Investigating Coordinative Work Practices in Distributed Workgroups Using Narrative Networks

Abstract

The use of collaboration software to coordinate collaborative work has become essential for the organisation of joint work in distributed settings. However, the analysis of distinct Coordinative Work Practices (CWP) is challenging as flexible work arrangements, digital workplace initiatives, and new types of collaboration software have increased the complexity of coordinating. Research studies mainly provide textual descriptions and there are few rich visualisations of CWP. To address these shortcomings, this research investigates CWP within distributed workgroups by using Narrative Networks (NN) as a novel and promising application for this context. NN is a research approach to describe, visualise and analyse software in use as sequences of actions. While NN have primarily been used to study structured work processes with repetitive/prescriptive tasks (e.g., invoice processing) and software designed to support these kinds of processes (e.g., ERP systems), this research argues that it is also suitable to investigate CWP, which involves less formalized/less well-defined tasks and that occur as a variety of nested activities. More comprehensive understanding of CWP can be gained using NN in the context of distributed workgroups in the digital workplace.