2012 JCU - BU4062 Tutorial Presentation on Case and Pineiro's Article

Aesthetics, performativity and resistance in the

narratives of a computer programming community

Peter Case and Erik PiñeiroPresented by Freddy Liu

Articles

Case, P., & Erik Piñeiro. (2006).

Aesthetics, performativity and resistance in the

narratives of a computer programming community.

Human Relations, 59(6), 753-782.

Jemielniak, D. (2008). Software engineers or artists?

programmers identity choices. Tamara Journal of

Critical Organisation Inquiry, 7(1), 21-37.

Barrett, R. (2004). Working at Webboyz: An Analysis

of Control Over the Software Development Labour

Process. Sociology, 38(4), 777-794. doi:

10.1177/0038038504045864

Issues of interest – Case and Piñeiro

1. The face work that programmers do in their

narrative exchanges.

2. The themes of programmer and commercial

performativity in the online exchanges.

3. The articulation of resistance and subversive

intent among the online community of

programmers.

4. The studied participants consisted of

programmers, assumed to be non-managerial

employees.

Issues of interest – Jemielniak

1. The perception and assignment of programmers as belonging to the field of engineering and the resultant tension between programmers and managers.

2. The metaphor of programming as art that emerged from the views expressed by interview participants.

3. The organisational reluctance to the aesthetical vocabulary of programmers.

4. The studied participants consisted of employees and employers of software development companies.

Issues of interest – Barrett

1. General lack of understanding about the process

of developing software and how management

constructs strategies to control the labour process.

2. How managers exercise technical autonomy, time

autonomy and direct control towards

programmers.

3. The recognition of employment trade-offs from

both management and programmers.

4. The studied participants consisted of employees

and employers of a software development

company.

Theories – Case and Piñeiro

1. There is a significant amount of face work that

programmers undertake when participating in the

online community of Slashdot.

2. Programmer narratives simultaneously enact

technical, ethical and aesthetic motives.

3. By expressing and conforming to a „hacker ethic‟

in the programmer narratives, there is resistance

and subversive intent expressed toward

representatives of employers and employing

organisations.

Theories – Jemielniak

1. There are conflicting occupational identities preferred by managers of programmers and the programmers themselves.

2. The artist identity enacted by the programmers was due to the role of creativity in writing software and when describing the characteristics of a good programmer.

3. The engineering identity enacted by management serves a crucial managerial function to allow for easier control. By calling software creators engineers, organizations justify their inter-changeability and imply standardization of this occupation.

Theories – Barrett

1. That control of the labour process in software

development required management to balance

employee autonomy and getting profitable work

done by the deadline.

2. For programmers, their identity needs conflict with

the necessity of profitability by management and

that autonomy was limited to the use of their skills

and their time.

3. There is an interdependent nature of balancing

management‟s need for control and programmers‟

need for intrinsically valuable work.

Data Description – Case and PiñeiroSecondary data (only used to establish the context): US: 2004 Computerworld Survey 15 non-managerial IT jobs, average salary $40.3k to $91k USD

UK: 2003 Computer Economics Survey & National Computing Centre Survey 15/10 non-managerial IT jobs, average salary £17.3k to £40.1k

GBP

Primary Data: Narrative data collected from 12-month observation of

Slashdot, approximately 200 participants.

Limitations: Covert netnography does not reveal any specific

information about participants.

Used cyberculture literature to validate observations.

Region: Participants assumed to be from US, specific

demographics not known.

Data Description – JemielniakPrimary data:

Open-ended, unstructured interviews.

Each interview 40-50 minutes.

Conducted in 3 Polish and 2 US IT companies.

Total of 56 programmers and 4 managers participated.

Limitations:

Interviews very dependent on the interviewees.

No standard questions were asked, so no demographic or

occupational data collected.

Region:

Poland and US, all the companies developed software for

the corporate market (banks, airports, etc.)

Data Description – Barrett Primary data:

Semi-structured interviews, presented as case study.

13 interviews with programmers and managers.

Australian software company “Webboyz”.

Core questions were concerned with employee backgrounds, their work, expectations and management.

Managers were asked more specific questions regarding their management area.

6 programmers, 1 project manager, MD, GM, FM, CEO. (CEO was interviewed 3 times)

Limitations:

Instability of the firm at the time of research (Dec 1998, height of the dot-com bubble).

Just downsized from 50 employees, previously from 130.

