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.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“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.
In the citing paper
“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]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
The cited source says what the claim attributes to it.
In the citing paper
“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]
The check wasn’t confident either way, so it gives no verdict — never disputed.
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]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe check wasn’t confident either way, so it gives no verdict — never disputed.
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]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
Writing Culture: The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography
Clifford, J., & Marcus, G. E. (1986) · Cited by 6,160
Interaction Analysis: Foundations and Practice
Jordan, B., & Henderson, A. (1995) · Journal of the Learning Sciences · doi:10.1207/s15327809jls0401_2 · Cited by 2,726
Muller, M. J., & Kuhn, S. (1993) · Communications of the ACM · doi:10.1145/153571.255960 · Cited by 909
Wood, D. (1992) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 775
Shapin, S. (1989) · Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) · Cited by 564
Working relations of technology production and use
Suchman, L. A. (1993) · Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) · doi:10.1007/bf00749282 · Cited by 547
Self-citationControl Through Communication: The Rise of System in American Management.
Martin, A., & Yates, J. (1991) · The American Historical Review · doi:10.2307/2164194 · Cited by 534
Lynch, M. (1988) · Human Studies · doi:10.1007/bf00177304 · Cited by 435
Surveillance and capture: Two models of privacy
Agre, P. E. (1994) · The Information Society · doi:10.1080/01972243.1994.9960162 · Cited by 402
Workflow From Within and Without: Technology and Cooperative Work on the Print Industry Shopfloor
Bowers, J., Button, G., & Sharrock, W. (1995) · Proceedings of the Fourth European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work ECSCW ’95 · doi:10.1007/978-94-011-0349-7_4 · Cited by 352
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 10
- Blomberg J., PDC '94: Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference, (Palo Alto, Calif.) R. Trigg, S. I. Anderson, & E. Dykstra-Erickson, Eds. 1994 Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility, 99-109
- Blomberg J., 1993, Participatory Design: Principles and Practices
- Bowers J., 1995, Proceedings of the European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
- Hales M., 1993, Design lssues in CSCW
- Star S. L., 1991, Eds. North Holland, 81
- Suchman L., 1993, Ed. Routledge, 113
- Suchman L., Computerization and Controversy: Value Conflicts and Social Choices, 2d Ed.
- Wall P., 1994, PDC '94: Proceedings of the Participatory Design Conference (Palo Alto, Calif), R. Trigg, S. I. Anderson, and E. Dykstra-Erickson, Eds., 87
- Watson-Verran H., 1993, Melbourne Conference on Sex/Gender in Technoscience Worlds
- Yates J., 1989, Baltimore and London
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Items 801–900 of 989
Collaborative Design of Workplaces: The Role of Boundary Objects
Broberg, O., Seim, R., & Andersen, V. (2010) · Advances in human factors and ergonomics series · doi:10.1201/ebk1439835074-7 · Cited by 1
IS supported service work: a case study of global certification
Berntsen, K. E. (2011) · Cited by 1
Obendorf, H. (2009) · Human-computer interaction series · doi:10.1007/978-1-84882-371-6_7 · Cited by 1
Experiencing Virtual Social Enterprise Media Architectures
