Evolving Information Ecologies: The Appropriation of New Media in Organizations

This chapter examines how people in organizations appropriate new computer-based media, that is, how they adopt, reconfigure, and integrate advanced communication technologies such as groupware or desktop conferencing systems into their work practice. The chapter presents and analyzes findings from an in-depth field study of the adoption and use of a Web-based groupware application—a “virtual workspace”—in a large multinational firm. The analysis focuses, in particular, on the fact that people in modern organizations have plenty of media at their disposal and often combine old and new media to accomplish their work tasks. Furthermore, it highlights the crucial role of organizational communication genres in shaping how people adopt and use new media. The authors argue that understanding and facilitating the process of appropriation is the key to the successful introduction of new media in organizations.

[1]  R. Kraut,et al.  Varieties of Social Influence: the Role of Utility and Norms in the Success of a New Communication Medium , 1998 .

[2]  Michael D. Myers,et al.  Qualitative Research in Information Systems , 1997, MIS Q..

[3]  Peter Tandler,et al.  Supporting Synchronous Collaboration with Heterogeneous Devices , 2008, Int. J. e Collab..

[4]  Bonnie A. Nardi,et al.  Gardeners and gurus: patterns of cooperation among CAD users , 1992, CHI.

[5]  E. Guba,et al.  Competing paradigms in qualitative research. , 1994 .

[6]  D. Norman.  The psychology of everyday things , 1990 .

[7]  Paul Dourish,et al.  The Appropriation of Interactive Technologies: Some Lessons from Placeless Documents , 2003, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

[8]  Dixi Louise Strand.  Incompleteness and Unpredictability of Networked Communications in Use , 2007 .

[9]  Bonnie A. Nardi,et al.  Information Ecologies: Using Technology with Heart , 1999 .

[10]  JoAnne Yates,et al.  Community-based interpretive schemes: exploring the use of cyber meetings within a global organization , 2002, Proceedings of the 35th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[11]  J. J. Gibson.  The theory of affordances , 1977 .

[12]  W. Orlikowski,et al.  Explicit and Implicit Structuring of Genres in Electronic Communication: Reinforcement and Change of Social Interaction , 1999 .

[13]  Jane Fedorowicz,et al.  Creativity, Innovation, and E-Collaboration , 2008, Int. J. e Collab..

[14]  Dorothy E. Leidner,et al.  The Role of Culture in Knowledge Management: A Case Study of Two Global Firms , 2006, Int. J. e Collab..

[15]  A. Grimshaw,et al.  Genres, Registers, and Contexts of Discourse , 2003 .

[16]  Michael T. Turvey,et al.  The ecological approach to perception , 2002 .

[17]  W. Orlikowski,et al.  Genre Systems: Structuring Interaction through Communicative Norms , 2002 .

[18]  Hanne Westh Nicolajsen,et al.  Towards Variation Or Uniformity? Comparing Technology-use Mediations Of Web-based Groupware , 2002, ECIS.

[19]  Jorgen P. Bansler,et al.  Sensemaking in Technology-Use Mediation: Adapting Groupware Technology in Organizations , 2006, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

[20]  Gloria Mark,et al.  Conventions and Commitments in Distributed CSCW Groups , 2002, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

[21]  JoAnne Yates,et al.  Shaping Electronic Communication: The Metastructuring of Technology in the Context of Use , 1995 .

[22]  I. Hutchby.  Technologies, Texts and Affordances , 2001 .

[23]  Rens Scheepers,et al.  Configuring Web-based Support for Dispersed Project Groups , 2002 .

[24]  C. Ciborra.  Introduction: what does groupware mean for the organizations hosting it? , 1997 .

[25]  Kevin Crowston,et al.  Reproduced and Emergent Genres of Communication on the World Wide Web , 2000, Inf. Soc..

[26]  Steve Whittaker,et al.  Theories and methods in mediated communication , 2003 .

[27]  Michael D. Myers,et al.  A Set of Principles for Conducting and Evaluating Interpretive Field Studies in Information Systems , 1999, MIS Q..

[28]  Jonathan Grudin,et al.  Meeting at the desktop: An empirical study of virtually collocated teams , 1999, ECSCW.

[29]  W. Orlikowski,et al.  Genre Repertoire: The Structuring of Communicative Practices in Organizations , 1994 .

[30]  W. Orlikowski,et al.  Genres of Organizational Communication: A Structurational Approach to Studying Communication and Media , 1992 .

[31]  Ojelanki K. Ngwenyama,et al.  Groupware, social action and organizational emergence: On the process dynamics of computer mediated distributed work , 1998 .

[32]  Geoff Walsham,et al.  Interpretive case studies in IS research: nature and method , 1995 .