46 research outputs found
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Hiring in the age of social media: new rules, new game
Companies are beginning to bypass traditional agency channels with new in-house recruitment practices, new executive search entities are challenging existing models, and individuals are using novel pathways to reach out to prospective employers. This is one of the areas of interest for a team of researchers and industry partners in the University of Sydneyās Digital Disruption Research Group (DDRG), which is looking at fundamental changes that are occurring in business as a result of digital technologies. In this study, we worked alongside a large, global professional services firm to understand the impact of social media on corporate recruitment, and to identify ways in which the recruitment processes can be effectively managed for better quality outcomes
Book review: sweat equity: inside the new economy of mind and body by Jason Kelly
As more and more of us spend money on fitness, Sweat Equity: Inside the New Economy of Mind and Body explores the investors and entrepreneurs making money from this booming market. While she would have welcomed more reflection on how this lucrative world is tied in with the rise of the āquantified selfā, Jason Kelly shines a fascinating light on the US fitness industry in this well-researched, informative and eye-opening book, writes Ella Hafermalz
Working from home: idea that workers who arenāt visible are slacking off is outdated
We need to embrace new ways of managing and relating in the digital workplace, writes Ella Hafermal
The Question of Materiality: Mattering in the Network Society
While materiality is an important concept in IS research, there is little consensus as to how materiality ought to be understood. We find that the term is typically used, often implicitly, to mean physicality or the corporeal existence of objects. Grounded in a widely held folk ontology characteristic of modern Western thinking this view makes intuitive sense to us. It breaks down however when we consider typical entities of concern to IS researcher, such as software or information, or emerging phenomena in the network society, such as online social networks or virtual work. In response to unhelpful distinctions emerging from this view, such as between the āvirtualā and ārealā world, we put forward a relational view grounded in the emerging sociomateriality research orientation. This alternative position sees materiality not as a pre-given quality of entities but rather as an ongoing achievement of āmatteringā situated in practice. We demonstrate with examples how this view enables IS researchers to grasp in more productive ways how materiality is achieved in an increasingly networked society
Negotiating Distance: āPresencing Workā in a Case of Remote Telenursing
Telehealth services offer accessible care to distributed populations. However, it is not clear how the important caring intervention of āpresenceā can be enacted in distributed settings. Information Systems literature theorizes āpresenceā in distributed work as something to be created by technologies as a precondition for effective work to occur. Following an abductive research process, we compare extant conceptualizations of presence with an empirical case of telenursing. We find that in order to be a caring presence, telenurses must skillfully employ technology while drawing on past embodied experience, in order to balance the ādualities of distanceā of nearness and farness; control and freedom. We thus recast presence as a form of skillful work with technology, not as an antecedent to, but a part of telenursing practice. Our model of āthe dualities of distance in presencing workā prompts new understandings and offers new directions for future research in both HISR and IS
Hello Computer: Towards a Research Agenda for Conceptualising āPresenceā in Human-Computer Engagement
Technological developments are bringing interactive computer agents, such as Appleās Siri, into our everyday lives and routines. These interactive agents are designed to be the focus of our interactions ā we can feel āpresentā with them. Yet current theories of āpresenceā in IS do not account for the question of what it means to be present with technology in an experiential sense. In response we draw on existential philosophy in order to generate a research agenda for conceptualising presence in the context of what we term human-computer engagement. We suggest that research from this new perspective requires focusing on the situated interaction rather than an a-priori assessment of the entities involved. We conclude by considering the ethical questions that emerge when technology is experienced as being an independent agent with which one can be present
Working Hybrid at Universities: Old, yet New Practice?
This study focuses on hybrid working in the university sector. The diversity of the roles performed in universities provides a unique opportunity to study how the āwhere and whenā of knowledge work is evolving in the post-pandemic era. Our research aims to understand how hybrid working is 1) planned and 2) practiced in a university context. Through an analysis of ten university policies, we find that the ambition for hybrid working reveals several contradictions. Further, technology is mostly backgrounded in discussions of this new way of working. These preliminary findings challenge us consider how the initiatives predicted in a hybrid working policy take place in practice, at a large Dutch university. Based on interviews and systematic observations, we aim to enrich discussions of hybrid working with an open stance towards how and what role technology plays in the new era of work in the university context
From playmate to assistant; User experiences of integrating ChatGPT into knowledge work
While Generative AI is believed to impact societies, organizations, and work, little is known about how ChatGPT is experienced by early users and its impact on their work practices for knowledge work. This is concerning as ChatGPT is exactly the opposite of many of the technological systems studied before - it is decentralized (from an organizational perspective), multipurpose, and open-ended, and it is more autonomous by creating new syntactic content. Building on an explorative interview study with 31 early adopters, we identified different use types for ChatGPT. Thereupon, we theorize a phase model of experiencing Generative AI use as an emotional process. The exploratory insights challenge the information systems field to rethink the passive role of technology to which āusersā delegate subtasks toward a collaborative role with AI as a teammate or colleague. Finally, we observe worker-system intertwinement, and we discuss its potential consequences on the level of the individual, organization, and even society
Shared Secret Places: Social Media and Affordances
The Social Media application Strava is used by exercisers to track running and cycling activities. Strava is carried with the exerciser and displays trophies and leaderboards to reward competitive performance. We were prompted by an auto-ethnographic account of Strava use to examine the way in which a particular stretch of running track around a lake showed up differently to the runner once Strava was integrated into their running practice. We look to Gibsonās relational notions of āaffordancesā and ānichesā to understand this change in direct perception. We propose that these concepts have potential in helping us to research and understand the ways in which groups of Social Media users share and construct a similar experience of place in a way that is largely invisible to non-users. We consider some of the preliminary implications of this differentiated use of place and demonstrate the way in which a relational view of affordances helps us to make sense of this phenomenon
Inflatable Habitat Health Monitoring: Implementation, Lessons Learned, and Application to Lunar or Martian Habitat Health Monitoring
NASA's exploration mission is to send humans to the Moon and Mars, in which the purpose is to learn how to live and work safely in those harsh environments. A critical aspect of living in an extreme environment is habitation, and within that habitation element there are key systems which monitor the habitation environment to provide a safe and comfortable living and working space for humans. Expandable habitats are one of the options currently being considered due to their potential mass and volume efficiencies. This paper discusses a joint project between the National Science Foundation (NSF), ILC Dover, and NASA in which an expandable habitat was deployed in the extreme environment of Antarctica to better understand the performance and operations over a one-year period. This project was conducted through the Innovative Partnership Program (IPP) where the NSF provided the location at McMurdo Station in Antarctica and support at the location, ILC Dover provided the inflatable habitat, and NASA provided the instrumentation and data system for monitoring the habitat. The outcome of this project provided lessons learned in the implementation of an inflatable habitat and the systems that support that habitat. These lessons learned will be used to improve current habitation capabilities and systems to meet the objectives of exploration missions to the moon and Mars