Pettersen, L. (2016) · Nordic Journal of Science and Technology Studies · doi:10.5324/njsts.v4i2.2183 · Cited by 1
Carlsen, W. S., Tallon, R., Henning, P., Ferralis, N., Avery, L., Haworth, D., & Chapman, E. (2020) · IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society Annual Meeting (LEOS) · doi:10.18260/1-2--14411 · Cited by 1
Knowledge artifacts: the implications of incommensurable dimensions for their design
Simone, C. (2018) · Data Technologies and Applications · doi:10.1108/dta-03-2017-0013 · Cited by 1
ADAPTING AEROSPACE DESIGN RATIONALE MAPPING TO CIVIL ENGINEERING: A PRELIMINARY STUDY
Eng, N. L., Marfisi, E., & Aurisicchio, M. (2011) · Cited by 1
Roth, W., Socha, D., & Tenenberg, J. (2020) · Semiotica · doi:10.1515/sem-2019-0002 · Cited by 1
Herausforderungen der sozio-technischen Evaluation der Arbeit mit Autonomen Systemen
Herrmann, T. A., & Nierhoff, J. (2019) · transcript Verlag eBooks · doi:10.14361/9783839443958-009 · Cited by 1
Vetter, M. A. (2022) · The WAC Clearinghouse; University Press of Colorado eBooks · doi:10.37514/tpc-b.2022.1725.2.08 · Cited by 1
Exploring the Relationship between Interlocking Directorates and Fundraising Capacity
Yan, K., & Luo, O. (2015) · The China Nonprofit Review · doi:10.1163/18765149-12341289 · Cited by 1
Capturing Practices of Knowledge Work for Information Systems Design
Kaschig, A., Maier, R. K., Sandow, A., & Thalmann, S. (2010) · Journal of the Association for Information Systems · Cited by 1
Ownership and Evolution of Local Process Representations
Moran, T. P., Matthews, T. L., Vega, L. C., Smith, B. A., Lin, J. W., & Dill, S. J. (2009) · Lecture notes in computer science · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-03655-2_62 · Cited by 1
The practice of "Fluid balance". Humans and artifacts in medical work
Tap, H., & Sutter, B. (2000) · Cited by 1
New organising in Swedish third sector organisations
Westelius, A. (2007) · Cited by 1
Supporting the Re-emergence of Human Agency in the Workplace
Salvador, T., & Anderson, K. T. (2005) · Kluwer Academic Publishers eBooks · doi:10.1007/1-4020-8000-x_24 · Cited by 1
The web in high school science teaching
Wallace, R. M. (2000) · CHI Conference Extended Abstracts on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA) · doi:10.1145/633292.633343 · Cited by 1
Consumer perception of French retailers' commitment to sustainable developmentPreprint
Morin-Delerm, S., & Charrière-Grillon, V. (2010) · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · Cited by 1
Concept of a Robust & Training-free Probabilistic System for Real-time Intention Analysis in Teams
Giersich, M. (2009) · Ros Dok Rostocker Dokumentenserver (Universitätsbibliothek Rostock) · doi:10.18453/rosdok_id00000585 · Cited by 1
Das unsichtbare Geschlecht der Neuen Medien
Schinzel, B. (2005) · Kultur- und Medientheorie · doi:10.14361/9783839402740-015 · Cited by 1
Er, M. C. (2010) · UTS ePRESS (University of Technology Sydney) · Cited by 1
The dance of maintenance and the dynamics of urban assemblagesPreprint
Jérôme, D., & Pontille, D. (2015) · HAL · Cited by 1
Participatory Instructional Design: a contradiction in terms?
Nilakanta, R. (2006) · Iowa State University Digital Repository (Iowa State University) · doi:10.31274/rtd-180813-210 · Cited by 1
Geiger, R. S., Varoquaux, N., Mazel-Cabasse, C., & Holdgraf, C. (2018) · SocArXiv (OSF Preprints) · doi:10.31235/osf.io/2fdhr · Cited by 2
DISLOCATING PROMISES: How Digitization Organizes and How Organizations Digitize in Fire Safety
Karsten, M. M. V. (2020) · doi:10.7146/aul.404 · Cited by 1
Feeling personal: the emotional SIDE of media selection dilemmas
Watts, L. A., & Reeves, A. (2005)
IS project evaluation methodology - Science or art?
