collaboration
This final part looks at both conceptual and practical developments in work innovations intended to overcome spatial and organisational constraints. In Chapter 8 by Nic Beech, George Cairns and Gerry Kincaid, the focus is on the role of ICTs in supporting learning across physical and social barriers. The authors seek to overcome the common dichotomies in approaches to know- ledge management, such as between tacit and explicit, and individual and shared knowledge. They note that while much attention has been paid to the psychological context of knowledge and meaning generation, little considera- tion has been given to the physicallearning setting. They note, moreover, that a general split has occurred in the management literature between discussion of the social and physical environments of work. One consequence of this has been an under-assessment of the role that workplace design plays in terms of the generation and dissemination of knowledge.
The authors seek to overcome these dichotomies by considering the
‘psycho-physiology’ of knowledge generation, dissemination and management through a case study of CELT, a general medical practitioner tool that supports self-directed learning. They illustrate the way the tool addresses a number of design issues that transcend traditional physical and knowledge management boundaries and discuss the way it helps to formalise certain learning processes. They also analyse issues related to the emotional aspects of learning and knowledge-generation, and link this to an understanding of ‘private versus public’ learning encounters.
The authors conclude that support for knowledge management processes must address both rational and emotional aspects of learning and take account of psychological as well as physical aspects of learning processes. A support- ing environment in all these areas is needed, with the aim being to transcend the key dichotomies that dominate debate and development of knowledge management and learning systems.
Chapter 9 by Birger Rapp and Pauline Ärlebäck investigates developments in videoconferences in Swedish companies. Videoconferences, they note, were one of the big promises of modern ICT for the future workplace. After 20 to
40 years of experience with them, we must now admit that they were at least not the panacea expected for group communication over distance.
In their chapter, Rapp and Ärlebäck study videoconferencing usage in four- teen big Swedish organisations. In such cases one might expect to see wide application of videoconferencing, given Sweden’s strong position in telecom- munications, the innovativeness of local companies and the country’s long dis- tances. The results show, however, that little videoconferencing is actually used, and when it is, focus tends to be on intra-firm communication. Reasons for low usage can be put down to bad user interfaces, unreliability of the media, and the poor reputation engendered by such experiences, even though quality may well have improved in recent years.
An important contribution is made in the chapter by introducing the reader to media richness theory. The richer the media, and the greater the amount of information it can carry, the more complex the communication that can be developed through it. Seen in this light, they note, videoconferences should actually be the richest media available after personal meetings.
The authors conclude by developing the hypothesis that videoconferences work best when they support the running of routine meetings. This may also explain why they are mainly used for intra-organisational communication. The authors argue that the ‘premature’ implementation of videoconferences might lead to a permanent rejection of the technology. Indeed, this might already have happened in many cases. It is therefore suggested that videoconferences should be first introduced after users have first got to know each other through personal meetings. Once these basic issues are in order, successful implemen- tation of videoconferencing is more likely, with the success of the technology being measured in the saving of time and effort it produces, particularly in terms of travel.
The book concludes with a chapter by Pertti Järvinen. He draws in this on his extensive and deep knowledge of research methodologies. Through use of examples, he shows how a series of research approaches can be utilised by researchers in eBusiness and new ways of working. Järvinen differentiates between ‘reality-studying’ and mathematical approaches. Mathematical approaches work on sets of symbols and do not need an absolute connection to
‘reality’. However, more emphasis is placed in the chapter on approaches con- cerned with studying reality. These are divided into ‘reality describing’ and
‘reality changing’ approaches—some might call these descriptive and norm- ative modes.
In the reality-changing approaches, innovation takes centre-stage. This is well in line with our search for new working methods, with analysis paid to innovations at different levels. Järvinen notes that research on the utility of innovations focuses either on building innovations or evaluating them post- implementation. In theoretical approaches, which themselves are another object of research work, Järvinen argues that sound logic and an ability to
describe reality are typically more important than utility value. Empirical studies, he shows, fall into two camps: theory-testing and theory-creating. In addition, empirical phenomena can also be grasped on a conceptual-analytical basis, which differ from the pure mathematical approaches because of their orientation towards reality.
The chapter reminds us that researchers and practitioners in the general field of eBusiness and virtual working must master a wide variety of research approaches, as well as being appraised of the fundamental methodologies and epistemologies that underpin their work. Järvinen’s review of Mowshowitz’s virtual organisation characteristics also reminds us of an important fact: virtual- ity and its application has already been a traditional research object for hard computer science for some time; but for modern technologies, it represents a central practical and conceptual development, manifested in a variety of ways.
It is now the task of work and organisational researchers to make virtual and electronic work concepts widely used and accepted, as commonplace in organi- sational studies as they are in computer science and related fields.