Region:

Australia, company was listed on the ASX at the time.

Analytical Method – Case and Piñeiro Narrative analysis procedure of observation, content analysis &

interpretation.

First observation:

Amount of face work participants undergo.

Analysed with cyberculture theories by Turkle (1995), possible for

users to create several online identities („postmodernist simulation

aesthetic‟).

First observation not consistent with theory as participants were

unlikely to form an artificial identity, but provided context for

analysis of „hacker ethic‟ since participants had a clear motive to

develop a „techie‟ identity.

Analytical Method – Case and Piñeiro (cont.) Second observation:

Programmers exhibited an interest in the art of programming that

transcends the simple functionality of the software projects they

work on.

Lead to frequent articulation of resistance and subversive intent

expressed toward representatives of employers and employing

organisations. Programmers were aware of organisation control

and demands and felt this compromised their artistic endeavours.

Analysed according to notions of „performativity‟, defined as

situations where „saying something was doing something‟, rather

than simply reporting on or describing reality. (Austin, 1976;

Butler, 1990, 1993; Derrida, 1977; Searle, 1977)

Analytical Method – Case and Piñeiro (cont.) Resistance toward representatives of employers and

employing organisations was interpreted according to

performativity in the commercial context.

Lyotard (1984) emphasised that in post-industrial societies

advanced by information-driven technologies, the search for

„truth‟ is replaced by the search for „efficient‟. This was termed

as the „Principle of Optimal Performance‟ where more output

for less input is emphasised.

Both observations were reinforced with Himanen‟s (2001)

studies of „hacker ethics‟

Analytical Method – Jemielniak Informal, open-ended and unstructured interviews were used

with emphasis on storytelling and narratives of organisational

life.

First observed theme consistent with Case and Piñeiro, where

programmers often describing their work using the vocabulary

and metaphors of art, not that of engineering which was the

commonly accepted perception.

Second observed theme was how the artistic identity of

programmers was affected by the engineering identity imposed

by managers.

One on occasion, a manager said,

“You know, I don’t really want to have people who go into

a creative trance and come out with a piece of excellent

code nobody else can understand.”

Analytical Method – Jemielniak (cont.) Jemielniak interpreted both observed themes using literature

on art and management theories to evaluate the proposition of

programming as art and to explain the conflicting identities.

Artist identity was valid using Osborne‟s (1981) literature:

“whatever among artefacts is capable of arousing and

sustaining aesthetic experience in suitably prepared

subjects we call a work of art”.

Commonly accepted perception of the „engineering‟ label used

by managers compared with Boje & Winsor‟s (1993)

studies, where TQM was criticised and the interests of workers

trivialised in relation to the commercial performativity

requirements of the firm. (Lyotard, 1984)

Analytical Method – Barrett The firm‟s history and strategic changes used to establish the

context of study.

Webboyz started in 1994 with sole purpose of producing

software for individuals, strategic shift took place in 1997 to sell

e-commerce software for business. (Common for most

software companies in the midst of the dot-com bubble)

Changes saw recruitment of senior managers, the internet-

related social identity created by general media was perceived

as positive for programmers.

Main observation was that one of the firm‟s most successful

products were developed using the same hacker ethic

described by Case and Piñeiro. These were primary products

(word processing packages, operating systems, etc.) and the

development process is artistic.

Analytical Method – Barrett (cont.) The products were developed by not only the programmers at

Webboyz, but were also tested on the internet by other hackers. Hackers that tested the software could make suggestions and was rewarded with t-shirt, acknowledgment, and free copy of the software. Programmers at Webboyz would be rewarded with an age-appropriate electronic toy (eg. PlayStation).

Practice conformed with „hacker ethics‟ of information sharing, but caused organisational chaos as too many programmers were doing their own thing. This lead to analysis of how management constructed control by comparing managers‟ interviews with theories of job autonomy.

Management exercised technical autonomy, time autonomy and direct autonomy, using previous studies, Barrett asserts that such strategies were enabled by the employee‟s social and work identity.

Used by management to justify their ability to pay low wages.Interviews with programmers also showed that the appeal for many, if not all the programmers at the firm, was the lifestyle and work-environment factors, not the salary.

Key Findings – Case and Piñeiro Case and Piñeiro‟s findings were interconnected with issues of

aesthetics, resistance, and identity.

