Identifying and responding to points of vulnerability in implementing information technologies
Dr Bernard Holkner
Faculty of Education
Monash University
Associate Professor Lesley Farrell
Faculty of Education
Monash University
Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, University of Hamburg, 17-20 September 2003
In this work, we consider the adoption and maintenance of information technologies into communities that we call ‘hybrid workspaces’ and the various temporal events that underpin moments of significant change. These events or ‘points of vulnerability’ can be identified and their impacts upon the community can be understood if due planning is undertaken. The paper describes the theoretical basis, the problems and the design of processes or instruments that are being developed to explore a particular workplace.
In effect this work is research about and through technologies which are firmly located in social contexts. The organisations targeted by this research are hierarchical and distributed communities which feature workers who are either permanent employees or volunteers, and whose communication technology needs are widely varied. The organisations can be regarded as constructions of several workspaces, some of which involve mobile work and others based in traditional office settings. Communication technologies involving print, telephony, two-way radio and a variety of computer mediated methods seek to “sew together” the organisation’s operational and administrative functions. We recognize the interdependence of communication methods in hybrid workspaces such as these, and regard that this somewhat architectural view needs to be considered alongside a comprehensive analysis of the discursive practices that develop within.
The study of this or any similar hybrid workspace is undertaken with the evaluation methods we are developing. These pay attention to an analysis of the technologies themselves within the social context and the inevitable changing social structures. In particular, we attend to the temporal location of work, and to the capacities of groups working with specific technologies.
In the process of establishing these evaluation methods, is the selection and development of data collection methods which are either automated or otherwise mediated by communications technologies. The presents an opportunity to investigate the quality and secondary impacts of electronic and automated data collection and the ethical and technical considerations which arise. We are particularly interested in the responses of workers in the organisations to the impacts of the technologies which surround them. This includes the both the data collection which is routine within their work, and that which is introduced for the purposes of this study.
Points of vulnerability are those significant instances and sequences of events in the implementation of technologies for workers. It is appropriate to identify and examine these moments. As we identify the impacts of the technologies in our own data collection and analysis, we create an overlapping hybrid community with its own events. An ability to recognize, or even predict these temporal events and their likely impacts leads us to better methods of understanding hybrid communities.
Two organisations concerned with urgency
PaceSetters[1] is a global organisation concerned with the design and development of health technology products. They operate with a network of distribution and marketing facilities spanning all continents. Internally the organisation has several business units which are located in different parts of the world and each working with different parts of the product range. Nevertheless, it is the organisation’s wish to preserve the innovative and entrepreneurial environment of a smaller company. PaceSetters prides itself as a company which fosters innovation in its work environment, is a committed user of a wide range of technologies to support the workers and company operations. It is important to note that PaceSetters regards its products as critically valuable to the public, and that its workers are focused on an “urgency based” environment.
FastResponse is an organisation concerned with providing emergency services. Unlike PaceSetters, they operate on a local level, receive funding from a range of government, stake holder and philanthropic groups. FastResponse are not concerned with “product” or sales, but solely with the provision of an effective community service. FastResponse features employees based in a central office and in several regions, but is quite unique in that the dominant group of workers are volunteers. It is helpful in the case of both organisations to consider fundamental roles of workers within the categories of administration and operations. PaceSetters primary goal is of course to raise revenue from sales and operational technical support, and therefore features a strong interest in marketing. While FastResponse is interested in public relations and public information which are similar in function to a marketing operation, there are no sales imperatives. On the one hand we might regard the “front line” workers of PaceSetters to be their sales and support staff, while the analogous workers in FastResponse are the volunteers responding to emergencies.
This research focuses upon the Pacesetters offices in two Australian capital cities, and seeks to explore the implications for similarly communications dependent groups such as FastResponse. The researchers have noted particularly interesting similarities between the organisations’ uses of communications technologies although at the time of writing, the study at FastResponse is still being negotiated.
