Transforming work: collaboration, learning, and design
Open accessAbstract
In recent years dramatic changes in the world economy have led companies to restructure themselves in order to compete globally.Debates in the academic community about the changing demand for workplace skills with the globalization of the economy are paralleled in the business literature about what it takes to create a productive business (e.g., [8,22,24]).Business goals for such improvements as computer systems, work systems, or learning organizations are heavily influenced by underlying assumptions about how people work and how organizations function.In this article I examine these underlying assumptions and outline their implications for design.I suggest that underlying assumptions rooted in different conceptions of work coexist within an organization and represent different lenses through which people in the organization peer.One such lens, or conception of work, I call an "organizational, explicit" view, the other an "activity-oriented, tacit" view (see Table 1).Each of these perspectives carries different implications for the design of work and technologies.1 An organizational perspective on work is an explicit view and is represented, for example, by sets of defined tasks and operations such as those described in methods and procedures, which fulfill a set of business functions (the work-flow approach reflects this; see [16].)This view of work differs from an activity-oriented approach, which suggests that the range of activities, communication practices, relationships, and coordination it takes to accomplish business functions is complex and continually mediated by 36
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Mechanically applying policy through CPOE can expose gaps between organizational goals and actual clinician behavior, prompting workarounds when the system does not fit their work.
“As a result, rote implementation of policy or procedure can highlight pronounced differences between organizational intention and provider practice, leading to the adoption of system workarounds by clinicians struggling to use a system that does not fully support their work.26”
From Computerized Provider Order Entry Adoption: Implications for Clinical Workflow (2009) · cites this paper as [20]
Research on clinical information systems repeatedly finds that CPOE integration fundamentally alters how clinicians coordinate and collaborate in care delivery.
“one theme consistently emerges: embedding CPOE in healthcare fundamentally changes the way clinicians coordinate their work activities and collaborate to deliver care.[18][19][20][21]”
From Computerized Provider Order Entry Adoption: Implications for Clinical Workflow (2009) · cites this paper as [20]
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- Authors
- Sachs, P.
- Affiliations
- NYNEX Science and Technology, 400 Westchester Ave., White Plains, NY
- Corresponding author
- Sachs, Patricia
- Venue
- Communications of the ACM
- Published
- 1995-09
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 36-44
- ISSN
- 0001-0782 (ISSN-L)
- 1557-7317
- OpenAlex
- W2086093613
- Cited by
- 264
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 3 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 7 · 2013: 8 · 2012: 7
- FWCI
- 72.85
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Communications of the ACM (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Information Systems Theories and Implementation
- Social Sciences › Human Factors and Ergonomics › Innovative Education and Learning Practices
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Management Theory and Practice
- Keywords
- job design, concept of work, organizational perspective, tacit knowledge, explicit knowledge, work systems, learning organization, globalization, workplace skills, organizational change, technology design
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