The DOI matches its Crossref record; 19 of the 19 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Making work visible
Open accessAbstract
How people work is one of the best kept secrets in America."This provocative statement by David Wellman, a sociologist of labor, can be read as a kind of challenge to work researchers.The sense in which it rings true is particularly remarkable given the large and growing body of literature dedicated to work-flow modeling, business process reengineering, and other methods aimed at representing work in the service of transforming it.At the same time that we take Wellman's statement as a call to action, however, we need to reflect carefully on the kinds of secrecy that surround specific knowledges and experiences of working practice and the implications of making them visible.The notion of secrecy implies things known differentially among different actors, usually because those who hold the secret deliberately withhold it from others.Without taking over the connotations of collusion in this sense of secrecy, we can ask why it might be not only inevitable but also valuable that members of an organization know their own work in ways that others positioned differently in the organization do not.The premise that we have special authority in relation to our own fields of knowledge and experience suggests we should have the ability to shape not only how we work but how our work appears to others.Self-representation on this view is a form of empowerment.
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“Such representations are fundamental tools for knowledge work [14, 15, 37, 38, 57, 65, 68] used by employees to manage information and carry out tasks [27, 37, 68].”
From Accessibility-Driven Information Transformations in Mixed-Visual Ability Work Teams (2026) · cites this paper as [68]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“However, once they reach higher education, neurodivergent students are marginalised by the learning experiences themselves 2 , and are also expected to perform additional invisible 'meta'-work (or 'access labour' [15, 75, 78], see Footnote 1), beyond that expected of typical students.”
From Burnout by Design: How Digital Systems Overburden Neurodivergent Students in Higher Education (2025) · cites this paper as [78]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
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“As a result of the barriers present in these systems, many neurodivergent students create their own coping strategies, thus contributing yet more to their invisible work [15, 75, 78].”
From Burnout by Design: How Digital Systems Overburden Neurodivergent Students in Higher Education (2025) · cites this paper as [78]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“While higher education is often framed as a pathway to professional work, our findings demonstrate that the process of being a student itself constitutes a form of access work, requiring significant cognitive, emotional, and administrative effort [15, 53, 58, 75, 78].”
From Burnout by Design: How Digital Systems Overburden Neurodivergent Students in Higher Education (2025) · cites this paper as [78]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“When accommodations fail-whether due to bureaucratic inefficiencies, technological flaws or institutional oversight- students face a difficult choice: either take on the additional (invisible) labour [15, 75, 78] by advocating for their accommodations to be properly implemented or forgo the support they need and struggle with unfair academic disadvantage.”
From Burnout by Design: How Digital Systems Overburden Neurodivergent Students in Higher Education (2025) · cites this paper as [78]
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“In our analysis, we considered a broader context for each case but we do not report such details because such factors are well-known in literature (e.g., [40, 62, 68, 73, 74]) or we judged them less relevant.”
From Accessibility-Driven Information Transformations in Mixed-Visual Ability Work Teams (2026) · cites this paper as [68]
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In the citing paper
“ey experience challenges with missing support, lack of flexibility, heavy and repeated bureaucratic tasks in the process of applying for accommodations, extensions and assistive tech [78].”
From Neurodiversity and the Accessible University: Exploring Organizational Barriers, Access Labor and Opportunities for Change (2024) · cites this paper as [78]
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In the citing paper
“These findings unfortunately confirm existing studies on the existence of barriers to equal access in Danish higher education [78], [81] and support previous research demonstrating that universities often act as neurodiversity”
From Neurodiversity and the Accessible University: Exploring Organizational Barriers, Access Labor and Opportunities for Change (2024) · cites this paper as [78]
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Citations
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Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 10
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Metadata
- Authors
- Suchman, L.
- Affiliations
- Palo Alto Research Center (US)
- Corresponding author
- Suchman, Lucy
- ORCID
- Suchman, Lucy
- Venue
- Communications of the ACM
- Published
- 1995-09
- Volume
- 38
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 56-64
- ISSN
- 0001-0782 (ISSN-L)
- 1557-7317
- OpenAlex
- W2095270559
- Cited by
- 991
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2026: 54 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 30 · 2023: 34 · 2022: 51 · 2021: 46 · 2020: 30 · 2019: 30 · 2018: 44 · 2017: 42 · 2016: 37 · 2015: 42 · 2014: 35 · 2013: 25 · 2012: 30
- FWCI
- 71.79
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Communications of the ACM (publishedVersion)
- Lancaster EPrints (Lancaster University) (submittedVersion)
- Lancaster EPrints (Lancaster University) (submittedVersion, public-domain)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management Information Systems › Information Systems Theories and Implementation
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Management and Organizational Studies
- Social Sciences › Education › Innovative Education and Learning Practices
- Keywords
- work practices, visibility of work, self-representation, empowerment, workflow modeling, business process reengineering, sociology of work, organizational knowledge
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