Programmers interacting online in the Slashdot community were

found to be engaging in performative acts with their

interactions, these interactions were classified as performative

acts or enacted narratives.

The discussions about coding on part of the programmers

enable them to enact identity and membership to a social

group, through expressions of aesthetic preference and

espousals of resistance and subversion.

Programmers frequently expressed an interest in and personally

valued the aesthetics of their work. While utility of code is a

public or commercial demand, the beauty of the code is a

personal preoccupation that found a voice in the highly social

context of online exchanges.

Key Findings – Case and Piñeiro (cont.) The resistance was found to be a fundamental conflict between

programmers and their managers. Commercial performativity

inevitably constrained the pursuit of programming art because

the instrumental value of meeting project deadlines and staying

within budget is the primary concern for management.

This finding was briefly compared to notions of deskilling the

programming labour and the employment relationship within

capitalist organisations, where knowledge is assessed

economically according to its exchange-value,

Narratives exhibited by programmers through the pursuit of

maintaining a hacker ethic were ideological in nature, and is the

equivalent of Terry Eagleton‟s (2003) notion that because

literature and art have no obvious material payoff, they tend to

attract those who look askance at capitalist notions of utility.

Key Findings – Jemielniak The findings were related to the issues of management and

occupational identity.

Significant number of interviewees did some programming at home.

They did this at home for the mere satisfaction of creation and

fun, something they could not do at work because the creations would

not be seen as useful in the organisational context.

This is quite common in artistic vocations therefore Jemielniak

suggests that this finding of „hobbyist programming‟ made the

perception of software creation in terms of being an artist more viable.

By labelling programmers as engineers by the managers involved in

the interview, could be interpreted as the personification of

administrative power. Consistent with Bauman (1992/98): Individuality

is inevitably the primary enemy for any organisation.

Key Findings – Jemielniak (cont.)

Taylorism, Foucault (1977): in manual labour, the strict observation of

physical movements suffices to achieve satisfactory results, implying

that a person is but a substitute for a machine, but in this case, the

disciplinary power of the organisation over its employees goes well

beyond just the control of the body to the mind.

Terry Eagleton‟s (2003) notion that because literature and art have no

obvious material payoff, they tend to attract those who look askance at

capitalist notions of utility.

Philip Kraft (1977):

“in some cases, managers use the engineering professionalization

ethos to impose their own created standards of work on the

programmers and increase control over them.

Denying the artistic role of the programmers and identifying them with

standard-educated engineers further makes them believe that they are

more easily replaceable.”

Key Findings – Barrett Management used direct control, programmers were still able to manage

their time. Storey‟s (1985) layers of control were also evident as

developers incorporated user suggestions into product wherever possible.

Use of direct control was counter-productive where creativity was

required, as is the case for Webboyz as primary software products were

more similar to art.

Time autonomy was also implemented, programmers were allowed to

allocate how they used their working time, they were allowed to work from

home or arrive late. This was found to be effective as it appealed to

programmers.

Combination of direct control and time/task autonomy was preferred by

management and programmers, while management could‟ve increased

profitability, programmer would have left.

Management and employees were aware of the low salary (approx $45k

AUD). Employees valued intrinsically interesting work more than pay and

management‟s different control strategies will vary over time and that there

is no „one best way‟.

Common Features All articles were concerned with computer programmers, analysis was from

different perspectives. (Programmer, organisation, or both)

Case and Piñeiro: insight into cyberculture, identified most common themes in

narratives: aesthetics and managerial resistance. Article focused solely on

programmers, not much is known about the actual participants.

Jemielniak: similar observations, context was under an organisational

setting, management identified programmers as „engineers‟, programmers

identified themselves as „artists‟. Narratives from both were compared to

management literature to understand the cause of conflict.

Barrett: more emphasis was placed on management balancing getting work

done and managing autonomy. Intrinsically challenging and artistic nature of

programming mean a combination of control and autonomies had to be used.

Focus on Programmer

Case, P. & Piñeiro, E.

(2006)

Focus on organisation

Barrett, R.

Focus on both

Jemielniak, D.

Case, P. & Piñeiro, E.

(2009)

Questions

1. From what you‟ve seen during this

presentation, which of the 3 articles did you

feel helped your understanding of

programming as a profession? And did the

methodology of that article affect your choice?

2. All 3 articles used qualitative data that was

compared to various literature, would

quantitative data be of any use?