Baptista, João, Stein, Mari-Klara, Klein, Stefan, Watson-Manheim, Mary Beth and Lee, Jungwoo (2020) Digital work and organisational transformation : emergent digital/human work configurations in modern organisations. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 29 (2). 101618. doi:10.1016/j.jsis.2020.101618

PDF WRAP-digital-work-organisational-transformation-Baptista-2020.pdf - Accepted Version Embargoed item. Restricted access to Repository staff only until 29 June 2022. Contact author directly, specifying your specific needs. - Requires a PDF viewer. Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives 4.0. Download (391Kb)

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

Workplace technologies are more central to working in organisations than ever before. These technologies began as instrumental aids to support office work of individuals but have since also become the basis for social interactions and community building in organisations and more recently become able to perform managerial roles with the use of advanced AI capabilities. Our call for papers to this special issue invited original studies to go further and advance our thinking on the strategic implications of this layered evolution of workplace technologies on work and the structure of organisations. In this introduction, we synthesise the main themes from the special issue, and also ongoing dialogues with the growing community at the regular AIS / IFIP 9.1 workshop on the Changing Nature of Work. A key observation is that the work involved in configuring emergent Digital/Human configurations, is vastly under-reported and poorly understood. Paradoxically, this configuring work is the most demanding and critical in the shaping of modern organisations. We suggest that this type of largely invisible work requires engagement beyond the level of execution or even the meaning of work, it requires intervening with third order effects that get to the core of what an organisation is. We highlight the challenges for organisations in dealing with third order change, particularly because these effects are beyond existing frames of reference and require more dynamic and supple responses based on the values, purpose and intent dominant in the organisation – we describe this as structural digital work. Leaders that are unable or unwilling to engage with effects at this level, and this type of work, will miss identifying core opportunities and risks associated with digital transformation in organisations. We also reflect on the value of current theories and methods used to research this important and emergent phenomenon.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HF Commerce
Divisions:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Warwick Business School
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Personal Internet use in the workplace, Information technology -- Management, Management information systems, Business -- Data processing, Business enterprises -- Computer networks -- Security measures, Organizational change
Journal or Publication Title:	The Journal of Strategic Information Systems
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0963-8687
Official Date:	June 2020
Dates:	Date Event June 2020 Published 29 June 2020 Available 15 June 2020 Accepted
Volume:	29
Number:	2
Article Number:	101618
DOI:	10.1016/j.jsis.2020.101618
Status:	Peer Reviewed
Publication Status:	Published
Publisher Statement:	© 2020, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.
Access rights to Published version:	Restricted or Subscription Access

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item