These documents are work in progress and are therefore not available directly. Much of the work has been adapted for inclusion in the deliverables. Requests for copies of any of these papers should be directed to Jacqui Forsyth in the first instance.
L. Bannon
RISØ-1-10
This paper discusses the origins and development of a new field of scientific research and information technology application called Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, or "CSCW" as it is more commonly called. A number of events happening concurrently in the work place, in technology, the development process, and the organizational milieu are argued to have contributed to the growth of interest in CSCW issues. There remain a number of confusions about the focus of the area, however, which are explored here. Some early experiences with CSCW systems are then discussed, and accomplishments of the field to date noted.
L. Bannon
RISØ-1-9
This paper provides a critique of the underlying assumptions behind research and practice in the (G)DSS field, using the work of the University of Arizona MIS group as an exemplar. It then utilises some conceptual and empirical work from the CSCW area to develop an alternative framework for discussing concepts such as information and decisions in organizations. Finally it presents a number of topics on which fruitful interaction between the separate (G)DSS and CSCW communities might be possible.
L. Bannon
RISØ-1-7
This paper presents a view on work, learning and the role of technology in the workplace emerging in the CSCW community that is seriously at odds with other approaches, including office automation, and I would claim, more recent ideologies such as Business Process Re-engineering. The paper presents an introduction to CSCW, compares it to other related traditions such as OIS and GDSS research, and investigates the practical implications of such a perspective.
K. Kuutti and J. Virkkunen
OULU-1-3
The paper studies the relationship between organisational memory, team work and organisational learning. A development project carried out by a Finnish labour protection office during 1988-1992 is taken as a case study. During the development project the labour protection inspectors radically changed their work orientation and practices. At the same time as creating a new way of working the inspectors also developed a new computer tool, which has several "memory" functions. The most important function of the new instrument is the representation of the common object of work of an inspection team. Expansive transition from individual work to team work became possible only after the group of inspectors had begun to work out this common instrument and to analyse a broad problem area using the new instrument.
D. Calvey
MAN-1-11
This paper has a three fold objective.Firstly,an elaboration and extension of some of the ideas behind the analysis of the modes and mechanisms of interaction,stimulated by previous work,by an examination of the types of social interaction and their differential treatment in analysis.That is,a three tier notion of the social interactional basis of these modes and mechanisms as formalised,constructed and achieved which underpins and drives the conceptualization and characterization of social interaction in some different models and perspective in organization theory.I loosely classify some of these approaches as information processing,labour process and postmodernist organisation theories and ethnomethodology.
Secondly,in elaboratlng,extending and amplifying previous work on these issues,an attempt at making sense of modes and mechanisms of interaction in cooperative work will be proposed by an investigation of these issues in and at use in the natural real life work context which is drawn from some data from an ethnomethodological ethnographic study of a High-tech sales force.This is essentially,in many ways,a further elaboration of the organisational context.
Thirdly,I wish to raise for consideration and reflection the issue of the problems caused by certain conflations in organisational analysis and the more general problems of the commensurability/incommensurability of models and perspectives employing different conceptions of social interaction.What I refer to as achieving a sensibility and sensitivity about these differences in the pluralistic COMIC community.
L. Bannon
RISØ-1-8
This paper presents an account of two related interdisciplinary research areas, HCI and CSCW, and investigates the variety of competing perspectives on each of these fields that appear to co-exist. Basic concepts such as "interface" and "cooperative work" are shown to be disputed within their respective fields. Despite the lack of agreement over key concepts, it appears that both fields continue to thrive.What are the implications of such diverse views for the continuation of the fields concerned? The paper raises questions about the role of theory in these fields, and the nature of interdisciplinarity.
J. Pycock
MAN-1-10
We have in this paper considered approaches to studying the 'insides' of organisations which adopt a process viewpoint and those which take an ethnographic orientation. We have noted that while process modeling and ethnography are essentially different kinds of activity (such that one can even be an orientation to the other) it is still the case that they conceive of elements of work organisations in contrasting ways. We note a number of these contrasts.
That we may take an ethnographic orientation to process models has allowed us to consider the details of cases where work is carried out in accordance with a process model and also to reflect upon process modelling itself as an activity within organisations. Our studies in this way provide a number of insights into some of the effects of process models upon the conduct of work in the cases we report.
