Dialogues in Virtual Environment - Term Paper Example

?Dialogues in Virtual Environment Inserts His/hers Inserts Grade Inserts 29, 11, Introduction This paper seeks to explain how organization operates on virtual environments as well as explain various terms used in such a world. Numerous researches have been conducted on the application of virtual environments. Animesh et al.’s MIS QUARTELY described it as below. Virtual environments refer to interactive, head-referenced computer displays that are enhanced by special processing and nonvisual display modalities such as auditory and haptic, they convince users that they are in a computer simulated space. Organizations working on virtual environments have a virtual team and office. The popularity of working in a virtual office is becoming common. Many businesses, organizations, and institutions are not run from a central office with set hours. The workforce in the current world is more flexible,. mobile, preferable and more convenient trend with the help of the modern portable technology and wifi. One can work in a coffee shop, in another state, in airports, beaches,...just to mention but a few; all what they need is a laptop and access to internet to connect to workplace, clients and team members. As we’ve already stated, organizations may work with a virtual team on global levels. These teams operate autonomously with directions from a manager. The major advantage of these teams is that they try to maximize geographic talents to focus on key elements of the organization. The economists believe that the virtual office will change the way our economy works as well as the nature of work. Working from home or places where we are more comfortable exerts less stress on individuals, which can adversely affect the quality of work being produced. Dialogue is a most important proponent of virtual office. It is more efficient to avoid unnecessary meetings, dealing with office chatter, gossip and commutes. Dialogue supports a wide range of applications of virtual environments in businesses, education, healthcare, government and entertainment. The usefulness is in customer service, selling, help desk, technical support, and personalized service, training, education, website navigation and simple dialogue systems. The virtual office involves space utilization, however, a the actual application requires live communications or dialogue. This is possible through various methods. First, workers can use high-tech computer telephone integration software, a voicemail, mailing, business meeting space, and many other applications for communication. Systems Theory A set of interacting, interrelated, and interdependent components that form a complex and a unified whole is known as a system. Systems are everywhere- example is functional departments in any organization, the human circulatory system, and so on. They have several defining characteristics: First, every system has a role to play within a larger system. Second, all parts of a system must be present for a system to carry out its purposes optimally. Third, system’s parts must be arranged in a particular manner, if they are rearranged, the whole system would have trouble executing its purpose. Fourth, Systems change in response to a feedback, and finally, they maintain their balance by making changes based on the feedback (Pokharel, 2011). Systems theory, therefore, is a trans disciplinary study of systems in general, irrespective of their kind, type, or nature of existence. It focuses on the relations and arrangement of parts which connect them into a whole rather than reducing an entity into parts like organs or cells. Systems theory as a trans disciplinary study addresses a problem regardless of discipline in diverse fields like engineering, biology, sociology, psychology, and organizational theory. There are two versions of systems theory: closed systems and open systems. Closed systems originated in classical physics which deals with relatively few variables. Its modern version is exemplified by cybernetics and attributed to the work of Norbert Weiner. Nobbert Weiner discovered that both neural disorder problem and electrical engineering problem had commonalities and sought a common language that describes both problems. He published a book on cybernetics which bore with it the modern cybernetics. This development allowed different disciplines to communicate their problem with each other in the common language of systems theory, as well as applying a set of principles to problems of control and regulation. An example of application of cybernetic systems is the heater’s thermostat. In this example, the controlled variable is the room temperature, disturbance is the cold air and walls are buffers that keep the temperature at the desired levels. Temperature is controlled by a switch which turns heat on when the thermometer gives feedback that the room is too cold. This idea that control only occurs after an action is central to cybernetic mode of thinking. Open Systems theory originates from biology, Darwin’s work of evolution of species in particular. Its popular version is attributed to Ludwig von Bertalanffy. They used the term general systems theory in describing the main ideas and distinguishing them from closed systems. Bertalanffy explained that closed systems thinking was not appropriate to study biological systems since they interact with their environment, grow and survive. Like living organisms, most organization has constant complex interactions and relationships with their environment. It must grow and achieve a dynamic equilibrium in order to survive rather simply returning to a steady state. Thus, the general systems theory has been applied to the study of design of management planning and control systems in organizations. We have seen that systems theory is the discipline that integrates, fuses others into a continuous body of theory and practical. It