Coordination &Collaboration
in Digital Networks

Abstract: Inter-organizational collaboration is often challenged by stakeholders’ dissimilarities in backgrounds and frames of reference. Accordingly, the design of new approaches to address the complexity of collaborative work environments is required. In this paper, we present the FUSE: a framework for the collaborative discovery, analysis and redesign of complex inter-organizational processes.The FUSE is structured in four stages: Framing, Co-designing the meaning, In-depth interviews and Co-ordination. Its design incorporates influences from CoP theories, design science, action review and business process modelling techniques. The FUSE was tested by analysing the cross-sectoral processes implemented by the Italian, Slovenian and Serbian national health systems in response to the 2018 West Nile Virus epidemic. In this context, it was praised for its ease of use, its collaborative focus and perceived usefulness in coordinating the participating institutions. The FUSE may support innovation within network structures, sustainable development within circular ecosystems and streamline the design of inter-organizational processes. Future research is needed to validate the FUSE effectiveness in different industries and contexts, including the international and virtual environment.The FUSE distinguishes from other frameworks by contributing a systematic approach to co-design inter- organizational processes, specifically emphasising the harmonisation of divergent perspectives and the mitigation of task conflicts.

Reference. Bolici, Diana and Varone (2023). From Process-Users to Process-coDesigners: a Framework for Inter-organizational Process Design in Complex Domains. In Proceedings of AIDEA XL. Salerno, Italy

Abstract. The vast majority of literature on coordination in team-based projects has drawn on a conceptual separation between explicit (e.g. plans, feedback) and implicit coordination mechanisms (e.g. mental maps, shared knowledge). This analytic distinction presents some limitations in explaining how coordination is reached in organizations characterized by distributed teams, scarce face to face meetings and fuzzy and changing lines of authority, as in free/libre open source software (FLOSS) development. Analyzing empirical illustrations from two FLOSS projects, we highlight the existence of a peculiar model, stigmergic coordination, which includes aspects of both implicit and explicit mechanisms. The work product itself (implicit) and the characteristics under which it is shared (explicit) play an under-appreciated role in helping software developers manage dependencies as they arise. We develop this argument beyond the existing literature by working with an existing coordination framework, considering the role that the codebase itself might play at each step. We also discuss the features and the practices to support stigmergic coordination in distributed teams, as well as recommendations for future research.

Reference. Bolici, Howison, and Crowston (2016). Stigmergic coordination in FLOSS development teams: Integrating explicit and implicit mechanisms. In Cognitive Systems Research 38 (2016): 14-22.

Abstract. Trust is a social factor at the foundations of human action. The pervasiveness of trust explains why it has been studied by a large variety of disciplines, and its complexity justifies the difficulties in reaching a shared understanding and definition. As for all the social factors, trust is continuously evolving as a result of the changes in social, economic and technological conditions. The internet and many other Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) solutions have changed organizational and social life. Such mutated scenarios challenged what researchers know about trust, thus several studies tried to investigate the difference between online and traditional (physical) environments. The purpose of this paper is to solve this multi‐dimensional puzzle by presenting a conceptual framework that will take into consideration the complexity of ICT mediated‐trust.The extant literature still lacks a homogeneous framework and presents a large amount of different perspectives, each one addressing a very specific issue. By using the methodology suggested by Short and Cropanzano the paper proposes a conceptual model for understanding the dynamics of trust in online settings. In doing so the authors' adopted the Actor Network Theory conceptual frame for disentangling the ambiguous role of technology in its relation with trust. This paper provides an ultimate conceptual model on trust in virtual settings. The proposed model will help systematize the extant contributions and also identify the gaps that can be addressed by future researches. The model permits the understanding of the dynamics of trust in online settings.

Reference. Giustiniano and Bolici (2012). Organizational trust in a networked world: analysis of the interplay between social factors and Information and Communication Technology. Journal of Information, Communication and Ethics in Society 10.3 (2012): 187-202.