Communication Perspectives
This research is concerned with understanding communication processes which are deeply dependent upon layered technologies within two organisations. We seek to order the types of communications needs, responses of groups and individuals, and the roles that the technologies play in modifying, assisting, impeding or otherwise introducing artifacts or nuances across the range of routine and non-routine communications.
Organisations such as these function with both operational and administrative hierarchies. While there may be complete clarity in describing the ways in which workers are responsible to one another, the informative and instructional communications pathways need not, and we suspect will not completely reflect those responsibilities. In observing the movement of informative, instructional and other communications and through several methods of documenting their intent, pathways and ultimate effects of these texts can be understood. This will make it possible to observe locations of friction and possible mismatches that occur through the selection and application of communication technologies. We note that the organisations being studied require a wide range of communication imperatives. Some texts are urgent to the point of saving lives, some to the maintenance of organizational information, and some to the specifics of single problem solving.
While we seek to avoid wholesale analysis of the communications media used by these organisations in technical isolation, some characteristics need to be identified. It is preferable to frame a discussion of the organisations’ communications technologies within the social contexts (Akrich 1992; Bowker 1996; Bossen 2002)
There is an opportunity to problematise two aspects of these media: the degree of impact when texts from this medium are moved to another communications medium (Xn), and the degree of synchronicity (Av).
Synchronicity (Av)
Each of these media or “channels” as we call them, has a number of temporal dimensions which affect the performance and perception of the communication of texts (Hesse, Werner et al. 1988). These researchers identify two overarching temporal dimensions: a linear continuum of past/present/future and a cyclical or spiraling dimension of recurrent events. For our purposes, four “subordinate” dimensions provide a framework. Temporal scale is the scope or duration of an event, temporal sequencing; the systemic events or construction of conversations, temporal pace; both perceived and actual rate of exchanges, and temporal salience; the orientation of the action or the individual’s perception (Hesse, Werner et al. 1988).
Our research pursues processes and events which are inseparable from the social groupings in which they are located and the purposeful context, and while we describe events and points of vulnerability on these terms, we recognize the value of revisiting a framework for temporal dimensions.
It is customary to categorise communications technologies as being either synchronous or asynchronous, so that their attention to real time and immediate exchanges can be discriminated against possibilities for further reflection and storage. Our initial work in this area suggests that an exploration of a less “binary” view of synchronicity is warranted for several reasons:
· Some workers use “store and forward” technologies in rapid exchanges that are analogous to a conversation,
· There are increasing opportunities for texts to pass between media that have different synchronicities: such as voice messages to voice storage, and
· There are technologies which make available the translation of texts from one mode to another: such as print converted to digitized voice, voice recognition of print and print logging of voice messages.
When a worker is asked to reflect upon communication processes in general, or upon a particular situation, frameworks which pay better attention to the social construction of communications are appropriate (Dennis and Valacich 1999; Burgooon, Burgoon et al. 2002). In recognizing the need to establish operational and social contexts for communications, the complex nature of synchronicity is perhaps better described without simplifying to synchronous/asynchronous. We refer to the dimensions of synchronicity as Av merely to indicate a more complex series of temporal interactions. It does not seem appropriate to attempt to quantify degrees or states of synchronicity however since this would negate the complexities of context and situation.
Transfer Impact (Xn)
From time to time, the texts that are exchanged within networks need to be retransmitted into different actor networks when a person can only be contacted, or is best communicated with over a particular channel. There are many reasons why cross channel communication might take place. Workers at PaceSetters might receive marketing bulletins by email and have these followed up by posting out glossy brochures, or by the same token FastResponse workers might need a facsimile about hazardous materials to study in detail rather than receive the same information over two way radio. These examples indicate potentials for redundancy, or for improved transmission of information. A familiar scenario of people following up an email with telephone calls might indicate the need for clarification or reassurance that is lacking in the initial channel. Perhaps these effects suggest that better efficiencies are possible, but our attention is drawn to the effects of these transfers upon the quality of the information, urgency or compliance in reception or changing social networks that take place on each occasion. Transfer impact is possible with all channels but there are specific tendencies or particular technologies more likely to have a strength or weakness with another, just as there are specific communications which bring about the need for transfer and the significance of the transfer impact. Recognising and attending to transfer impacts needs to be within the standard set of skills of a worker. These provide the ability to identify the need for remedial or supportive communications or other necessary actions.
