Progress in IS

Mobile Computer Usability

Gamel O. Wiredu

An Organizational Personality Perspective

Progress in IS

For further volumes:http://www.springer.com/series/10440

Gamel O. Wiredu

Mobile Computer Usability

An Organizational Personality Perspective

The Forward by Dr. Carsten Sørensen

123

Gamel O. WireduSchool of TechnologyGhana Institute of Management

and Public Administration (GIMPA)Achimota, AccraGhana

ISSN 2196-8705 ISSN 2196-8713 (electronic)ISBN 978-3-642-41073-4 ISBN 978-3-642-41074-1 (eBook)DOI 10.1007/978-3-642-41074-1Springer Heidelberg New York Dordrecht London

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013949483

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To my mother Comfort Appiah Twum whohas raised a godly generation

Foreword

It seems like an eternity in technology-terms, but in 2013 exactly 40 years ago,Martin Cooper made the World’s first mobile phone call. It took a while before themobile phone spread across all countries, social strata and every imaginable kindof use. However, when it began, the process was rapid. Back in the 1970s it wasestimated that a majority of the World’s population had never made a telephonecall. Now it can be estimated that a vast majority has (Google Answers 2002).

I have had a keen interest in understanding mobile technologies since the Early1990s when I was helping some Swedish doctoral students at the Viktoria Institutein Gothenburg with the PhD work. While some of this work focused on the mobilephone, most of it was anchored in the study of personal digital assistants (PDAs) asthese offered programmability and computer interactivity—contrary to the mobilephones of that era. The students I worked with were keen to understand the role ofsuch portable technology in the context of work through a combination of eth-nographic study, the design of systems, and the real-life test of the new systems(Dahlbom and Ljungberg 1998).

There is a solid body of studies exploring the general social impact of themobile phone (See for example, Fortunati 2002; Katz and Aakhus 2002; Licoppe2004; Horst and Miller 2006; Castells et al. 2007; Ling 2008). There is, however,far from an equally solid body of work on the just as important issue of how moregeneral mobile- and ubiquitous information technology shapes and is shaped byworking life (Sørensen 2011).

Given the extent of global adoption of mobile information technology, andassuming the changing nature of the human experience through this technology, itis quite surprising that there is a relative paucity of research into the specifics ofthis kind of technology in the context of work and organisational activities—enterprise mobility. A call for action was made a decade ago for the InformationSystems (IS) community to take up the challenge of trying to understand theindividual, organisational and broader relationship with mobile informationtechnology (Lyytinen and Yoo, 2002). However, counting a decade worth ofInformation Systems publications from the 8 main journals between 2000 and2010 reveals that 76 papers specifically discuss mobile information technology,representing a proportion of 3.8% of the articles (Sørensen and Landau 2013). So itis safe to say that there is still room for more work!

vii

It was from the start clear to me that shrinking technology so it can be carriedaround is not only a simple matter of just providing access to the computer systems‘‘anytime, and anywhere’’—to use a common phrase. It was indeed almost theopposite, that the ‘‘anytime, anywhere’’ assumption only focused on the some non-human, non-social notion of endless possibilities. The real issues only emergewhen the potential meets the realities (Sørensen 2011). This reality with portableand connected information technologies of various kinds brings with it changes tothe human-technology relationship as the closeness of the technology to our bodyin itself changes the relationship. A remote mainframe located somewhere in thebasement of an office building, and which spews out monthly payslips is importantand valuable, but mostly for the organisation. The personal computer armed with aspread sheet application helping a middle-manager making sense of this quarter’sfigures in terms of his or her specific situation, can be equally important for theorganisation, but possibly even more important for the individual middle-manager.Yet, the mobile phone providing the potential of instant connection with importantcolleagues and loved family members alike takes on a new kind of personalimportance. The intimacy of the relationships fostered between the person and thetechnology is continous, deep, and mutually constitutive. A pair of shoes areshaped by our feet through use, and our feet are over a lifetime formed by thekinds of shoes we choose to use. Equally, the everyday use of mobile informationtechnology will engender a similar relationship, except it will be a highly infor-mational and interactive one, and possibly also a much more contradictory.

This book exactly takes up this challenge. It is an in-depth empirical account oftwo extensive pieces of fieldwork—one by the author and one by a colleague.These empirical efforts explore the co-constitution of individuals, organisationalunits, and technological affordances within. The study of a group of Britishhealthcare professionals engaging in distance learning supported by networkedPDA’s, and the study of Middle Eastern mobile foreign exchange traders may inthe surface seem quite far apart, but highly interesting lessons are learnt bycomparing and contrasting across these cases. The case studies are inherentlyinteresting in-depth views into a rapidly emerging organisational normality.

