Article

Free access

Working with “constant interruption”: CSCW and the small office

Authors:

Mark Rouncefield,

John A. Hughes,

Tom Rodden, and

Stephen VillerAuthors Info & Claims

CSCW '94: Proceedings of the 1994 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work

October 1994

Pages 275 - 286

https://doi.org/10.1145/192844.193028

Published: 22 October 1994 Publication History

Abstract

Ethnographic studies of CSCW have often seemed to involve the investigation of relatively large-scale and highly specific systems, consequently ignoring the small office within which many people spend much of their working lives and which is a major site for the introduction and implementation of IT. This paper is concerned with a “quick and dirty” ethnographic study of a small office that was considering the introduction of greater levels of IT. Generic features of office work are outlined: the process of work in a small office and its recurrent features, notably the massive volume of paperwork; the importance of local knowledge in the accomplishment of work; and the phenomenon of “constant interruption.” This paper suggests that despite the obvious contrasts with work settings analysed in other ethnographic studies, similar features of cooperative work can be observed in the small office. It further suggests that the issues of cooperation and the sociality of work cannot be ignored even in small-scale system design.

References

[1]

Ackroyd, S., Harper, R., Hughes, J.A., Shapiro, D., and Soothill, K. New Technology and Practical Police Work. Milton Keynes, UK, Open University Press, 1992.

Digital Library

[2]

Anderson, R.J., Hughes, J.A., and Sharrock, W. Working for Profit: The Social Organisation of Calculation in an Entrepreneurial Firm. Avebury, Aldershot, 1989.

[3]

Anderson, R., and Sharrock, W.W. Can organisations afford knowledge? Computer Supported Cooperative Work 1, 3 (1993), 143-162.

[4]

Bannon, L. From human factors to human actors: the role of psychology and human-computer interaction studies in systems design. In j. Greenbaum and M. Kyng (Eds.) Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ, 1991.

Digital Library

[5]

Bentley, R., Hughes, J., Randall, D., Rodden, T., Sawyer, P., Shapiro, D., and Sommerville, i. Ethnographically informed systems design for air traffic control. In Proceeding of CSCW'92 (Toronto), ACM press, 1992.

Digital Library

[6]

Ellis, C.A. Formal and informal models of office activity. In R.E.A. Mason (Ed.) Proceedings of Information Processing 83. The 9th IFIP World Computer Congress. North-Hollan, Pads, 1983, pp. 11-22.

[7]

Gibson, J.J. The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1979.

[8]

Green, W., Owen, J., and Pain, D. (Eds.) Gendered by Design? information Technology and Office Systems. Taylor and Francis, London.

Digital Library

[9]

Grudin, J. Why groupware applications fail: problems in design and evaluation. Office" Technology and People 4, 3(1989), 245-264.

[10]

Hughes, J.A., and King, V. Paperwork, Working Paper, COMIC-LANCS-4-1, Computing Department, Lancaster University, LA1 4YR, UK. 1992.

[11]

Hughes, J.A., King, V., Rodden, T., and Andersen, H. Moving out of the control room: ethnography in system design. CSCW'94 forthcoming.

Digital Library

[12]

King, V., and Hughes, J.A. If all the World's a Stage, is Paperwork the Script?. Working Paper, COMIC- LANCS-4-6, Computing Department, Lancaster University, LA1 4YR, UK. 1993.

[13]

Kling, R., and Dunlop, C. Key controversies about computerisation and white collar work life, in R. Baeker, W. Buxton, and J. Grudin (Eds.) Computer- Human Interaction. Morgan Kaufman, San Mateo, CA, 1992.

[14]

Mariani, J.A. A Technological Perspective on Shared Objects. Working Paper COMIC-GMD-4-1, Computing Department, Lancaster University, LA1 4YR, UK. 1993.

[15]

Pain, D., Owen, J., Franklin, I., and Green, E. Human-centred systems design: a review of trends within the broader systems development context. In E. Green, J. Owen, and D. Pain (Eds.) Gendered by Design? Taylor and Francis, London, 1993.

Digital Library

[16]

Prinz, W., and Mariani, J.A. Requirements on Object Systems from a CSCW Perspective. Working Paper COMIC-GMD-4-2, Computing Department, Lancaster University, LA1 4YR, UK. 1993.

[17]

Randall, D., and Hughes, J.A. Sociology, CSCW and working with customers. In P. Thomas (Ed.) The Social and Interaction Dimensions of System Design. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Digital Library

[18]

Rodden, T. COMICal issues on a Shared Object Service. Working Paper, COMIC-LANCS-4-2, Computing Department, Lancaster University, LA1 4YR, UK. 1993.

[19]

Suchman, L. Office procedures as practical action" models of work and system design. A C M Transactions on Office Information Systems1, 4 (1983), 320-328.

Digital Library

[20]

Suchman, L., and Wynn, E. Procedures and problems in the office Office Technology and People 2, (1984), 133-154.

[21]

Webster, J. Office Automation: The Labour Process and Women's Work in Britain. Harvester Wheatsheaf, New York, 1990.

[22]

Wood, S. The Transformation of Work. Unwin Hyman, London, 1989.

