IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/grdene/v27y2018i5d10.1007_s10726-018-9587-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Decision-Making in the Police Work Force: Affordances Explained in Practice

Author

Listed:
  • Matthijs J. Verhulst

    (Tilburg University)

  • Anne-Françoise Rutkowski

    (Tilburg University)

Abstract

Studies of decision-making in High Reliability Organizations as supported by Information Technology have mostly pertained to the “cold” context, that is, the planning and briefing tasks that precede intervention. Meanwhile, the degree of elasticity required of High Reliability Teams during critical processes is key to stabilizing team performance and can be enhanced through the use of technology. However, off-the-shelf technologies are often used in organizations without due consideration of their impact on task interdependence and affordance. This article presents the results from a three-step explorative field study that investigated the effects of the imbrication between human (e.g., users) and material (e.g., technology) agencies on the decision-making processes used by a police force. Particularly, we address the impact on the individual, collective, and shared affordances of mobile technology (i.e., smartphone) in terms of the daily work routine of officers on the streets. Teams of police officers were shadowed during their daily work for a period of 80 hours. This article presents the findings in the form of four vignettes. The approach used proved useful for determining the affordance of technology in relation to task interdependence on micro-processes and decision-making.

Suggested Citation

  • Matthijs J. Verhulst & Anne-Françoise Rutkowski, 2018. "Decision-Making in the Police Work Force: Affordances Explained in Practice," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 27(5), pages 827-852, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:spr:grdene:v:27:y:2018:i:5:d:10.1007_s10726-018-9587-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s10726-018-9587-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10726-018-9587-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10726-018-9587-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gert-Jan Vreede & Pedro Antunes & Julita Vassileva & Marco Aurélio Gerosa & Kewen Wu, 2016. "Collaboration technology in teams and organizations: Introduction to the special issue," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 18(1), pages 1-6, February.
    2. Bonner, Sarah E. & Sprinkle, Geoffrey B., 2002. "The effects of monetary incentives on effort and task performance: theories, evidence, and a framework for research," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 27(4-5), pages 303-345.
    3. Giulia Pozzi & Federico Pigni & Claudio Vitari, 2014. "Affordance Theory in the IS Discipline: a Review and Synthesis of the Literature," Post-Print halshs-01923663, HAL.
    4. Wood, Robert E., 1986. "Task complexity: Definition of the construct," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 60-82, February.
    5. Rees, Jackie & Barkhi, Reza, 2001. "The problem of highly constrained tasks in group decision support systems," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(1), pages 220-229, November.
    6. Jay F. Nunamaker & Nicholas C. Romano & Robert Owen Briggs, 2002. "Increasing Intellectual Bandwidth: Generating Value from Intellectual Capital with Information Technology," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 69-86, March.
    7. Justin Okoli & John Watt & Gordon Weller & William B L Wong, 2016. "The role of expertise in dynamic risk assessment: A reflection of the problem-solving strategies used by experienced fireground commanders," Risk Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 18(1), pages 4-25, February.
    8. Giulia Pozzi & Federico Pigni & Claudio Vitari, 2014. "Affordance Theory in the IS Discipline: a Review and Synthesis of the Literature," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) halshs-01923663, HAL.
    9. Carol Saunders & Anne F. Rutkowski & Jon Pluyter & Ronald Spanjers, 2016. "Health information technologies: From hazardous to the dark side," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 67(7), pages 1767-1772, July.
    10. Fran Ackermann & Colin Eden, 2001. "Contrasting Single User and Networked Group Decision Support Systems for Strategy Making," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 10(1), pages 47-66, January.
    11. Fridell, Lorie A. & Binder, Arnold, 1992. "Police officer decisionmaking in potentially violent confrontations," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 385-399.
    12. Bartel Walle & Murray Turoff, 2008. "Decision Support for Emergency Situations," International Handbooks on Information Systems, in: Handbook on Decision Support Systems 2, chapter 39, pages 39-63, Springer.
    13. Katharina Burger & Leroy White & Mike Yearworth, 2018. "Why so Serious? Theorising Playful Model-Driven Group Decision Support with Situated Affectivity," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 27(5), pages 789-810, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. F. Ackermann & M. Yearworth & L. White, 2018. "Micro-processes in Group Decision and Negotiation: Practices and Routines for Supporting Decision Making," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 27(5), pages 709-713, October.
