Spinuzzi network-5

How to improve information flow in organizations (c) 2011 Clay Spinuzzi

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How are Networks Enacted?

Clay [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]


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Value

• Understand how sociotechnical networks allow us to examine work coordination and organization.

• Understand how a sociotechnical network analysis can complement networked organizations.

• Understand and use three aspects of text: inscriptions, genres, and boundary objects.

• Model instances of net work using three heuristics.


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THE TEAM-UP


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THEORY TEAM-UPFEATURING

AND

ACTOR-NETWORK THEORY


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A shift in work

• Modular work: “The understanding of work grounded in the Industrial Revolution… [dividing] labor progressively across space and time.” (p.136)

• Net work: “The coordinative work that weaves and splices divergent work activities and that enables the standing sets of transformations that characterize such work.” (p.135)


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MODULAR WORK


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Characteristics of Modular Work

• Long-term or lifelong jobs

• Steady contacts with other organizations and public

• Linear development of expertise

• Clearly defined roles• Vertical expertise• Organizational,

disciplinary, trade boundaries

• Interior vs. exterior


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NET WORK


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Net Work

• Net work: “The coordinative work that weaves and splices divergent work activities and that enables the standing sets of transformations that characterize such work.” (p.135)


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Characteristics of Net Work

• Downsizing• Automation• Flattening of work

hierarchies• Proliferating

intercompany relationships

• Continual reorganization

• Breaking down of “silos”/ “stovepipes”

• Increase in telecommunications, making it possible to connect any two points in the organization


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Standing Sets of Transformations


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In Net Work…

• Negotiation becomes an essential skill• Trust becomes an ongoing project• Organizations become looser aggregations• Rhetoric becomes an essential area of

expertise.


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“Interpenetrated”

• Anyone can link up with anyone else inside or outside the organization, so any work activities can be intersected.


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THREE SENSES OF TEXTS


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Three Senses of Texts

• Inscriptions• Genres• Boundary Objects


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Inscriptions

• Concrete traces that represent phenomena in stable, circulable ways

• By representing a phenomenon, we can dominate it

• “Relatively immutable media that resist transport”

• Create realities


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Genres

• Types of inscriptions• Relatively stable, developing• Woven to respond to recurrent situations• Spliced to adapt to local conditions and

intersecting activities.• Connected in assemblages (genre ecologies)


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Boundary Objects

• Star & Griesemer: “objects which are both plastic enough to adapt to local needs and the constraints of the several parties employing them, yet robust enough to maintain a constant identity across sites”

• Material links between activities (bridges)• Functionally different in different activities• Often texts – and text assemblages (genre

ecologies)


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So texts …

• Are inscriptions that represent phenomena• Belong to genres that construct relatively

stable relationships• Function as boundary objects that bridge

activities


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FOUR CASES OF NET WORK


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CASE 1: FOLLOWING AN ORDER


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In this case

• Stable genres wove together different functional groups.

• Texts codeveloped because they had to circulate as a whole.

• Stable boundary objects spliced together different temporalities and activities.


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Communicative Event Model


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Communicative Event Model


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CASE 2: FOLLOWING THE MONEY


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Cash Posting: Coordinating Texts


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Cash Posting: Transferring Texts


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Credits & Collections: Coordinating Texts


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Credits & Collections: Transferring Texts


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Specialized Languages

• “Everybody interprets things differently”• “Trying to shorten your 20-minute

conversation into 10 words is kind of difficult”


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Genre Ecology Model


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Genre Ecology Model


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CASE 3: FOLLOWING THE SUBSTITUTIONS


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Sociotechnical Graphs

• Assemblages of humans and nonhumans• Syntagm: Associative (AND)• Paradigm: Substitutive (OR)


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A Basic Set of Resources at the NOC

F1 notes, email, “winpops,” phone lists, list of worker's active tickets


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Substitutions at the NOC


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Substitutions and Splicing

“Every worker can now bring new genres into the ecology, hybridize these genres, and seek new relationships among them.” (p.167)


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An STG for One InstancePrepare for call Contact customer to

discuss billRecord notes on call

Arnold: field notes collections list, annotations on collections list, database screen for customer, database screen for customer's collections information

Phone call to customer, collections list, database screen for customer's collections information

database screen for customer's collections information, fax cover sheet, sticky note, collections list

Arnold: interview collections list, annotations on collections list, bankruptcy notices, spiral notebook, phone calls from coworkers

Bills, phone call to customer

collections list, annotations to collections list, database notes, database screen for customer


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An STG Across ParticipantsPrepare for call Contact customer and


