Research

My work explores the organizational implications of information systems by focusing on the organization, creation and use of documents in distributed work environments where people’s daily practices are characterized by high mobility.

As organizations become more global and distributed, organizational life increasingly depends on the involvement of those who are distant in time and space. The organization, creation and use of documents serve as a way to “capture” and “stand for” the interests and work of others.  However, there has been little research articulating the temporal and spatial dimensions of organizational members’ daily use of information systems and documents. There is also a lack of detailed empirical investigations of everyday practices involved in the organization, creation and use of documents in organizations, encompassing both electronic and paper-based information sources.  As such, my work pivots on the question:

“How does the use of documents support and constrain organizational members’ ability to manage their ongoing collaboration and movement across multiple locales?”

My research focuses on the practices that go into documenting work. I refer to these as “documenting practices,” and include in this category the activity of capturing knowledge in any media whether paper-based, electronic or wall-mounted. In doing so, I hope to complement research in the information systems field which has favored notions of information and information processing at the expense of document research, specifically the role that documenting practices play in the organization, creation and use of information. Studies of tangible documenting practices allow me to articulate the temporal and spatial dimensions of distributed and mobile work in organizational settings. In short, my research explores the question:

“How do people use documents to manage their movements and interactions in time and space?”

My research agenda can be framed as 3 interrelated and cumulative imperatives: 

  • First, we must understand how people are distributed in space and how they organize their practices in regard to specific locals and settings.
  • Second, one can bring this static perspective to life by adding a temporal dimension. This allows us to understand how people organize their movements in space over time.
  • Finally, with a basic understanding of how people organize their daily work practices in space over time we can start exploring how documents facilitate and constrain those daily movements and interaction.

I am also in the early stages of a new research stream studying indoor positioning systems in healthcare settings. Such tracking systems raise interesting questions about the role of documents in ubiquitous computing, in general, but also about the temporal and spatial organization of work in healthcare and beyond.