Language-action Perspective Research Articles

Text Analytics to Support Sense-Making in Social Media: A Language-Action Perspective

Social media and online communities provide organizations with new opportunities to support their business-related functions. Despite their various benefits, social media technologies present two important challenges for sense-making. First, online discourse is plagued by incoherent, intertwined conversations that are often difficult to comprehend. Moreover, organizations are increasingly interested in understanding social media participants’ actions and intentions; however, existing text analytics tools mostly focus on the semantic dimension of language. The language-action perspective (LAP) emphasizes pragmatics; not what people say but, rather, what they do with language. Adopting the design science paradigm, we propose a LAP-based text analytics framework to support sense-making in online discourse. The proposed framework is specifically intended to address the two aforementioned challenges associated with sense-making in online discourse: the need for greater coherence and better understanding of actions. We rigorously evaluate a system that is developed based on the framework in a series of experiments using a test bed encompassing social media data from multiple channels and industries. The results demonstrate the utility of each individual component of the system, and its underlying framework, in comparison with existing benchmark methods. Furthermore, the results of a user experiment involving hundreds of practitioners, and a four-month field experiment in a large organization, underscore the enhanced sense-making capabilities afforded by text analytics grounded in LAP principles. The results have important implications for online sense-making and social media analytics.

Spin-off design as an organizational practice: A methodological approach

Luigi Fici - Full Professor, Department of Economics and Enterprise, University of TusciaAddress: Via del Paradiso, 47, Viterbo, 01100, ItalyE-mail:fici@unitus.itPavel V. Malyzhenkov - Associate Professor, Department of Information Systems and Technologies, National Research University Higher School of Economics Address: 25/12, Bolshaya Pecherskaya Street, Nizhniy Novgorod, 603155, Russian Federation E-mail: pmalyzhenkov@hse.ruMichela Piccarozzi - Researcher, Department of Economics and Enterprise, University of TusciaAddress: Via del Paradiso, 47, Viterbo, 01100, ItalyE-mail: piccarozzi@unitus.itEkaterina S. Meleshina - MBA, Account Manager Specialty Polyolefins, LyondellBasell CompanyAddress: 10 build.1, Uspensky Pereulok, Moscow, 127006, Russian FederationE-mail:ekaterina.meleshina@lyondbasell.com Marketing the results of research carried out within publicly funded scientific institutions (universities, laboratories, research centers, etc.) is widely considered by decision-makers as a sustainable base for developing and stimulating business growth. Experience shows that small, innovative enterprises split off from big industries or academic bodies are the element that links together research and the business environment; their creation process represents a perfect field for applying the Enterprise Engineering apparatus. Such enterprises can assume the risk of transforming an entrepreneurial idea into industrial prototypes without which it is impossible to evaluate the commercial potential of research results. This mechanism is implemented via spin-off companies. This paper focuses its analysis on the creation of academic spin-offs as one of the most widespread ways to bring research results to the market place, and also represents a powerful instrument of their internationalization strategy for universities. The main aim of the work is to identify the main elements raised by the creation of such companies, from the point of view of both public and academic authorities. The article proposes to consider key properties of university and industrial spin-offs as business units with flexible organizational form in tight connection with the formal modeling approach of the Enterprise Ontology and DEMO methodology, which are based on the Language-Action Perspective. For the analysis, the authors apply the concept of the transactions mechanism and a particular enterprise design methodology. As a result of the research, the paper proposes the main elements of a spin-off reference model constructed using the DEMO methodology means and it describes future directions of this work.

Understanding the theory behind the Last Planner System using the Language-Action Perspective: two case studies

Since the Last Planner System® (LPS) was devised in the early 90s, a number of studies have pointed out the need to understand the underlying theory in which it is based on. The Language-Action Perspective (LAP) has been suggested as a suitable approach to understand the management of commitments in the LPS. This paper aims to assess the contribution of LAP to understand construction planning and control systems based on LPS. Two case studies were carried out in different construction companies, both highly experienced on the use of LPS. The results reveal the role of LAP for creating explicit representations of commitment flows that can be used to explain the sources of complexity and failures in planning systems, as well as for describing the profile of planning and control meetings.

