Informatics Seminar

Role of Shapers in Corporate Expertise Redeployment via Wikis

Ann Majchrzak
Marshall School of Business
University of Southern California

February 20, 3:00 – 5:00 PM
Bren Hall, Room 5011

Seminar Abstract

The role of cognitive capital – components of expertise  – on contributions to online communities has received less research attention than other forms of capital (such as social capital). When cognitive capital has been studied, there has been contradictory findings. This study focuses on three components of cognitive capital: expertise depth, expertise breath, and transactive memory systems for coordinating expertise in online firm-based communities. The literature on contributions to online communities has also tended to focus on a single form of contribution: contribution of specialized expertise, in the form of advice-giving or materials such as music or software or bug reporting.  Recent technology developments (e.g., wikis) have made it possible to consider a second form of contribution: contributions that integrate one’s own and others’ specialized expertise.  In this study, we document the emergence of integrative behaviors in online communities, identifying the differential cognitive capital antecedents of integrative vs specialized expertise contributions. We also identify the differential effects of these two contribution behaviors on individuals’ perceptions of the effective redeployment of the expertise that they have contributed to the online work community.

About the Speaker

Ann Majchrzak received her PhD in Social Psychology with a minor in Psychometrics in 1980 from the University of California, Los Angeles.  She is widely known for her research on the use of technology to support worker agility and ingenuity, commonly referred to as socio-technical systems.  Ann has published papers in journals that include the Management Information Systems Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Management Science, and Harvard Business Review.  She is (or has been) a member of the Editorial Review Boards of Information Systems Research and Management Information Systems Quarterly, among others. She is also Senior Editor at Organizational Science.  She is the recipient of the Literati Club Award for Excellence Outstanding Paper for 2005 from Emerald Group Publishing. She was also named the Magid Igbaria Distinguished Scholar by the School of Information Science at Claremont Graduate University.  Ann is the Past Division Chair of the Academy of Management Organization, Communication and Information Systems Division.  Ann has consulted for a variety of organizations, including the Aerospace Corporation, Cummins Engine, and the Jet Propulsion Labs.

COR Seminar
Co-sponsored with Planning, Policy and Design

Design/Build and Construction Management

Barbara Wagner

Senior Vice President, Clark Construction
President, Design/Build Institute of America, Wester Pacific Region

January 21, 11:30 – 12:20 PM
Social Ecology I, Room 200

About the Speaker

Barbara Wagner is a Senior Vice President for Clark Construction’s Western Region. Clark Construction is one of the largest general contractors in the country with over 3.5 billion dollars of annual revenue.  Ms. Wagner has over 25 years of experience in the construction industry. She has extensive experience in both the design/build and sustainable markets.  In addition to heading Business Development for Clark in the Western Region, she is Officer-in-Charge for projects in the Los Angeles area.

Ms. Wagner serves on the board and as current President of DBIA’s (Design Build Institute of America) Western Pacific Region. Ms. Wagner also sits on the Board for the California Center for Construction Education, the Executive Board for the School of Engineering at Catholic University of America and as an appointed member of the Facilities Program Advisory Committee for the State of California Department of Corrections.  She is a graduate of Catholic University earning a BS in Architecture and holds a Masters in Civil Engineering and Construction Management from the University of Maryland. Her professional licenses and accreditations include a contractor and engineer’s license in the state of California and LEED accreditation.

Download Wagner Presentation

COR Workshop

Formal Models, Simulation and Theory Development:
A Workshop on Agent-Based Modeling

Dirk Martignoni
Visiting Scholar
School of Social Ecology
UCI

November 21, 12:00 – 1:30PM
Social Ecology I, Room 306

About the Workshop

In this workshop we will discuss how simulation models, particularly agent-based models, are used in management and organization research. The aim of this workshop is to help students not familiar with agent-based modeling to gain a basic understanding of the strengths and limitations of this method. James March’s (1991) paper and model of organizational learning will serve as an illustrative example.

Download March (1991) Paper

About the Speaker

Dirk Martignoni is a PhD student in Management at the University of St Gallen, Switzerland, and is currently a visiting scholar in UCI’s School of Social Ecology.  He received an MBA from the University of St. Gallen. His research interests focus on the processes of individual and organizational learning under conditions of uncertainty.

COR Panel

Phil Bromiley
Dean’s Professor in Strategic Management
Paul Merage School of Business
UCI

Judy Olson
Donald Bren Professor of Information and Computer Sciences
Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences
UCI

About the Panel

Do you ever wonder how accomplished, senior scholars become so accomplished? How they come to see a topic as worth studying? How they start projects, manage them, sustain their energy, and carry them through to completion? This panel will feature two senior scholars offering their practical advice for making your research a success.

About the Panelists

Philip Bromiley is a Dean’s Professor in Strategic Management at the Merage School of University of California, Irvine. Previously he held the Curtis L. Carlson Chair in Strategic Management and chaired the Department of Strategic Management & Organization at the University of Minnesota. He has published widely on organizational decision-making and strategic risk-taking. He served on the editorial boards of Academic of Management Journal, Organization Science, Strategic Organization, and the Journal of Management and as associate editor for Management Science. He currently serves on the board of Strategic Management Journal and Journal of Strategy and Management. His current research examines strategic decision-making, the microstructure of competition, the behavioral foundations of strategic management research, and corporate risk-taking. His most recent book, Behavioral Foundations for Strategic Management (Blackwell, 2004) argues for a behavioral basis for scholarly theory in strategic management.

Download Bromiley Presentation

Judith Olson is the Donald Bren Professor of Information and Computer Sciences, with appointments also in the Paul Merage Business School and the School of Social Ecology at the University of California at Irvine. She was just recently the Richard W. Pew Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Michigan. She was a professor in the School of Information, the Business School, and the Psychology Department. She got her Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Michigan then held a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University before returning to Michigan as a faculty member. Except for three years at Bell Labs and a year at Rank Xerox Cambridge, UK, and now at UC Irvine, she had been at Michigan her entire professorial life. Her research focuses on the technology and social practices necessary for successful distance work, encompassing both laboratory field study methods along with agent based modeling. She has served on a number of editorial boards and panels for both the National Research Council and the National Science Foundation. In 2001, she was one of the first seven inductees into the CHI Academy. In 2006 she and her husband Gary were awarded the 2006 CHI Lifetime Achievement Award.

Download Olson Presentation