Vargas, M. C. (2009) · Journal of the Association for Information Systems
Bäckman, D., & Åkerfeldt, J. (2007) · KTH Publication Database DiVA (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)
Kritiska framgångsfaktorer vid införande av Workflow i en organisation
Nyström, P., & Bogeblad, M. (1998) · Gothenburg University Publications Electronic Archive (Gothenburg University)
The politics of simulation: actors' information system use
Emberson, C., & Storey, J. W. (2008) · Open Research Online (The Open University)
The Paradox of Organizing Knowledge
Dirksen, V., Huizing, A., & Smit, B. (2008)
Le‐Nguyen, K., Dyerson, R., & Harindranath, G. (2009) · Journal of the Association for Information Systems
The 2001 Southam Lecture: Reflections on Harold Innis's "Minerva's Owl"
Taylor, J. R. (2001) · Canadian Journal of Communication · doi:10.22230/cjc.2001v26n3a1232
The Web in High School Science Teaching: What Does a Teacher Need to Know
Wallace, R. M. (2000)
Virtual Communities in Negotiation: From Discourse to Praxis…and Back
Huizing, A., & Dirksen, V. (2008)
Sitorus, L. (2005) · Nordic design research conference · doi:10.21606/nordes.2005.031
Afterword: from this revolution to the next
Forbus, K. D., & Feltovich, P. J. (2001) · The MIT Press eBooks
Special Section on Learning in Communities: Introduction
Carroll, J. M., & Bishop, A. P. (2006) · The Journal of Community Informatics · doi:10.15353/joci.v2i2.2084
Dubhchair, K. Ó. (1999) · Dublin City University Open Access Institutional Repository (Dublin City University)
Designing information artefacts for knowledge workers
Lees, D. Y., & Thomas, P. (1998) · Personal and Ubiquitous Computing · doi:10.1007/bf01885562
Weil, J. (1998) · Anthropology of Work Review · doi:10.1525/awr.1998.18.4.28
Understanding Volunteerism in the Kananaskis Region: A Case Study of Staff and Volunteers
Zabel, L. D. (2014) · Libraries and Cultural Resources (University of Calgary) · doi:10.5072/prism/28579
Use Scenarios: A Useful Design Tool for mBusiness
Sadler, K., Robertson, T., & Kan, M. (2005) · International Conference on Mobile Business · doi:10.1109/icmb.2005.109
Millerand, F., & Baker, K. S. (2011) · eScholarship (California Digital Library)
Pedersen, R. (2013) · NORA - Norwegian Open Research Archives
An approach to teaching cooperative systems
Hawryszkiewycz, I. T. (2002) · International Conference on Software Engineering: Education and Practice (SEEP) · doi:10.1109/seep.1998.707663
A practice perspective on organizational implementation of information technology
Vuokko, R. (2010) · Doria (University of Helsinki)
Boundaries between Participants in Outsourced Requirements Construction
Salmela, S. T., & Syrjänen, A.-L. (2010) · Lecture notes in business information processing · doi:10.1007/978-3-642-14874-3_5
Goff, M. (2014) · University of Salford Institutional Repository (University of Salford)
Process models: Neutral ground for collaboration, but power matters
Nolte, A., & Prilla, M. (2011)
SPECIAL ISSUE ON DESIGN-USE RELATIONSHIPS IN SOSIOTECHNICAL CHANGE
Hyysalo, S., & Heiskanen, E. (2007)
Asaro, P. (2009)
Kammer, P. J., Taylor, R. N., & Irvine, I. (2005)
Spillane, J. P., & Zuberi, A. (2009)
Interorganizational Collaboration among Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
Magnusson, J., & Nilsson, A. (2005)
da Cunha, J. V., Lessa, R. A., & Carugati, A. (2011)
Cross-Cultural Participatory Design in the Developing World.
Waema, T. M., Camara, S. B., & Abdelnour-Nocera, J. (2008)
Payne, C. L. (2004) · VTechWorks (Virginia Tech)
Spielen Sie noch? Bausteine im Unternehmenskontext
Oppl, S. (2007) · Mensch & Computer Workshopband
Salvador, T., & Anderson, K. T. (2004)
Annotieren von grafischen Darstellungen auf dem Bildschirm
Riedewald, S. (2003) · FreiDok plus (Universitätsbibliothek Freiburg)
Building the Social into Systems Design
Button, G., Crabtree, A., Rouncefield, M., & Tolmie, P. (2015) · Human-computer interaction series · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-21954-7_2
Role of Culture in the Design and Evaluation of Consumer Products
Kothaneth, S. (2013) · CRC Press eBooks · doi:10.1201/b15563-4
Luck, R. (2016) · Human-computer interaction series · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-30028-3_3
Gunilla Bradley’s ‘Good Society’ and Structuration Theory
Stillman, L., & Denison, T. (2010) · IGI Global eBooks · doi:10.4018/978-1-60960-057-0.ch005
Inscribing Professional Knowledge and Knowing
Markauskaitė, L., & Goodyear, P. (2016) · Professional and practice-based learning · doi:10.1007/978-94-007-4369-4_10
Sahay, S. (2011) · University of the Western Cape Electronic Theses and Dissertations Repository (University of the Western Cape)
Fluidity and legitimacy: designer as minor scientist
Ghassan, A., & Blythe, M. (2016) · Design Philosophy Papers · doi:10.1080/14487136.2016.1246832
Guneratne, E. K. (2016) · eScholarship (California Digital Library)
A Special Issue on the Scholarship of Naoki Ueno
Kawatoko, Y. (2017) · Mind Culture and Activity · doi:10.1080/10749039.2017.1308512
Konfigurationer af digitalt borgerskab i Danmark gennem fortællinger om Torben og it-labyrinten
Jensen, S. M. (2016) · Nordisk Tidsskrift for Informationsvidenskab og Kulturformidling · doi:10.7146/ntik.v5i3.25788
AN EXAMINATION OF WORK PRACTICES AND TOOL USE IN HIGH RISK ENVIRONMENTS
Velasquez, N. F. (2008) · UA Campus Repository (The University of Arizona)
Turns, J., Yellin, J. M. H., Huang, Y., & Gygi, K. (2020) · ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition · doi:10.18260/1-2--1259
Supporting Clusters to Create Value: Are We Missing Something?