However, the main strength of this book is its insistence on providing a soundtheoretical understanding of the empirical studies. To this end an extensive dis-cussion and application of Activity Theory is provided and this marks a refreshingdeparture from most of the research in the organisational use of mobile infor-mation technology. The main challenge facing the study of mobile informationtechnology in the context of work is the distillation of what actually makes thistechnology and associated practices significantly different from other technologiesand their associated practices. The ability to replicate existing arrangements onmobile information technology easily leads to the unconstructive assertion of‘‘anytime, anywhere’’, as the main difference between mobile information tech-nology and other information technologies. This book seeks more substantialexplanations and achieves this through the lens of Activity Theory, which allowsfor a more comprehensive understanding of the relationships between the indi-vidual technology relationships in a broader context.

viii Foreword

Information Systems research tends to emphasise the organisational analysisusing social theories or factor-based studies of individual adoption. WithinComputer Supported Collaborative Work (CSCW) the group is a common ana-lytical unit. The field of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) largely considers theindividual with some forays into groups and organisations. This book, through itsthorough anchoring in and application of Activity Theory, most interestinglybridges individual, group and organisational perspectives. In particular it offers atheoretical exploration of the individual in context so absent from the InformationSystems debate in general and the discussion of mobile- and ubiquitous infor-mation technology at work in particular (Yoo 2010). The resulting suggestion anddiscussion of an ‘‘organizational personality perspective’’ significantly contributesto the current understanding of what indeed makes the organisational use of mobileinformation technology different from other technologies.

In summary, the book contributes significantly to our understanding of enter-prise mobility. It is a highly valuable and interesting exploration spanning psy-chological and sociological perspectives in understanding the human,organisational, technological interplay when mobile information technology entersorganisational life. Enjoy an interesting, informative and valuable read—I cer-tainly did!

References

Castells, M., J. L. Qiu, M. Fernandez-Ardevol, & A. Sey (2007): Mobile Com-munication and Society: A Global Perspective. The MIT Press.

Dahlbom, B. & F. Ljungberg (1998): Mobile Informatics. Scandinavian Journalof Information Systems, vol. 10, no. 1&2, pp. 227-34.

Fortunati, L. (2002): The Mobile Phone: Towards new Categories and SocialRelations. Information, Communication & Society, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. 513-528.

Google Answers (2002): What percentage of the world has made a phone call?,http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=20411.

Horst, H. & D. Miller (2006): The Cell Phone: An Anthropology of Commu-nication. Berg Publishers Ltd.

Katz, J. E. & M. Aakhus, ed. (2002): Perpetual ContactCambridge UniversityPress. 0521002664.

Licoppe, C. (2004): Connected Presence: The Emergence of a New Repertoirefor Managing Social Relationships in a Changing Communication Technoscape.Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, vol. 22, pp. 135-156.

Ling, R. (2008): New Tech, New Ties: How Mobile Communication is Re-shaping Social Cohesion. The MIT Press.

Lyytinen, K. & Y. Yoo (2002): The Next Wave of Nomadic Computing: AResearch Agenda for Information Systems Research. Information SystemsResearch, vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 377-388.

Foreword ix

Sørensen, C. (2011): Enterprise Mobility: Tiny Technology with Global Impacton Work. Palgrave. http://enterprisemobilitybook.com.

Sørensen, C. & J. Landau (2013): We’ve Got 99 Problems, but a Phone Ain’tOne: Mobile IT and Feedback in Information Systems Research. In IFIP WG 8.2OASIS Workshop, ed. Y. Eseryel. Milan.

Yoo, Y. (2010): Computing in Everyday Life: A Call for Research on Expe-riential Computing MIS Quarterly, vol. 34, no. 2, pp. 213-231.

London, October 13th, 2013 Carsten SorensenLondon School of Economics

and Political Sciencehttp://www.carstensorensen.com

x Foreword

Preface

The aim of this book is to explain how mobile computer usability is shaped by theincreasing integration of personal circumstances in organization. It represents anattempt to conceptualize an alternative model of mobile computer usability. It ismotivated by my conviction that we do not yet have an adequate understanding ofthis concept because we have not taken seriously the transformation of humanpersonality in the co-evolution of organization and ICTs. The book suggests thatthe transformation has resulted in a human personality whose personal andorganizational activities are characterized by strong continuities between them.This characterization reflects a new kind of personality of the worker, and is acritical determinant of mobile computer usability. I use the word ‘organizational’to describe this kind of personality—hence an alternative organizational person-ality perspective on mobile computer usability is being proffered in this book.

The central theme of the organizational personality perspective is the impor-tance of the personal dimension for understanding the usability of mobile com-puters. A related theme is the increasing seamlessness between the personal andorganizational contexts of work and mobile computing. Another related theme isthe importance of a historical approach to understanding how organization,technology, and personality co-evolve to shape mobile computer usability.

