of ideas both individuals and groups generate, we have found that if
problems are broken down into smaller chunks and each chunk is isolated in its
own electronic window more ideas on how to solve a problem are generated. The
totality of my work in this area has implications for firms that wish to influence
the creative process. Although
recruiting is one way to enhance creativity, my work indicates that the use of
appropriate electronic environments can also enhance creativity without the
need for staff turnover or growth.
My work
not only looks at how technologies impact the individual but how technologies
impact the way in which individuals work together. This work has focused on teams and explores
how technology impacts the effectiveness, efficiency and outcomes of group
decisions. It also looks at how
technologies impact the processes of group formation and leadership styles
within the group. This work has
addressed the impact of technology on the participatory nature of a group and
the group formation process that occurs when new technologies are put in place
for group interaction. We found that by introducing electronic communication a
group tends to be more participatory in nature, produces more interesting and
diverse solutions to problems and does not suffer from a loss in
productivity.
As groups
begin to interface with other groups, conflict often arises. I am interested in what leads to conflict
when teams that are working on technologies must come together to work in a
cohesive manner. The level of group
interaction I study in this context goes beyond how individuals think and work
together and focuses on how groups interact with one another. More specifically I looked at the conflict
that occurs when one group develops the software and another tests it, and when
a group of software testers and developers is acquired due to an organizational
merger. We found that by managing the
conflict at the individual and organizational level as well as the conflict
inherent in the software testing process, managers not only can improve team
interaction but can also increase software quality. Furthermore, when software organizations are
acquired managers need to be sensitive not only to the monetary rewards put
into place to retain acquired employees but they must also manage the cultural
changes that inevitably occur. They also
must balance power distribution and emotional responses to the acquisitions.
Telemedicine
While my
main focus has been on technology’s impact on individual and group behavior and
how to handle inter-group conflict I have also spent a great deal of time
working in one specific environment – healthcare and, in particular,
telemedicine. I believe that technology
is a tool that can be used to lower the rising costs of healthcare and improve
the quality of healthcare in the United States. While technology is used in a wide range of
ways in the medical profession, I chose to look at real-time clinical use of
telemedicine. My early work looked at how the various state-run telemedicine
programs were governed and the factors that were key
to the success in the adoption and use of telemedicine. I found that telemedicine systems that use a
network of champions to support them (technical, medical and administrative
champions located at each site involved in the network) were most successful. I
also found that requiring all sites to have a financial investment in the
system was important. When sites were
given free hardware and their cost for the telemedicine system was minimal, the
sites tended to under value telemedicine and never fully incorporated it into
their work processes. Furthermore, most
of the successful state sponsored telemedicine systems began by using
telemedicine in their prison environments.
This allowed the states to become more familiar with the technology in
an environment of a captive audience and an audience that typically embraces
the use of telemedicine. The traditional
issues of licensure and reimbursement are also a challenge for telemedicine in
the US.
My other
work in this area has focused on the interaction between the various actors in
a telemedicine encounter and the ways in which encounters can be supported to
lead to higher levels of satisfaction.
This work found that it was very important to provide adequate
information to the patient to prepare them for their telemedicine exam. This led one of our research sites to implement
a patient training session and an information brochure (which a co-author wrote
for the hospital) to better support the patients that use their telemedicine programs. This project also looked at the differences
in what a physician user of the technology requires versus a patient user. By contrasting these different perspectives
we were better able to identify the areas that technical support personnel and
administrative coordinators needed to focus on to improve the telemedicine
encounter. Typically, the physician
wants the telemedicine room to be close to where they perform their daily
activities and they like to have multiple telemedicine appointments scheduled
back to back. The patients are less
concerned about these issues but want to be welcomed by someone when they
arrive and they want to see the consulting doctor reading from their medical
file or referencing it.
I believe that methodological choice
should be driven by one’s research question.
All methodologies have their strengths and weaknesses. While some methodologies are better at
uncovering generalizable results, others are better
at reflecting a reality. I find that my
research requires me to use a range of methodologies. For my work that is investigating the impact
of specific factors on individual creativity and idea generation I primarily
use lab studies. This methodology allows
me to isolate the impact of specific factors and gives me enough control to
gain insight into them. However, other
work requires me to use methods that are higher in terms of realism. For instance, for my telemedicine work I often
use interviews, document analysis, and observation to perform case study analysis. I have also used focus groups to elicit data
when I felt individual interviews would not produce adequate data for a study. For the most part my work is from the
positivist point of view. However, I
have undertaken a few interpretivist studies and
grounded theory pieces.