Jaegersberg, G., & Ure, J. (2017) · Innovation, technology and knowledge management · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-50365-3_1
Making Conformance Work: Constructing Accessibility Standards Compliance
Benjamin, A. (2010) · TSpace (University of Toronto)
A PhD should not look like it’s fun: an actor network theory analysis of digital badges
Mewburn, I. (2017) · ANU Open Research (Australian National University)
Reflexionen zur Ökologie sichtbarer und unsichtbarer Arbeit bei Susan Leigh Star und Anselm Strauss
Potthast, J. (2017) · Locating media · doi:10.14361/9783839431269-013
Appropriation and Principled Security
Dodier-Lazaro, S. (2015) · UCL Discovery (University College London)
The Role of the Technology in the Making of a Thesis Whisperer
Trembath, J.-L., & Mewburn, I. (2017) · The Unfamiliar · doi:10.2218/unfamiliar.v7i1.1884
The Lifescapes of Public University Students: Extending Work Practice to Macro and Micro Levels
Delcore, H. D. (2018) · Human Organization · doi:10.17730/1938-3525.77.1.1
Läkare, lärande och interaktion i hälso-och sjukvårdspraktiker
Thörne, K. E. (2018) · doi:10.3384/diss.diva-147359
Understanding the Literacies of Working Class First-Generation College Students
Schiavone, A. (2017) · Deep Blue (University of Michigan)
Communicating references in geographically separated collaborative work : an exploratory study
Holm, Å. (2003) · DiVA (Luleå University of Technology)
Les médias sociaux comme environnement d'interactions hyper-personnelles
Ferrari, G. (2018) · Interfaces numériques · doi:10.25965/interfaces-numeriques.2737
Shifting standards: Participative dimensions of information literacy
Gazan, R., MacLean, K., & Wahl, N. (2018) · Proceedings of the Association for Information Science and Technology · doi:10.1002/pra2.2018.14505501124
Baldacchino, D. (2018) · OAR@UM (University of Malta)
Kim, J. G. (2019) · Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)
Smith, T. (2018) · Carleton University's Institutional Repository (MacOdrum Library, Carleton University) · doi:10.22215/etd/2018-12843
Acharya, A., & Biswas, S. (2019) · Advances in human resources management and organizational development book series · doi:10.4018/978-1-5225-9675-2.ch005
Informality and Consumption: Navigating Marketplaces in Bangalore, India
Chandra, P. (2019) · Deep Blue (University of Michigan)
The Need for Visibility: The Influence of Social Media Communication on Swiss Armed Forces Officers
de Baseggio, E. M. (2020) · Advanced sciences and technologies for security applications · doi:10.1007/978-3-030-47511-6_4
Systems-Based Patient Work Analyses of Older Adults with Heart Failure
Mickelson, R. S. (2017)
Invisible value : how peripheral functions display their worth using narrative action
Mellody, J. C. (2020) · DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Amrute, S. (2021) · Fronteiras - estudos midiáticos · doi:10.4013/fem.2021.231.02
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
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
