The Curse of the Smart Manager? Digitalisation and the children of management science

In this commentary of Carsten Sørensen’s keynote address and commentary, I argue that it may be the concept of the smart manager—so fundamental to management science—rather than the concept of the smart machine, which is still haunting IS research today

A participatory design approach for the development of support environments in eGovernment services to citizens

The introduction of eGovernment services and applications leads to major changes in the structure and operation of public administrations. In this paper we describe the work in progress in an Italian project called “SPO.T.” aimed at the analysis, development, deployment and evaluation of tools and environments to support the people who plan, deliver, use and evaluate user-centred provision of One-Stop-Shop services to citizens. The “SPO.T.” project has focused on two requirements: 1. the support tools and environments must facilitate the active involvement of all stakeholders in the definition and evolution of eGovernment applications and services, and it is argued that through participatory design changes of structure, process and culture can be delivered effectively; 2. they must embody a set of architecturally coherent resources which reflect the new roles and relationships of public administration and which are sufficiently generic to be relevant to a wide range of local contexts across the community

KNOWING AND THE ART OF IT MANAGEMENT

work practices in one-stop shop

Full-Score-Lite. From video analysis and transcribed interactions to snapshot strips and chor(e)ographies of communication

In this position paper for the MUM 2003 workshop in Norrköping, December 10th 2003, Designing for ubicomp in the wild: Methods for exploring the design of mobile and ubiquitous service, a brief description is given of methods used in connection with a series of ‘quick and dirty’ ethnographic studies of mobile ICT users. These studies were carried out as commissioned research during 2000. Because of predetermined constraints on the studies and resulting reports, alternative ways of describing and annotating interactions on the move were devised and tested. As a result, the initial single time line approach was abandoned and a number of messier, multi-branched chor(e)ographies of communication were developed. These were finally discarded at the time as failures. However, in connection with becoming more of a mobile ICT user myself, the issue of the social and situated construction of time, and the need for supporting several themes in parallel, along different time lines, has surfaced again, and now seems more relevant than ever

Mobile services : a different way of seeing. Organizations as on-going activities and cultivating of relationships

As technology is developed and evolves over time in use, research areas focusing on technology, and technology in use, must develop their metaphors, models and figures of thought. Ethnomethodology, the study of how people organize their everyday lives, is a sociological approach that has come to play an important role in research on human-computer interaction (HCI) and computer supported cooperative work (CSCW)in recent years. In this presentation, some examples are given of how detailed studies of people's actions and interactions can be used to problematize current models and figures of thought concerning organizations and the organization of work. What would happen if we focus on relationships and activities, instead of formal representations of hierarchical decision structures? If we see organizations as constantly on-going activities and cultivating of relationships? How might effective computer support be designed for such an organization? The concept of 'accountability', which is central in ethnomethodology, ís used here to discuss new figures of thought and metaphorical models as a basis for developing mobile services.När tekniken förändras, måste också forskningsområden som fokuserar teknik och teknik i användning ompröva sina tankemodeller. Etnometodologin, läran om hur människor organiserar sin vardag, är en riktning inom sociologin som kommit att spela en allt viktigare roll i forskning om människa-dator-interaktion (HCI) och datorstött samarbete (CSCW). I den här presentationen ges några exempel på hur detaljerade studier av människors vardagliga handlande i arbetet kan leda till omprövning och ifrågasättande av hur funktionella våra nuvarande modeller och tankefigurer för organisationer och arbetets organiserande egentligen är. Vad händer till exempel om man fokuserar på aktiviteter och relationer istället för på hierarkiska beslutsstrukturer? Om man ser organisationer som ständigt pågående aktiviteter och underhåll av relationer? Hur skulle ett effektivt teknikstöd i arbetet kunna utformas, för den här förståelsen av vad en organisation är? Begreppet ?accountability?, som är centralt i etnometodologin, används här som ett led i argumenteringen för nya tankemodeller som underlag för utveckling av mobila tjänster.http://nrs.s2.chalmers.se

Knowing and the art of IT management : an inquiry into work practices in one-stop shops

New information technology is developing faster than the models, metaphors and methods in use for conceptualizing the sharing and managing of information in organizations, in communities and in society in general. The way we utilize information technology today does not seem to succeed in supporting the everyday work practices through which organizations accomplish their work. In this PhD dissertation, the results of a research project about skill, cooperation and computer support in public service one-stop shops are presented and discussed. Based on these results, alternative metaphors are presented for understanding the constructive aspects of front office work practices, One hypothesis is, that there is added value in not only being aware of multiperspectivity as an issue, but of making use of it in design. A problem here is that many traditional research methods, as well as most methods for systems development, are designed to diminish rather than make use of ambiguity and diversity. The metaphor of inverted indexicality of language is introduced in order to conceptualize the construction of meaning in action. New ways of conceptualizing IT management on the shop floor - including design issues - are proposed. Metaphors like the art of IT management, gardening and caring for are indicative of the issues at stake.This book is for sale! The Hardcopy-version of this thesis is available for 200 SEK, not including postage. Please contact the author if you are interested! mailto:[email protected]</p

Who Needs Accountability?

During the twenty-some years since ethnographic field studies in the workplace first began to be taken seriously as having possible relevance for the design of information technology, accountability has been one of the recurring concepts in the literature exploring these areas. Like usability and actability, accountability sounds like an important issue but proves a difficult feature to define. Of what exactly is it an attribute? Who defines it? For whom? Under what conditions? In this paper, I explore and compare a few of the various uses of the concept of accountability that I have come across in ethnomethodological and CSCW literature. In the third section, I tentatively indicate what focusing on accountability, in one or several different interpretations of the concept, might imply for design of IT in some specific cases. These brief and sketchy examples, aiming to be thought-provoking rather than analytically thought-through and articulated, are selected from recent development projects and on-going research work with which I have been involved or come in contact

Final report from the research project Design of IT in use : supportive technologies for services to the citizens (DitA)

Final report from the research project Design of IT in use - supportive technologies for services to the citizens (DitA), submitted to the funding organization VINNOVA March 31st 2003. Brief summary and history of the project, list of publications and list of other forms of information- and experience-sharing about the project.Slutrapport för utvecklingsprojektet Design av IT i användning - teknikstöd för medborgarservice (DitA), inlämnad till VINNOVA (finansiär) 2003-03-31. Kort sammanfattning och historik om projektet, publikationslista och lista över andra kunskapsspridande aktiviteter med koppling till projektet.More about the project at http://www.iar.bth.se/forskning/arbv/dita/index.ht

Knowing and the art of IT management: an inquiry into work practices in one-stop shops

New information technology is developing faster than the models, metaphors and methods in use for conceptualizing the sharing and managing of information in organizations, in communities and in society in general. The way we utilize information technology today does not seem to succeed in supporting the everyday work practices through which organizations accomplish their work. In this PhD dissertation, the results of a research project about skill, cooperation and computer support in public service one-stop shops are presented and discussed. Based on these results, alternative metaphors are presented for understanding the constructive aspects of front office work practices, One hypothesis is, that there is added value in not only being aware of multiperspectivity as an issue, but of making use of it in design. A problem here is that many traditional research methods, as well as most methods for systems development, are designed to diminish rather than make use of ambiguity and diversity. The metaphor of inverted indexicality of language is introduced in order to conceptualize the construction of meaning in action. New ways of conceptualizing IT management on the shop floor - including design issues - are proposed. Metaphors like the art of IT management, gardening and caring for are indicative of the issues at stake