UFIE95-20-3 Information Systems and Society
Week : 19 Understanding Work

Home

Summary

Last week we looked at the 'productivity paradox' and it was suggested that the nature of the way people actually worked, particularly with computers, was not well known. This is a basic challenge for systems analysis, and with the progression from action-centered skills to intellective skills or knowledge work the problem has become more severe. This week we will consider why it is so difficult to understand.

Key terms and concepts

• Changing environment for IS
• What is work?
• Explicit and Tacit views of work
• Communities of practice

Sample question

"The biggest mystery in America today is how people work" (Sociologist David Wellman)
What does he mean by this statement?

Reading

Orr, JE, 1998, Images of Work, (handout) Science, Technology and Human Values,23(4): 439-455

Millen, D, Fontaine, A., and Muller, M., 2002 Understanding the benefit and costs of communities of practice, Communications of the ACM, 45(4): 69-73.

Further Reading

John Seely Brown and Paul Duguid, 1996, The Social Life of Documents

Communications of the ACM, September, 1995, 38 (9). Special issue on Representations of Work

Suchman, L.A., 1996, Supporting Articulation Work, In: R Kling (ed.), Computerization and controversy: Value conflicts and social choices (2nd. Ed., 407-423). San Diego: Academic Press.

Tutorial

Discuss the value and problems of identifying what people actually do at work.

Attempt the sample questions opposite.