The following table shows an initial view of communicative channels and some of their dimensions. For the purposes of this work, carrier Medium refers to the technological infrastructure of the network. Domain refers to the typical hierarchies of communications in that channel.
Channel / Textual limitations:P=Print; G=Graphic; V=Voice; Xn=Transfer impact; A=Asynchronous v=speed; R=Receive only / Carrier medium / Domain
Website (internal) / P / G / Xn / Av / R / Internet protocols / Organisation broadcast
Website (public) / P / G / Xn / Av / R / Internet protocols / Organisation broadcast
Email / P / Xn / Av / Internet protocols also Mobile telephone / -Broadcast
-Individual
-External
Network shared documents / P / G
Telephone / V / S / Landline
Mobile networks / Individual
Voice teleconference / V / S
Telephone answering machine / V / Xn / A / R
Paper memo / P / G / A / R
Brochure / P / G / Xn / A / R / -Post
-Emailed files / Organisation broadcast
AlphaNumeric Pager / P / Xn / Av / R / Third party networks / Organisation broadcast
Two-way radio / V / X0 / S / Private network / Learned protocols for individual and broadcast
Facsimile / P / G / Xn / Av / R / Landline / -Broadcast
-Individual
-External
Real time data collection / P / G / S / R / Radio, landline and satellite (GIS, GPS, Weather)
Table 1 An initial audit of information and communication channels
Table 1 outlines the principal media employed by the two organisations.
The uses of each channel vary according to the organisation and to the tasks to some degree, but certain assumptions appear to be supported: for example AlphaNumeric pagers of the kind that vibrate or beep to alert the wearer to urgent text are used by both organisations, while telephones and email are used where available for important, non-important and even personal messages. To give some idea of the scope of this work, it can be seen that the working relationships that exist within and are modified by the technologies are wide ranging. Features of these channels impact upon all dimensions of the organisations: administrative, operational, and all manners of networking that recognize the extended groupings to which workers belong and move across.
An exhaustive description of all of the capabilities and implications of these channels is beyond the scope of this paper, however three important points will be made to illustrate the planning issues for our further research.
1. Operational Urgency – Pagers, telephones and radio.
Both organisations are able to communicate urgent information through selected channels. In the case of FastResponse, communication to the volunteer or career emergency worker defaults to the pager. The pager is the sole method for activation and the text transmitted is necessarily abbreviated at some point in the communication process to eliminate non-essential information and to contain the message within the limitations of the pager. PaceSetters field workers are subjected to the limitations of the pager technology, but since each worker is provided with a mobile telephone, limitations in the pager message can be easily followed up for further information, contextual information or clarification. In fact PaceSetters field workers habitually select either the pager or the mobile telephone as a method of obtaining assistance from each other. This operates to the extent that a “code” exists whereby they use the keywords “urgent” and “important” to indicate the response times that they are seeking to a request. In an attempt to ensure that PaceSetters field workers are always contactable, their Information Technology specialists have implemented a method for pager messages to be forwarded by Short Message Service (SMS) to the field workers’ mobile telephones. It is notable that field workers appear to routinely ignore the SMS messages, believing that anything urgent would appear as a voice telephone call or pager text.
FastResponse emergency workers are unable to obtain further information, clarification or contextual knowledge when alerted by pager until they are in proximity to a two way radio, which they can use to query a dispatcher. FastResponse activation is further bound to the rules of two way radio communication which insists upon communication by standard message formats. These formats aim to ensure an efficient use of the crowded radio network and possibly at the expense of information detail. Similarly, the people communicating with FastResponse workers are not known at all to the individuals and so nuances that would offer encouragement and reassurance may be missing.