Displaying a contextual organization chart with awareness
AssigneeInternational Business Machines Corporation
InventorsMarijane M. Zeller, Michael D. Elder, Oliver Heinz, Andrew L. Schirmer
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A contextual organization chart based on two selected individuals is constructed from a database of individual names, manager names, and profiles. Awareness data is provided for people in the organization, a people awareness indicator and a nesting control indicator are appended to names in the constructed view. A user may access profile data by selecting a name in the view, expand the view to show additional individuals by selecting a nesting control indicator, or initiate a communication with an individual by selecting an awareness indicator.
Claims19
A method of presenting an organization structure, comprising the steps of:
- providing a database of names of individuals in an organization, each of said individual names having an associated manager name and a profile;
- providing people awareness data for each of said individuals in said organization;
- selecting a first and a second individual from said organization without requiring multiple searches;
- constructing a view showing the manager chain of said first and second individuals up to the point where there is a common manager and then a single manager chain to a higher level manager in said organization;
- appending an indicator of said people awareness data and a nesting control indicator to names in said view;
- and
- displaying said view on a computer screen wherein a user may access said profile by selecting a name in said view, initiate a communication with an individual by selecting said people awareness indicator, or expand said view by selecting said nesting control indicator.
A system for presenting an organization structure, comprising:
- a database of names of individuals in an organization, each of said individual names having an associated manager name and a profile;
- people awareness data in said database for each of said individuals in said organization;
- means for constructing a view showing the manager chain of a first and a second individual up to the point where there is a common manager and then a single manager chain to a higher level manager in said organization without requiring multiple searches;
- a computer screen for displaying said view;
- and means for allowing a user to access said profile by selecting a name in said view, initiate a communication with an individual by selecting said people awareness indicator, or expand said view by selecting said nesting control indicator.
A computer program product for instructing a processor to present an organization structure, comprising:
- a computer readable medium;
- first program instruction means for providing a database of names of individuals in an organization, each of said individual names having an associated manager name and a profile;
- second program instruction means for providing people awareness data for each of said individuals in said organization;
- third program instruction means for selecting a first and a second individual from said organization without requiring multiple searches;
- fourth program instruction means for constructing a view showing the manager chain of said first and second individuals up to the point where there is a common manager and then a single manager chain to a higher level manager in said organization;
- fifth program instruction means for appending an indicator of said people awareness data and a nesting control indicator to names in said view;
- and
- sixth program instruction means for displaying said view on a computer screen wherein a user may access said profile by selecting a name in said view, initiate a communication with an individual by selecting said people awareness indicator, or expand said view by selecting said nesting control indicator;
- and
- wherein all of said program instruction means are recorded on said medium.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.