    2. Terri L. Griffith & John E. Sawyer & M. Scott Poole, 2019. "Systems Savvy: Practical Intelligence for Transformation of Sociotechnical Systems," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 28(3), pages 475-499, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Xu, Jinying & Lu, Weisheng, 2022. "Developing a human-organization-technology fit model for information technology adoption in organizations," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    2. Maedeh Yassaee & Tobias Mettler, 2019. "Digital Occupational Health Systems: What Do Employees Think about it?," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 21(4), pages 909-924, August.
    3. Zhengyang Liu, 2023. "A Comprehensive Review of Affordance Theory in Enhancing Digital Health Solutions," Technium, Technium Science, vol. 19(1), pages 59-72.
    4. Linus Kendall & Bidisha Chaudhuri & Apoorva Bhalla, 0. "Understanding Technology as Situated Practice: Everyday use of Voice User Interfaces Among Diverse Groups of Users in Urban India," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 0, pages 1-21.
    5. Alexis Pokrovsky, 2017. "Un camion peut-il devenir un véhicule institutionnel ? La matérialité des food trucks, entre conflit de légitimité et création d’identité," Post-Print hal-02549883, HAL.
    6. Rhode Ghislaine Nguewo Ngassam & Roxana Ologeanu Taddei & Isabelle Bourdon & Jorick Lartigau, 2019. "Digital service innovation enabled by the blockchain use in healthcare: the case of the allergic patients ledger," Post-Print hal-02282170, HAL.
    7. Emanuel Stoeckli & Christian Dremel & Falk Uebernickel & Walter Brenner, 2020. "How affordances of chatbots cross the chasm between social and traditional enterprise systems," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 30(2), pages 369-403, June.
    8. Andrew H. Newman & Ivo D. Tafkov & Flora Hailan Zhou, 2020. "The Effects of Incentive Scheme and Task Difficulty on Employees' Altruistic Behavior Outside the Firm†," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(3), pages 1512-1535, September.
    9. Ferran Pérez & Claudio Vitari, 2020. "An affordance perspective to understand the relationship between organization and IT [La perspective des affordances pour comprendre les relations entre organisations et TIC]," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) hal-03026906, HAL.
    10. Ferran Pérez & Claudio Vitari, 2020. "An affordance perspective to understand the relationship between organization and IT [La perspective des affordances pour comprendre les relations entre organisations et TIC]," Post-Print hal-03026906, HAL.
    11. Linus Kendall & Bidisha Chaudhuri & Apoorva Bhalla, 2020. "Understanding Technology as Situated Practice: Everyday use of Voice User Interfaces Among Diverse Groups of Users in Urban India," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 585-605, June.
    12. Gan, QingQiu & Lau, Raymond Yiu Keung, 2024. "Trust in a ‘trust-free’ system: Blockchain acceptance in the banking and finance sector," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 199(C).
    13. Chakraborty, Debarun & Polisetty, Aruna & G, Sowmya & Rana, Nripendra P. & Khorana, Sangeeta, 2024. "Unlocking the potential of AI: Enhancing consumer engagement in the beauty and cosmetic product purchases," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    14. Church, Bryan K. & Kuang, Xi (Jason) & Liu, Yuebing (Sarah), 2019. "The effects of measurement basis and slack benefits on honesty in budget reporting," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 74-84.
    15. Shahla Ghobadi & John Campbell & Stewart Clegg, 2017. "Pair programming teams and high-quality knowledge sharing: A comparative study of coopetitive reward structures," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 19(2), pages 397-409, April.
    16. Odette M. Pinto, 2015. "Effects of Advice on Effectiveness and Efficiency of Tax Planning Tasks," Accounting Perspectives, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(4), pages 307-329, December.
    17. Etienne Rouwette & Ingrid Bastings & Hans Blokker, 2011. "A Comparison of Group Model Building and Strategic Options Development and Analysis," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 20(6), pages 781-803, November.
    18. Yong Xie & Hongwei Wang, 2014. "A Group Cooperative Decision Support System Based on Extended Contract Net," Group Decision and Negotiation, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 1191-1217, September.
    19. Steven Kachelmeier & Kristy Towry, 2005. "The Limitations of Experimental Design: A Case Study Involving Monetary Incentive Effects in Laboratory Markets," Experimental Economics, Springer;Economic Science Association, vol. 8(1), pages 21-33, April.
    20. Stocks, Morris H. & Harrell, Adrian, 1995. "The impact of an increase in accounting information level on the judgment quality of individuals and groups," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 20(7-8), pages 685-700.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:grdene:v:27:y:2018:i:5:d:10.1007_s10726-018-9587-5. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.