also establishes and examines the interrelationship between the parts and, therefore, provides the means and incentive of integrating the parts. Here, there are three things worth noting. First, systems theory majors on the connections and the whole body allowing people to look beyond the immediate context and appreciate the impacts of their actions on others. Secondly, though systems theory has simple building blocks, they can build into more sophisticated model than are in the organizations. When these two points are added together, it is possible to move beyond focus on the parts, begin to see the whole, and appreciate organization as a dynamic process. Thus, a better appreciation of systems will lead to more appropriate action. Third, systemic thinking enables us to appreciate the importance of feedback mechanisms in organizations. How does dialogue relate to systems theory? To achieve its objectives, systems theory utilizes dialogue to build and evolve perspectives on various parts or systems in a set-up. In the earlier discussion, this paper introduced what dialogue systems are and how they relate to virtual environments. We also explained what systems are and their defining characteristics. To harmonize the various purposes and traits of a system, a mode of communication is necessary, that is a dialogue system. Systems thinking have special qualities that help to facilitate the communication about many systems. Within a system in a virtual environment, dialogue has the following tasks; managing interactions of parts, interpreting the user responses, generation of references and content planning. As described earlier in this paper, a system obtains a plan to arrive at the desired goal. The plan usually contains physical actions to be carried out in the virtual environment. Then the sequence of transmitting the actions to the user is decided, and as well as how to verbalize the actions. The next step is to generate reference expressions that describe an entity so that a user can identify it. In interpreting the responses of user, the continuous flow of user behavior is discretized in the 3D world into meaningful actions for domain purposes. Dialogue has a direct relationship with most of the things learned in class including systems thinking, theory of constraints, effect-cause-effect, cloud diagrams, organizational learning, causal loop diagrams, and archetypes. In one way or another, they are mostly a special language used to communicate about complexities and interdependencies. Cloud diagrams is most perfect way of illustrating organization boundary for a private cloud usually related to a virtual organization environment as shown below; Systems thinking as a language are circular rather than linear. It focuses on closed interdependencies, where 1influences 2, 2 influences 3, and 3 influences 1. Just like dialogue systems, systems thinking have tools such as causal loop diagrams, systems archetypes and structural diagrams that help clarify complex issues. Systems diagrams can be strong means of enhancing understanding a problem. The field of organizational learning explores ways to change and address the problems facing the global community. It is focused on designing organizations so that they can fulfill their functions effectively, encouraging people to optimize their potential and make the world a better place to live in. To accomplish all the above objectives, communication is necessary (Biere, 2010). Systems archetypes provide a very important learning reinforcement and system simulation and design platform. This can be the best solution for the feedback and control in virtual environment. Systems archetypes can therefore be used in virtual systems for enhancing dialogue quality standards in a virtual environment as illustrated in the diagram below; Systems archetypes themselves are made of causal loop diagrams. Causal diagrams provide a language for expressing our understanding of the dynamic world. Most virtual environment dialogue use balancing loop system where feedback and change satisfies the customer as indicated below; Advantages of Virtual Environments Today, there are many advantages of working in a virtual environment. First, it is the reach to the customers. Office environment usually limits an employee to the office only which is not appropriate for dealing with today’s customers who needs to be understood deeply. These cannot be happen by just reading a document or talking to delegated people. It is, therefore, always better to reach out and get a glimpse of the actual situation which is only possible through the virtual environment model. The second advantage is the family time. One can work through his at his home as well as if he is not travelling. There is no specific time to be at home since the employee never departs from his home to the office. This provides a different lifestyle and saves a lot of time that would otherwise be spend performing other activities when there is a physical “office” at a particular time. A person can have flexible time schedule and also dedicate extra time when required. Many jobs are not reachable to a person because they are not willing to move or rather relocate. In this case, a person may lose a better opportunity and a company loses a better employee. Thus, working in a virtual environment provides a win-win situation for both the employer and the employee. Therefore, a company with a virtual office would not be affected by the problem of relocation for attracting new and best talented employees who can for jobs they want without geographic limitations. Virtual office could also be the best offer for the physically handicapped people. They can work from home with all that they can do comfortably. They need not to travel to the office. In summary, virtual environment is very profitable to companies since it does not require any cost of owning assets. A company only needs a network as an