Browsing by Subject "Future of work"

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    Journal Article
    A Worker-Driven Common Information Space: Interventions into a Digital Future
    (Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW): Vol. 29, No. 5, 2020) Møller, Naja Holten; Eriksen, Maren Gausdal; Bossen, Claus
    This paper empirically investigates a Common Information Space (CIS) established by medical secretaries so they could support each other during their workplace’s transition to a new comprehensive electronic health record, called the Healthcare Platform (HP). With the new system, the secretaries were expected to become partially obsolete, as doctors were to take on a significant load of the clerical work, such as documenting and coding. To handle their changing work situation, the medical secretaries set up an online support group in parallel to, but independent from, the official implementation support organization. The paper’s contribution is a characterization of the support group as a common information space (CIS), and analysis of the specific qualities of a worker-driven CIS as a forum for 1) articulation work required for re-grounding changing tasks and responsibilities, 2) archiving discussions (posts) and guidelines to further their collective interpretation, and 3) creating a space independent of management for employees to work out their new role in an organization in a situation of transition and change.
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    Journal Article
    Flexible Turtles and Elastic Octopi: Exploring Agile Practice in Knowledge Work
    (Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW): Vol. 28, 43631) Erickson, Ingrid; Menezes, Deepti; Raheja, Raghav; Shetty, Thanushree
    This paper takes as its starting place the rich context of many knowledge workers today—highly distributed, increasing project focused, typically atypical days, infrastructural—and attempts to push past extant descriptions of their practices as ‘flexible’. Using empirical data informed by a practice theory lens, we expand the understanding of flexibility with regard to work by augmenting how worker disposition, as well as the ability to engage with agility in dynamic circumstances, should be considered as a factor when examining and designing for this population. We make several contributions of interest to the wider CSCW community. First, we distinguish between those who showcase flexible practices and those who proactively orient around flexibility. We call this second group ‘elastic workers’. Second, we raise new questions for us as scholars and designers keen to exploit the conceptual and pragmatic intersection of technology and work. These questions create opportunities to explore different methods for understanding complex phenomena such as flexibility, as well as understanding how we might design for this phenomenon with more foresight in the future.