ABSTRACT
Ethnographic studies of CSCW have often seemed to involve the investigation of relatively large-scale and highly specific systems, consequently ignoring the small office within which many people spend much of their working lives and which is a major site for the introduction and implementation of IT. This paper is concerned with a “quick and dirty” ethnographic study of a small office that was considering the introduction of greater levels of IT. Generic features of office work are outlined: the process of work in a small office and its recurrent features, notably the massive volume of paperwork; the importance of local knowledge in the accomplishment of work; and the phenomenon of “constant interruption.” This paper suggests that despite the obvious contrasts with work settings analysed in other ethnographic studies, similar features of cooperative work can be observed in the small office. It further suggests that the issues of cooperation and the sociality of work cannot be ignored even in small-scale system design.
- 1.Ackroyd, S., Harper, R., Hughes, J.A., Shapiro, D., and Soothill, K. New Technology and Practical Police Work. Milton Keynes, UK, Open University Press, 1992. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 2.Anderson, R.J., Hughes, J.A., and Sharrock, W. Working for Profit: The Social Organisation of Calculation in an Entrepreneurial Firm. Avebury, Aldershot, 1989.Google Scholar
- 3.Anderson, R., and Sharrock, W.W. Can organisations afford knowledge? Computer Supported Cooperative Work 1, 3 (1993), 143-162.Google Scholar
- 4.Bannon, L. From human factors to human actors: the role of psychology and human-computer interaction studies in systems design. In j. Greenbaum and M. Kyng (Eds.) Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 1991. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 5.Bentley, R., Hughes, J., Randall, D., Rodden, T., Sawyer, P., Shapiro, D., and Sommerville, i. Ethnographically informed systems design for air traffic control. In Proceeding of CSCW'92 (Toronto), ACM press, 1992. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 6.Ellis, C.A. Formal and informal models of office activity. In R.E.A. Mason (Ed.) Proceedings of Information Processing 83. The 9th IFIP World Computer Congress. North-Hollan, Pads, 1983, pp. 11-22.Google Scholar
- 7.Gibson, J.J. The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1979.Google Scholar
- 8.Green, W., Owen, J., and Pain, D. (Eds.) Gendered by Design? information Technology and Office Systems. Taylor and Francis, London. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 9.Grudin, J. Why groupware applications fail: problems in design and evaluation. Office" Technology and People 4, 3(1989), 245-264.Google Scholar
- 10.Hughes, J.A., and King, V. Paperwork, Working Paper, COMIC-LANCS-4-1, Computing Department, Lancaster University, LA1 4YR, UK. 1992.Google Scholar
- 11.Hughes, J.A., King, V., Rodden, T., and Andersen, H. Moving out of the control room: ethnography in system design. CSCW'94 forthcoming. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 12.King, V., and Hughes, J.A. If all the World's a Stage, is Paperwork the Script?. Working Paper, COMIC- LANCS-4-6, Computing Department, Lancaster University, LA1 4YR, UK. 1993.Google Scholar
- 13.Kling, R., and Dunlop, C. Key controversies about computerisation and white collar work life, in R. Baeker, W. Buxton, and J. Grudin (Eds.) Computer- Human Interaction. Morgan Kaufman, San Mateo, CA, 1992.Google Scholar
- 14.Mariani, J.A. A Technological Perspective on Shared Objects. Working Paper COMIC-GMD-4-1, Computing Department, Lancaster University, LA1 4YR, UK. 1993.Google Scholar
- 15.Pain, D., Owen, J., Franklin, I., and Green, E. Human-centred systems design: a review of trends within the broader systems development context. In E. Green, J. Owen, and D. Pain (Eds.) Gendered by Design? Taylor and Francis, London, 1993. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 16.Prinz, W., and Mariani, J.A. Requirements on Object Systems from a CSCW Perspective. Working Paper COMIC-GMD-4-2, Computing Department, Lancaster University, LA1 4YR, UK. 1993.Google Scholar
- 17.Randall, D., and Hughes, J.A. Sociology, CSCW and working with customers. In P. Thomas (Ed.) The Social and Interaction Dimensions of System Design. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 18.Rodden, T. COMICal issues on a Shared Object Service. Working Paper, COMIC-LANCS-4-2, Computing Department, Lancaster University, LA1 4YR, UK. 1993.Google Scholar
- 19.Suchman, L. Office procedures as practical action" models of work and system design. A C M Transactions on Office Information Systems1, 4 (1983), 320-328. Google ScholarDigital Library
- 20.Suchman, L., and Wynn, E. Procedures and problems in the office Office Technology and People 2, (1984), 133-154.Google Scholar
- 21.Webster, J. Office Automation: The Labour Process and Women's Work in Britain. Harvester Wheatsheaf, New York, 1990.Google Scholar
- 22.Wood, S. The Transformation of Work. Unwin Hyman, London, 1989.Google Scholar
- 23.Zisman, M.D. Representation, Specification and Automation of Office Procedures. Dept. of Decision Science, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 1977.Google Scholar
Index Terms
- Working with “constant interruption”: CSCW and the small office
Recommendations
Job Satisfaction of Information Technology Workers: The Impact of Career Orientation and Task Automation in a CASE Environment
This study investigates the job satisfaction of information technology (IT) professionals in an environment where computer aided software engineering (CASE) tools are used. Although the recent downturn in the economy might have temporarily eased the IT ...
The emotions of systems developers: an empirical study of affective events theory
SIGMIS CPR '04: Proceedings of the 2004 SIGMIS conference on Computer personnel research: Careers, culture, and ethics in a networked environmentThe role of emotions in the workplace has received increasing attention from management theorists in recent years [2], yet information technology (IT) researchers have failed to consider the role of emotions on IT professionals. Many researchers ...
Relating research to practice: imperative or circumstance?
This paper provides a starting point for thinking beyond a research–practice divide and discusses possible new conceptualizations of intervention and the role of IT research in contemporary organizational settings. ‘IT research’ denotes a conglomerate ...
Comments