Arnold collections list, annotations on collections list, database screen for customer, database screen for customer's collections information, bankruptcy notices, spiral notebook, phone calls from coworkers

Phone call to customer, collections list, database screen for customer's collections information, bills

database screen for customer's collections information, fax cover sheet, sticky note, collections list, annotations to collections list, database notes, database screen for customer

Bill database screen for customer's collections information, fax cover sheet, sticky note, collections list, annotations to collections list, database notes, database screen for customer

Phone call to customer, collections list, database screen for customer's collections information, bills, spiral notebook of call log

database screen for customer's collections information, collections list, annotations to collections list, phone call to supervisor

Clara collections list, annotations on collections list, database screen for customer, database screen for customer's collections information, log of previous customer interactions

Phone call to customer, collections list, database screen for customer's collections information, log of previous customer interactions

database screen for customer's collections information, collections list, annotations to collections list, log of previous customer interactions


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An STG Across GroupsPrepare for call Contact customer and


Group A collections list, annotations on collections list, database screen for customer, database screen for customer's collections information, bankruptcy notices, spiral notebook, phone calls from coworkers



Group B collections list, customer folder with contact information and last bill

Phone call to customer, customer folder with contact information and last bill, calendar

customer folder with contact information and last bill, Word template, email


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… And Detecting DiscoordinationsPrepare for call Contact customer and


Group A collections list, annotations on collections list, database screen for customer, database screen for customer's collections information, bankruptcy notices, spiral notebook, phone calls from coworkers



Group B collections list, customer folder with contact information and last bill

Phone call to customer, customer folder with contact information and last bill, calendar

customer folder with contact information and last bill, Word template, email


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CASE 4: FOLLOWING THE WORKERS


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At Telecorp, workers…

• Circulate in quickly• Circulate through quickly• Circulate out quickly• Circulate among telecommunications

companies


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“She Must Have Been on Crack Yesterday!”

• Susan: Data entry trainee• Called by former coworker• Still answering questions about former job

after two weeks• [Networks can always be reconstituted.]


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Changing the “Lingo”

• Ricardo: Supervisor at CLEC switch• Used one social language for dialer techs

across organizations• Learned other social languages for

communicating with other functional groups• [Networks learn multidimensionally.]


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Social Languages

Made up of• Terms• Concepts

Embed• Expertise• Activities• Kinds of work


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APPLYING THE HEURISTICS TO SOCIAL MEDIA

CEMs, GEMs, STGs


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Genre Ecology Models & Social Media


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Communicative Event Models and Social Media


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Sociotechnical Graphs and Social Media

Negotiate Draft Post

Alice LinkedIn, phone call, contact list, old resume

LinkedIn, email, printout, Word document

LinkedIn, email, Word document

Ben LinkedIn, face-to-face conversation, contact list, calendar

LinkedIn, email, printout with annotations, face-to-face conversation, copies of previous work

LinkedIn, email

Charla LinkedIn, Instant Messaging, contact list, copies of previous work

LinkedIn, email, printout, Word document, old projects in project management software, archived emails



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Negotiate Draft PostExperienced workers

LinkedIn, phone call, contact list, old resume



Students LinkedIn, face-to-face conversation, contact list, calendar


LinkedIn, email


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Negotiate Draft PostExperienced workers

LinkedIn, phone call, contact list, old resume



Students LinkedIn, face-to-face conversation, contact list, calendar


LinkedIn, email


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Exercise: CEMs

Identify a sequence• Base it on evidence (observations, interviews,

artifacts, analytics, etc.)• Describe it as a sequence of communicative

handoffs• Note discoordinations and error handling


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Exercise: GEMs

Using the same data, generate (or look at) a genre ecology (resources)• Base it on evidence (observations, interviews,

artifacts, analytics, etc.)• Describe it as an interconnected set of

resources• Note discoordinations


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Exercise: STGs

• Identify the minimum set of resources in common for a sequence

• Identify common substitutions for standard texts (e.g., an electronic document for a printout; yelling across the room instead of winpops)

• Attempt to detect differences among groups


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Takeaways

• Understand how sociotechnical networks allow us to examine work coordination and organization.

• Understand how a sociotechnical networks analysis can complement networked organizations.

• Understand and use three aspects of text: inscriptions, genres, and boundary objects.

• Model instances of net work using three heuristics: CEMs, GEMs, and STGs.

Spinuzzi network-5

Education

clay spinuzzi

organizations anddisciplinary

work modular work

net work net work

ongoing project organizations

characteristics of net

net work negotiation

coordinative work thatweaves