Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Work-arounds and boundary crossing in a high tech optronics company : The role of co-operative work-flow technologies.
AU - Hayes, N
PY - 2000/11
Y1 - 2000/11
N2 - This study examines how some employees coped with the exceptions that they encountered with their on-going use of a co-operative work-flow technology in an optronics company. By drawing on the case material, this paper will indicate that approaches which view work as being capable of being planned and managed through the formal authority of the hierarchy are insufficient, and instead this paper will suggest that exception handling, work-arounds and improvisation are more characteristic of human activity. The theoretical framework for the interpretive study was based on structuration theory. Structuration theory provides a theoretical lens that conceptualises action and structure as a duality, and emphasises how activity is both enabled and constrained. The principles underlying ethnography have informed the research approach.
AB - This study examines how some employees coped with the exceptions that they encountered with their on-going use of a co-operative work-flow technology in an optronics company. By drawing on the case material, this paper will indicate that approaches which view work as being capable of being planned and managed through the formal authority of the hierarchy are insufficient, and instead this paper will suggest that exception handling, work-arounds and improvisation are more characteristic of human activity. The theoretical framework for the interpretive study was based on structuration theory. Structuration theory provides a theoretical lens that conceptualises action and structure as a duality, and emphasises how activity is both enabled and constrained. The principles underlying ethnography have informed the research approach.
KW - collaborative workflow technology - CSCW - ethnography - exception handling - improvisation - interpretive study - work-arounds
U2 - 10.1023/A:1008795025075
DO - 10.1023/A:1008795025075
M3 - Journal article
VL - 9
SP - 435
EP - 455
JO - Computer Supported Cooperative Work
JF - Computer Supported Cooperative Work
SN - 0925-9724
IS - 3-4
ER -