Improved communications and collaborations among tasks induced by Groupware

摘要

The recent developments of Information Technologies are characterized by some new classes of applications that are classified as Groupware. These developments are connected to the need of attaining better communications and new forms of collaborations among tasks or functional departments in modern organizational structures. The new strategic scenarios are fostering organizational structures in attaining increasing varieties of products, capacities of faster responses to market changes, flexibility in modifying strategies, organizational structures, technologies. Together with actual managerial policies looking for Just-in-Time and slack resources reduction, these points compel organization structures to manage tasks that are becoming more and more interdependent. Starting from this point of view, the paper analyzes from an organizational theory perspective the role that Groupware is assuming inside the emergent organizational models. Information Technologies appear as important opportunities in facing the problems of tighter interdependencies: they provide new communications channels and allow the introduction of new organizational forms which meet strategic requirements. Also the cooperation needs, critical in some organizational sub-systems like design departments, project management, cross-functional processes at managerial level as well at operational, can be sustained and improved through Groupware. These perspertives are presented in detail in the paper, together with a proposal of an architecture for GDSS design based on the classification of the organizational needs and of the opportunities offered by IT tools.