The Role of Commitments in the Management of Construction Make-to-Order Supply Chains

The integration and coordination of make-to-order (MTO) supply chains is critical for successful execution of construction projects. This study aims to investigate the potential of the language-action perspective (LAP) to analyze the way commitments are demanded, bound, and fulfilled by supply chain members, and how these affect the integration and coordination of construction MTO supply chains. Two case studies were carried out, including agents in the building elevator and cut-and-bent rebar supply chains. Multiple sources of evidence, such as exploratory and structured interviews, site visits, and document analysis, provided invaluable data to support the analysis. This evidence reveals that most of the information flow problems of MTO chains can be traced to the way that commitments among people and firms are managed along such chains. It also shows that the kinds of failure in managing those commitments can be associated with their incompleteness or the poor connectivity among them. The study suggests that the adoption of LAP can provide a novel and alternative approach to understanding information and communication problems that affect the integration and coordination of MTO supply chains in construction, as well as to identifying possible ways to avoid these problems.

Three Theoretical Perspectives for Understanding Inter-firm Coordination of Construction Project Supply Chains

The success of construction projects is highly dependent on the coordination of a fairly large number of stakeholders, such as client organizations, designers, general contractors, and subcontractors. Each of those stakeholders can both affect and be affected by the way a project is managed, and none of them usually has the power or the ability to coordinate project supply chains. However, the existing literature on supply chain management does not provide a comprehensive theoretical foundation for describing or explaining the coordination of construction project supply chains. This paper discusses the role of three different theoretical perspectives for understanding the inter-firm coordination process of project supply chains in the construction industry: the Theory of Coordination, the Transaction Cost Theory and the Language-Action Perspective. The contribution of each theoretical approach is pointed out in the paper, and their complementary role is illustrated in a case study carried out in a petrochemical construction project in Brazil.

A Human-Centric Approach To Group-Based Context-Awareness

The emerging need for qualitative approaches in context-aware information processing calls for proper modeling of context information and efficient handling of its inherent uncertainty resulted from human interpretation and usage. Many of the current approaches to context-awareness either lack a solid theoretical basis for modeling or ignore important requirements such as modularity, high-order uncertainty management and group-based context-awareness. Therefore, their real-world application and extendability remains limited. In this paper, we present f-Context as a service-based context-awareness framework, based on language-action perspective (LAP) theory for modeling. Then we identify some of the complex, informational parts of context which contain high-order uncertainties due to differences between members of the group in defining them. An agent-based perceptual computer architecture is proposed for implementing f-Context that uses computing with words (CWW) for handling uncertainty. The feasibility of f-Context is analyzed using a realistic scenario involving a group of mobile users. We believe that the proposed approach can open the door to future research on context-awareness by offering a theoretical foundation based on human communication, and a service-based layered architecture which exploits CWW for context-aware, group-based and platform-independent access to information systems.

Monitoring Service Systems from a Language-Action Perspective

Business processes are increasingly distributed and open, making them prone to failure. Monitoring is, therefore, an important concern not only for the processes themselves but also for the services that comprise these processes. We present a framework for multilevel monitoring of these service systems. It formalizes interaction protocols, policies, and commitments that account for standard and extended effects following the language-action perspective, and allows specification of goals and monitors at varied abstraction levels. We demonstrate how the framework can be implemented and evaluate it with multiple scenarios that include specifying and monitoring open-service policy commitments.

Nauczanie i rozwijanie sprawności komunikacyjnych w obcojęzycznym dyskursie specjalistycznym. Potrzeby, wyzywania, innowacje

This paper concerns the teaching of languages for specific purposes to adults. It shows the growing need for this kind of teaching from the European and multicultural perspective. Specialist discourse compared to teaching general language will be described and the implications of such a comparison will analyzed. The paper emphasizes the necessity of determining learners’ needs in specialist communication and the use of such educational innovations as the Internet and the language action perspective.

