Intranet portal: Organizational memory information system
Abstract
An organizational memory information system (OMIS) is typically described as a support for an organization's ability to acquire and retain information regarding its processes. A framework for an organizational memory information system was developed based on the literature review of organizational learning, organizational memory information systems, and human information processing. The suggested framework illustrates how an individual interacts with an OMIS and its internal architecture. This interaction should be considered in system development for improving usability. Many OMISs have been developed, but they only partially support required capabilities. However, emerging technology, especially the Intranet portal, has the capacity to support an OMIS systematically and integrally. The Intranet portal is analyzed as an OMIS that identifies factors involved in information retrieval from personal memory and organizational memory. It considers more human cognitive aspects than current Intranet portals. Based on previous research and technical aspects of Intranet portals, a conceptual model for navigation and retrieval functions in an Intranet portal was proposed and three human-centered features were developed. To test four hypotheses concerning the validity of the conceptual model, access method, and three human-centered features (metadata filter, memory structure map, and history-based tool) were utilized in three experiments with 60 subjects. Experiment 1 compared a separate access method to an unified access method. The metadata filter and a current portal system were tested in the experiment 2 with respect to identifying information. Experiment 3 contrasted both the memory structure map and the history-based tool with a current portal system. Testing of the four hypotheses indicated the following: (1) Each information/knowledge repository for which a user has a different structural knowledge should be handled separately with each access to increase the user's usefulness of OMIS; (2) The metadata filter improved user's performance by 36% in identifying information and increased the user's usefulness; (3) The memory structure map improved user's performance by 29% in navigation; and (4) The history-based tool improved user's performance by 34% in identifying information. The results of the study suggest that the proposed OMIS frameworks, a conceptual model, and the human-centered features should be used to guide the development of an OMIS and the user-adaptive interface design for the Intranet portal as an OMIS for improving user's performance, satisfaction and usefulness.
Degree
Ph.D.
Advisors
Salvendy, Purdue University.
Subject Area
Industrial engineering|Computer science
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