Abstract. Abstract. The field of communicative action‐based modelling of business processes and information systems has attracted more and more attention in recent years. Inspired by the seminal work of Winograd and Flores, researchers have proposed several modelling approaches. In this article we discuss communicative action‐based modelling approaches in general and the DEMO (dynamic essential modelling of organizations) approach in particular. Besides establishing the theoretical foundations of this modelling approach, we also apply DEMO to a case study, and we discuss how the resulting models can be used for information systems design and business process optimization.
The field of speech act based modelling of information systems has attracted an increasing attention in recent years. On the basis of the research work of Winograd and Flores, several modelling approaches have been proposed. In this paper we discuss the speech act based modelling approaches in general and the DEMO approach in particular. Next to the discussion of theoretical foundations of this modelling approach we also illustrate the application of DEMO to a case study, and we report on the status of the resulting models for information systems design and business process optimisation.
The unambiguous interpretation of the propositional and illocutionary act is of extreme importance in understanding linguistic coordination of business activities. In the interpretation of actual realizations of business conversations it can not always be determined unambiguously what kind of communication act the speaker is making. In this paper we focus on the interpretation of utterances in business communication. We propose two techniques to trace the structure of business conversations: Functional Grammar and the Transaction Process Model. The analysis is illustrated with a recorded conversation taken from a larger case study in a Dutch hotel. 1 Introduction The Language/Action Perspective is a suitable viewpoint for understanding linguistic coordination of business activities [13, 20, 35, 48, 52, 54]. According to Kensing and Winograd [29] cooperative work is coordinated by the performance of language actions, in which parties become mutually committed to the performance of future actions and in which they make declarations creating social structures in which those acts are generated and interpreted. This view has had a significant impact within various information systems design and office communication analysis methods: SAMPO [2-4], ActionWorkflow approach [35], DEMO [10, 13]. Next to this it has resulted in computer based applications: The Coordinator [54], Domino [30], and UTUCS [1]. Nevertheless, there has been criticism to both the theoretical foundations and The Coordinator and this has led to a passionate debate for almost ten years [9, 14] (see also the Suchman-Winograd Debate in CSCW Vol. 3, 1995). In this paper we pay attention to one important point of criticism; the mapping between real life conversations and the taxonomy of speech acts. The dimensions of speech acts in the language/action perspective are based on the taxonomy developed by Searle [43] in the Speech Act Theory. However, in real life conversations the meaning of the speaker's utterance and the meaning of the sentence come apart in various ways. An example of this is the case in which one illocutionary act is performed indirectly by way of performing another: 'I need a reservation for a double room for the second of May' This illocutionary act is of a declarative form but in the conversation between an employee of the reservation department and a client it is an indirect request for the reservation of a double room for the second of May. An appropriate interpretation of the propositional and illocutionary act depends on the actual communicative situation [6]. In this paper we consider the aspect of interpretation of separate expressions in a specific communicative situation. If we want to understand linguistic coordination of business activities, the unambiguous interpretation of the propositional and illocutionary act is of extreme importance. The DEMO, SAMPO and the ActionWorkflow approaches are based on the assumption that there is an unambiguous interpretation of speech acts, that mark specific phases in business activities. I...
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.