infrastructure. It is a solution to relocation problems, pollution and the real estate pricing. People can work comfortably across the country. Disadvantages of Virtual Environments The disadvantages of working in a virtual environment include conflicts that could arise due to lack of face to face communication among the virtual team members. The clashes are very difficult to sort out with participants scattered across time zones and geographical regions. Again, some matters are too sensitive and may require personal touch –no matter the distance. Another disadvantage of virtual office is the lack of project visibility in team members. For not having a virtual office, it means that there can be a lot of travel involved. This is very difficult with different time zones and geographical location. In business application, use of virtual environments is faced by several problems. Chat is a very slow mode of communication, there are numerous distractions, resistance to use and technology problems like slow response, lag resizing objects, crashes, need for headphones and update of software. Within an education setting, the disadvantages include inattentiveness, confusion of the virtual and the real world, and technical requirements. Medical disadvantages are cost and restraint. New technology is expensive and the current equipment used to develop a virtual environment is restrictive and uncomfortable to users. Why do organizations struggle with a virtual environment? Given the positive features of working in a virtual office, negative ones also exist. Organizations may find it difficult to establish, motivate, and accelerate team performance. If employees needed additional guidance or direction on a project or task, they could work down the office to speak with someone in the traditional one. In the virtual office, it sometimes take long to get information, especially when one person is not available. For organizations that opt for a virtual office, they must hire the right people. Deb Beck interjects that successful virtual employees are “self-starters and self-disciplined--it's definitely lonely working in a vacuum, and they need to be able to deal with the loneliness”. Katz echoes Beck by suggesting that effective virtual employees, in addition to focussing on the virtual environment, also need to connect with other outside communities. The virtual leader needs to have the utmost trust in its hires. This is because the leader will not physically see or interact with the employees as it would in a traditional company. As such, employees ought to be extraordinarily self-reliant and committed towards meeting the goals and objectives of the organization; motivated to work with minimum supervision; and dedicated to the success their work. A virtual organization needs to set realistic benchmarks and check-in times. They must have criteria of measuring progress and success to be able to manage someone in a remote location. For example, they make keep a record of the total contacts made or total widgets produced. In order to satisfy both the employer and the employees, communication must be frequent, sufficient, and intense enough. Some, like, Boston Software Systems, Inc., organize regional or national retreats. These serve to provide opportunities for social interactions with employees, management and productivity purposes to discuss and improve policies, processes, information sharing, creating sense of unity and team building. A virtual office in today’s world can save an organization financially. However, the prospective virtual entrepreneur needs to enter into this state-of-art management concept with the goal of hiring the most appropriate employees and creating a fail-safe environment. Conclusion In this paper, it is clear that application of virtual environments has grown very fast over the past few years, and has expanded in building competitive online businesses. It is clearly seen that virtual worlds can provide very interesting information on how people interact, manage and operate a life in the virtual environments. Virtual worlds are being used in all levels of education and training, the names and organizations behind virtual world research are now well known. This is because virtual worlds are evolving with emerging technology, and are given the first research priority by institutions like University of Texas. Increasingly, organizations are operating in virtual teams on a global level. These teams operate autonomously with a manager controlling them. The main purpose of virtual teams is to maximize geographic talent to focus on key element of the company. By allowing employees to work in a virtual office, the organization benefit in a number of ways from the different talents, while employees can achieve a higher work/life balance. Along with these, there are a number of disadvantages of working in a virtual office. These include managing a virtual team from a distance, ensuring accountability, navigating workers professing different cultures and ensuring team spirit prevails. Ultimately, it is important for an organization to have a clear sense of direction when it comes to managing a virtual team. Among others, the clear sense of direction includes proper management, engaging employees, setting goals and focusing on results. References Animesh, A., Pinsonneault, A. Sung-Byung, Y., & Wonseok O. (2011).An Odyssey into Virtual Worlds: Exploring the Impacts of Technological and Spatial Environments on Intention to Purchase Virtual Products1. MIS Quarterly, 35(3), 789. Biere, M. (2010). The New Era of Enterprise Business Intelligence: Using Analytics to Achieve a Global Competitive Advantage. IBM Press. Chun-Feng L. and Tsai-Yen L. (2007) Realising voice dialogue management in a collaborative virtual environment. International Journal of Computer Applications in Technology, 29(1), 37-44. Collier, K. 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