We have presented just some of the types of observations from ethnographic studies of work that 'enacts' a process model. However, these observations are intended to illustrate how an empirical orientation can be taken to questions about organisational models.
G. De Michelis
MILAN-1-5
This paper analyzes the types of cooperation occurring within a work process from various points of view: i) it analyzes the different positional relations binding each other the participants in the work process; ii) it analyzes the behavioural patterns they apply in it; iii) it analyzes the context conditions affecting the effectiveness of the various cooperation forms.
The relations binding the three above levels of analysis allow to characterize the complexity of a work process in terms of the multiplicity and variety of cooperation forms occurring in it, offering a basis for evaluating the support systems used within a work process from the point of view of their ability of reducing the cost of its complexity.
G. De Michelis and M. A. Grasso
MILAN-1-2
Work is a situated activity. Being effective in work activities requires awareness of the Organizational context (OC) where it is situated.
In this paper we discuss three issues related to the above claim; 1. Awareness requires both transparency and visibility of the OC. Moreover it requires that the representation of the OC, through which visibility and transparency are achieved, has some learning capabilities. 2. Lack of awareness is a major factor affecting the transaction costs of work activities. 3. Any Computer Support to Cooperative Work needs to embody an OC representation. These three issues are discussed from the point of view of the work process model the authors are developing.
The work process model gives precise guidelines to distinguish within the OC of a work process three different types of knowledge (namely the outer, inner and individual OC) and to outline how they can be represented.
A short section is dedicated to how the OC adaptor TOSCA can used as a basis for the representation of the OC of a work process.
D. Calvey
MAN-1-8
In this paper we critically review the various different theoretical and methodological treatments of information technology and computer technologies in the organization theory field which we loosely classify as information processing, labour process and postmodernist theory, organisational psychologies and sociologies and ethnomethodology. On a more specific level some ethnographic data is examined as concerns the practical management of sales information which consists of a conversational extract and organisational diagrams. Therein, the data is used to illustrate and demonstrate some organizational issues as concerns insitu usage of information and technology which is practically managed and embedded within and manifests institutional structures. In so doing we wish to stress the role of the reporting practices and practical reasoning used commonly by organisational members in their work world where formal structures are used as an occasioned explicatory resource and device. These aspects are neglected and/or misconceptualised by various theories and models of organisational process and design. The paper is concluded by first, examining the value of organisational pluralism and secondly, drawing together some implications of such an analysis for the computational design of organisational work and organisational processes. The paper does not attempt to offer any panacea for organisational analyis and design in COMIC but sketches some preliminary directions and problematics.
A. Agostini, G. De Michelis and K. Petruni
MILAN-1-6
Workflow Management Systems are composed of two basic components: the Workflow Model and the Workflow Execution Module. The former devoted to supporting the designer of a workflow support system, while the latter executes it when a workflow is started by any authorized user. We claim that the simpler the Workflow Model, the more flexible and adaptive the Workflow Execution Module. That is, the two main components of a Workflow Management System are not merely inter-related: if the former allows simple models and complex behaviours, then the latter is able to support execution and changes in an effective manner.
In this paper we present a new Workflow Model based on a small subclass of Elementary Net Systems whose elements are simple and highly readable models that, thanks to some nice mathematical properties of that class, allow us to generate a large class of behaviours from those models. Moreover we will show that some interesting features proposed in the literature to enhance the usability of Workflow Management Systems can be easily embedded within it.
K. Schmidt, H. Andersen, P. Carstensen and C. Sørensen
RISØ-1-11
This paper explores the relationship between the concept of malleable and linkable mechanisms of interaction, as developed within COMIC Strand 3, and the concept of representations of organizational context. The paper argues that a computational representation of organizational context can usefully be conceived of as identical to a system of linkable computational mechanisms of interaction.
In outlining this argument, the paper draws upon findings from field studies.
L. Fuchs and W. Prinz
GMD-1-10
This paper presents an event distribution model for a computer based cooperative working environment. The proposed model aims to provide information about the ongoing and past activities embedded in an organizational context, based on the semantics and contextual relationships of the shared artifacts. The proposed model contributes to increase the awareness of the ongoing state of affairs in a group or organization without overloading the user with additional information.