Information systems actability: Tracing the theoretical roots

Information systems actability is a theoretical and methodological approach to technology-based information systems in organizations. Its emphasis is on communication and its basic view is that information systems are instruments for technology-mediated work communication. It received its original theoretical inspiration from speech act theory and the language action perspective. Information systems actability has been further developed and it has obtained theoretical inspiration from many other traditions and theories. This article presents a coherent analysis and view of information systems actability and traces its different theoretical roots. Besides the language action perspective and speech act theory, information systems actability gets its current theoretical backing from theories and knowledge traditions like pragmatic philosophy, classical semiotics, social action theories, affordance theory, semiotic HCI engineering, conversation analysis, discourse theory, and activity theory. The article contributes with a synthesizing analysis of different information systems actability publications and reconstructs the theory and presents it in a condensed form in fourteen propositions.

The importance of business process modeling in software systems design

Despite diligent efforts made by the software engineering community, the failure of software projects keeps increasing at an alarming rate. After two decades of this problem reoccurring, one of the leading causes for the high failure rate is still poor process modeling (requirements’ specification). Therefore both researchers and practitioners recognize the importance of business process modeling in understanding and designing accurate software systems. However, lack of direct model checking (verification) feature is one of the main shortcomings in conventional process modeling methods. It is important that models provide verifiable insight into underlying business processes in order to design complex software systems such as Enterprise Information Systems (EIS). The software engineering community has been deploying the same methods that have haunted the industry with failure. In this paper, we try to remedy this issue by looking at a non-conventional framework. We introduce a business process modeling method that is amenable to automatic analysis (simulation), yet powerful enough to capture the rich reality of business systems as enacted in the behavior and interactions of users. The proposed method is based on the innovative language-action perspective.

The language-action perspective as a basis for communication support systems

Developing a framework for effective design principles.

Designing a new foundation for design

The book in which Fernando Flores and I introduced our version of the language-action perspective had an ambitious and provocative subtitle: Understanding Computers and Cognition: A New Foundation for Design [8]. This special section of Communications offers the opportunity to apply the hindsight of nearly two decades to the implicit claim in that phrase, asking how the perspective has been successful as a foundation and promises to be so in the future.

Investigating actability dimensions: a language/action perspective on criteria for information systems evaluation

From a language/action perspective (LAP), information systems are conceived as tools for social action and communication. To date, LAP-based approaches have tended towards the abstract, focusing primarily on business modelling and different business interaction patterns. In this paper, nine dimensions of information systems from a LAP point of view are developed. The dimensions are founded on the notion that information systems used within a business context have the ability to act and to support human action—they possess actability. The dimensions bring concrete design suggestions to systems development and evaluation by emphasizing aspects such as anonymization of information origin, appropriate visual presentation based on required action support, and the design of systems in relation to communication patterns and business responsibilities. Examples from a case study are discussed to show the applicability of the actability dimensions. The relationship between the suggested actability dimensions and commonly referred principles for assessing usability is elaborated.

Workflow analysis with communication norms

The language/action perspective (LAP) as orginally introduced by Winograd and Flores has inspired several tools and information system design methodologies. The goal of this article is to make the communication norms underlying various LAP workflow loop models (DEMO, ActionWorkflow) explicit and to contrast them with the auditing norms of internal control. It appears that the communicative action paradigm embedded in DEMO and the customer satisfaction orientation of ActionWorkflow lead to norms which resemble the ones required by internal control, but there are some important differences. For that reason, we propose an extended workflow loop model that distinguishes between customer relations and agency relations. Whereas current LAP approaches do not take agency relations explicitly into account, the extended workflow loop model allows us to analyze the effects of delegation on communicative processes. A framework is offered for the normative analysis of workflows based on a number of formalized communication norms.