[23]

Zisman, M.D. Representation, Specification and Automation of Office Procedures. Dept. of Decision Science, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, 1977.

Cited By

Dix A(2024)The future of PIM: pragmatics and potentialHuman–Computer Interaction10.1080/07370024.2024.2356155(1-28)Online publication date: 25-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2024.2356155
Dethier EKern DStevens GBoden A(2024)Making Order in Household Accounting - Digital Invoices as Domestic Work ArtifactsComputer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)10.1007/s10606-024-09495-wOnline publication date: 13-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-024-09495-w
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Working with “constant interruption”: CSCW and the small office
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing
2. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Management of computing and information systems
      1. Project and people management
        Systems development

Recommendations

Job Satisfaction of Information Technology Workers: The Impact of Career Orientation and Task Automation in a CASE Environment

This study investigates the job satisfaction of information technology (IT) professionals in an environment where computer aided software engineering (CASE) tools are used. Although the recent downturn in the economy might have temporarily eased the IT ...
Read More
The emotions of systems developers: an empirical study of affective events theory
SIGMIS CPR '04: Proceedings of the 2004 SIGMIS conference on Computer personnel research: Careers, culture, and ethics in a networked environment

The role of emotions in the workplace has received increasing attention from management theorists in recent years [2], yet information technology (IT) researchers have failed to consider the role of emotions on IT professionals. Many researchers ...
Read More
Relating research to practice: imperative or circumstance?

This paper provides a starting point for thinking beyond a research–practice divide and discusses possible new conceptualizations of intervention and the role of IT research in contemporary organizational settings. ‘IT research’ denotes a conglomerate ...
Read More

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

CSCW '94: Proceedings of the 1994 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work

October 1994

464 pages

ISBN:0897916891

DOI:10.1145/192844

Chairmen:
John B. Smith
Univ. of North Carolina
,
F. Don Smith
IBM Corporation
,
Thomas W. Malone
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Copyright © 1994 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

Sponsors

Publisher

Association for Computing Machinery

New York, NY, United States

Publication History

Published: 22 October 1994

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Request Permissions

Check for updates

Author Tags

Qualifiers

Article

Conference

CSCW94

Sponsor:

CSCW94: Computer-Supported Cooperative Work 94

October 22 - 26, 1994

North Carolina, Chapel Hill, USA

Acceptance Rates

CSCW '94 Paper Acceptance Rate 42 of 200 submissions, 21%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 2,235 of 8,521 submissions, 26%

Upcoming Conference

Contributors

Other Metrics

View Article Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

77
Total Citations
View Citations
1,667
Total Downloads

Downloads (Last 12 months)86
Downloads (Last 6 weeks)14

Other Metrics

View Author Metrics

Citations

Cited By

Dix A(2024)The future of PIM: pragmatics and potentialHuman–Computer Interaction10.1080/07370024.2024.2356155(1-28)Online publication date: 25-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/07370024.2024.2356155
Dethier EKern DStevens GBoden A(2024)Making Order in Household Accounting - Digital Invoices as Domestic Work ArtifactsComputer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW)10.1007/s10606-024-09495-wOnline publication date: 13-Apr-2024
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-024-09495-w
Bali SKhadpe PKaufman GKulkarni C(2023)Nooks: Social Spaces to Lower Hesitations in Interacting with New People at WorkProceedings of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3544548.3580796(1-18)Online publication date: 19-Apr-2023
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3544548.3580796
Vakharia N(2023)Knowledge Management in Arts and Cultural OrganizationsThe Oxford Handbook of Arts and Cultural Management10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197621615.013.21(371-392)Online publication date: 23-Feb-2023
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197621615.013.21
Cheon ESchneiders ESkov M(2022)Working with Bounded Collaboration: A Qualitative Study on How Collaboration is Co-constructed around Collaborative Robots in IndustryProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35550946:CSCW2(1-34)Online publication date: 11-Nov-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3555094
Lalvani SPal J(2022)The Moral Orders of Matchmaking Work: Digitization of Matrimonial Services and the Future of WorkProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35129686:CSCW1(1-23)Online publication date: 7-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3512968
Wang EPiper A(2022)The Invisible Labor of Access in Academic Writing Practices: A Case Analysis with Dyslexic AdultsProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35129676:CSCW1(1-25)Online publication date: 7-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3512967
Pan CYakhmi SIyer TStrasnick EZhang ABernstein M(2022)Comparing the Perceived Legitimacy of Content Moderation Processes: Contractors, Algorithms, Expert Panels, and Digital JuriesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35129296:CSCW1(1-31)Online publication date: 7-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3512929
Villanueva AZhu ZLiu ZWang FChidambaram SRamani K(2022)ColabAR: A Toolkit for Remote Collaboration in Tangible Augmented Reality LaboratoriesProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/35129286:CSCW1(1-22)Online publication date: 7-Apr-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3512928
Show More Cited By

View Options

View options

PDF

View or Download as a PDF file.

eReader

View online with eReader.

Get Access

Login options

Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution to get full access on this article.

Full Access

Get this Publication

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

View Table of Contents