K. Schmidt
RISØ-1-6
The paper examines the relationship between cooperative work and the wider organizational context. The purpose of the exploration is not to contribute to organizational theory in general, but to critique the transaction cost approach to organizational theory from the point of view of cooperative work. The paper posits that the formal conception of organization - organization conceived of in terms of `common ownership' - is inadequate as a conceptual foundation for embedding CSCW systems in a wider organizational context. The design of CSCW systems for real-world application must move beyond the bounds of organizational forms conceived of in terms of `common ownership'.
D. Calvey
MAN-1-9
This paper is concerned with a critical review of the nature of the relationships between postmodern organization theory, postmodern organizations and postmodernity. Five core themes are discerned in this review which loosely structure much of the discourse between various theorists on the above topics. A concluding section reflects on both some significant conceptual knots that emerge from the review and some central problematics that remain. If the COMIC community are to regard the postmodern approach seriously and hope to utilise it in some ways then such a critical review has utility and value.
J. Pycock, D. Calvey, W. Sharrock, V. King and J. Hughes
MAN-1-7
We identify a 'process' orientation in much work within CSCW, Business Process Re-engineering and software development. We compare the assumptions this orientation makes about cooperative work to those of an ethnographic methodology. Additionally we report on fieldstudies of work organised 'around' such process models. We consider process models in relation to the debates about plans and situated action and take an empirical orientation to such questions. Furthermore we illustrate elements of what we find is present in the plan for those who have to work with it.
A. Agostini, G. De Michelis, M. A. Grasso and S. Patriarca
MILAN-1-7
Business Process Reengineering (BPR) has been proposed as a new approach to face the challenge of improving the quality of a business process reducing its costs. Workgroup computing systems can be considered as the best candidates for BPR, since they aim to improve the effectiveness of the group of people collaborating within a work process. In particular workflow management systems seem to offer the best support to a reengineered business process.
In this paper we report on a case of BPR, consisting in the application to a real bank procedure of both a new approach to the analysis of work processes (allowing the evaluation of its transaction costs) and a prototype of a Workflow Management System (WMS), allowing an effective handling of procedure breakdowns without forcing the designers to take care of them.
J. Bowers, J. Pycock, G. Dean and T. Rodden
MAN-1-6
Commercial software systems intended to support the work of groups are now freely available. However, uptake of these systems has been relatively poor and limited user experience has been reported. The authors present some experiences from a study of a network that explicitly aims to investigate the effectiveness of CSCW tools. This paper focuses on the currently hidden cost of managing the network. The authors also explore the implications for CSCW systems development by outline an exploration of support for the management of a CSCW network.
G. De Michelis and M. A. Grasso
MILAN-1-4
The debate on the language/action perspective has been exciting the CSCW field for almost ten years. In this paper we recall the most relevant issues raised in it, we also propose a new exploitation of the language/action perspective considering it from the viewpoint of understanding the complexity of communication within work processes and the situatedness of work practices. On this basis we have defined a new conversation model, the Milan Conversation Model, and we are designing a new conversation handler implementing it.
M. Favorin and K. Kuutti
OULU-1-2
This paper suggests that end-user training must not be something separated from work and that the whole work process should be the focus of learning. The growing use of information technology at work is a potential resource in bringing learning and working together by making the work and its organisational context visible. The intention of this paper is to suggest a coherent framework for analysing the focus of learning in the context of work and information technology. This framework is based on Activity theory. The concept of activity suggests one possible structure for a work practice and can be used to classify the focus of learning - work. An example case system based on this structure to support learning in the work is introduced and discussed. For further development two additional features - historicity and constructivity - are discussed.
J. Bowers
MAN-1-5
This paper reports on a field study of the procurement, implementation and use of a local area network devoted to running CSCW-related applications in an organization within the U.K.'s central government. In this particular case, the network ran into a number of difficulties, was resisted by its potential users for a variety of reasons, was faced with being withdrawn from service on a number of occasions and (at the time of writing) remains only partly used. The study points to the kinds of problems that a project to introduce computer support for cooperative work to an actual organization is likely to face and a series of concepts are offered to help manage the complexity of these problems. In so doing, this paper adds to and extends previous studies of CSCW tools in action but also argues that experience from the field should be used to re-organise the research agenda of CSCW.