The atoms, molecules and fibers of organizations

The increasing demands concerning the modifiability and connectivity of business processes cannot be met adequately anymore by relying on best practices only. There is an urgent need for a reference conceptual framework for studying, modeling, analyzing and designing business processes. The Language–Action Perspective (LAP), in particular Habermas’ theory of Communicative Action offers a sound and rigid foundation for such a framework. In this paper, the DEMO (Demo Engineering Methodology for Organizations)-framework is presented. It builds on the LAP-based theoretical foundation of the DEMO methodology. Several other LAP-based frameworks have been proposed in the past years. They are evaluated in a comparative review with the DEMO-framework. Several shortcomings of these frameworks are revealed and discussed. The practical applicability of the DEMO-framework is demonstrated using a small example.

Language/Action Meets Organisational Semiotics: Situating Conversations with Norms

Virtual professional communities require a strong co-evolution of their social and information systems. To ensure that the evolutionary process of their socio-technical systems is viable, a legitimate user-driven specification process is required. Such a process helps to ensure the meaningfulness and acceptability of specification changes. A specification method supporting this process should be grounded in the neo-humanist paradigm so that subjectivist and conflict aspects receive proper attention. Two related subfields of information science that have roots in this paradigm are the Language/Action Perspective (LAP) and organisational semiotics (OS). The RENISYS method for specification of the socio-technical systems of virtual professional communities is presented. It combines aspects from both LAP and OS, by building on work done in the DEMO (LAP) and MEASUR (OS) methodologies. It thus provides an operationalization of neo-humanist ideals that can help to extend theoretical and empirical research.

Designing reflective dialogue to support learning from experience

This paper discusses the design and use of a web-based application-"virtual dialectic"-created to facilitate learning from experience among distributed participants who are also engaged in work. The approach taken in developing this application embraces the observation that language is a form of action and the importance of technological design in helping people manage "break down" in ongoing activities [1]. The virtual dialectic, unlike many CSCW systems, is not designed to directly support the conduct of some particular work practice. Instead, the application addresses how people make sense of communication at work and in professional life with the goal of helping individuals develop their self-understanding and identity as professionals. The application draws users attention to aspects of organizational action they might otherwise take for granted by providing "micro" and "macro" tools for participants to orchestrate their distant interaction as a type of reflective dialogue.The virtual dialectic application is an interesting case for those interested in the language action perspective on communication modeling because this application explores, essentially, how to articulate cooperation at conflict. Such a design goal may, on its face, seem odd since many CSCW systems are geared toward the achievement of consensus and intersubjectivity among users. Alterity, disagreement, and conflict, however, are important collaborative achievements that contribute to learning, decision-making, and innovation processes.This paper has two parts. First, the key aspects of the virtual dialectic application are described relative to the background assumptions, and the context of development, that inform its design. This section outlines the rationale for framing design as the management of disagreement rather than the management of consensus. The broader design assumptions, requirements, and procedures of the virtual dialectic are described in derail elsewhere [2]. Second, an example of online interaction using the virtual dialectic is discussed to illustrate the complex ways in which participants avoid and express opposition. The main purpose is to explore the important puzzle managing disagreement presents for designing systems to support processes such as learning and deliberation.

A meta-communication model for structuring intercultural communication action patterns

This paper presents a meta-communication model for discursive construction of communication action patterns that may be part of an information system which supports communication and cooperation in virtual intercultural communities. The paper also provides a brief review of previous ideas on meta-communication from the language action perspective.

A framework for the normative analysis of workflow loops

The goal of this paper is to make the communication norms underlying various LAP (Language/Action Perspective) workflow loop models (DEMO, ActionWorkflow) explicit and to contrast them with auditing norms. The transaction paradigm of DEMO and the customer satisfaction orientation of Action Workflow lead to norms which resemble the ones required by internal control, but there are some important differences. We propose a framework for the normative analysis of communication structures in which customer relations and agency relations are distinguished. Whereas most LAP approaches do not take agency relations explicitly into account, the extended workflow loop model allows us to analyze the effects of delegation on communicative structures.

An introduction to the language-action perspective

An introduction to the language-action perspective