Instant messaging requests in connected organizations: ‘Quick questions’ and the moral economy of contribution

In this article we study the work and communication practices of two highly connected organizations, the members of which have all access to instant messaging (IM) on a professional basis. We document the development of a communicational genre, that of ‘quick questions’, and analyze the sequence organization of such IM conversation threads. We show how ‘quick questions’ enable the collaborative accomplishment of complex, knowledge-intensive tasks by recruiting colleagues constituted as experts capable of quickly answering information requests related to ongoing tasks. ‘Quick questions’ articulate communicative practices, ‘strong’ distribution of tasks and ‘organizing’ in highly connected organizations. We argue that they enact a distinctive cognitive and moral economy based on minimal forms of interaction and exchanges (which we call ‘contributions’), constituting a more general phenomenon.

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