On the whole, the organizational personality perspective argues that a mobilecomputer is more usable to a person than another one because of its satisfaction ofboth his personal and organizational motives, which are in turn shaped by the co-evolution of organization, technology, and personality. This is a theoretical per-spective which offers new insights for analyzing mobile computing according toorganizational transformation, human development, and ICT innovation altogetherwithin a historical framework.

xi

Acknowledgements

The seminal ideas of this book’s thesis were developed during my Doctor ofPhilosophy research studies from 2002 to 2005 at The London School of Eco-nomics and Political Science (LSE), United Kingdom. Therefore, Carsten Søren-sen, who was my supervisor, has contributed immensely towards the developmentof these ideas. He found me the empirical case, and accompanied me on theBakerloo Line train from Embankment to Paddington for our first meeting with theproject authorities at Imperial College. Given that we are still collaborating onmobile computing research today, and that he has written the preface to this book,my indebtedness to him is without doubt.

I also thank my assessors, Susan Scott and Antonio Cordella, as well as mytutor, Jannis Kallinikos, who provided me with valuable suggestions on theseminal ideas of this book during my doctoral studies.

Roger Kneebone of Imperial College London and his peri-operative specialistpractitioner (PSP) project team, as well as the PSPs whose learning activities Istudied, deserve a special mention because coming into contact with them wasanother decisive encounter of my research. I thank Roger for allowing me to studythe project throughout its duration, and even to study it as an action researcherwhich allowed me overwhelming access to data and were immensely beneficial. Ithank his team members—Harry Brenton, Amanda Burgess, Jackie Younger,Michael Singh and Heather Fry—for their invaluable support. I also thank the 12PSPs for their cooperation during my interviews and tutorials, and for all thesupport they offered me when I was in desperate need of data from them.

Beyond LSE, my colleagues at the Interaction Design Centre (IDC) of Uni-versity of Limerick in Ireland, where I undertook a two-year post-doctoral studyfrom 2005 to 2007, challenged me greatly to enhance my research capacity, and Iam also thankful to them: Liam Bannon, Gabriela Avram, Daniel Sullivan, AndersSigfridsson, Anne Sheehan, Michael Hales, Michael Cook, Luigina Ciolfi, BrianFitzgerald, Pär Agerfalk, and Helena Holmström Olsson. Although the focus of myglobal software development research at IDC was not mobile computing, I learneda lot from its distributed organization component. For this reason, I want to givespecial thanks to our leader, Liam Bannon, for giving me the post-doctoral studyopportunity.

Since I joined Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration(GIMPA) in 2007, I have been motivated greatly to continue my mobile

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computing research by the authorities of the Institute: Stephen Adei, Yaw Agy-eman Badu, Franklyn Manu, Clement Somuah and Gabriel Canacoo. I am thankfulto them for recognizing my abilities and for providing all the support I havereceived to continue doing research. I am also grateful to my colleagues SamuelBonsu, Samuel Adams, Kwabena Frimpong, Samuel Famiyeh, Bernard ObengAcquah, and Isaac Wiafe whose passions for research continue to inspire me.Outside GIMPA, I am collaborating with John Effah, Kofi Agyenim Boateng,Solomon Negash and Peter Meso who have all helped me to sustain my interest inresearch. I am thankful especially to John Effah who read a draft of this book andoffered me valuable comments.

Although my wife, Akosua, has come to terms with the time I spend in mystudy reading and writing, she was dreading how this book would reduce myattention to her and our daughter, and rightly so. Without doubt, my writingreduced my attention and confirmed her fears, but she has been patient and verysupportive. I am indebted to her. Our daughter, Sarah, also deserves a big thank-you for putting smiles on my face in times when I was grappling with ideas towrite in this book. I hope she will grow to be inspired by her father’s book, andlove reading and writing.

My mother has been a great inspiration towards my writing of this bookbecause she has been waiting for it since I decided to pursue an academic career.Therefore, this book is in response to her question ‘‘when are you going to write abook?’’ She has toiled ‘sweat and blood’ since I was a child to train me accordingto God’s ways and to ensure that I took my studies seriously. In the face of myrebellious attitude in my youthful days, she stood her grounds to discipline mewhen necessary. I dedicate this book to her.

Having said all these, to God alone be the glory for all the wherewithal He hasgiven me to produce this book. But who am I, and what am I, that I should dedicateit to thee O God? What do I have that I did not receive from thee graciously? Allthings come of Thee, and of Thine own am I giving Thee. My pen alone cannotexpress my thanksgiving to Thee, but I know that Thou knowest my heart andthoughts thoroughly—Thou knowest that I am profoundly grateful to Thee.

Soli Deo GloriaGOW

xiv Acknowledgements

Contents

Part I: Theory

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11.1 Usability of ICTs: Relevance and General Perspectives . . . . . . . 3

1.1.1 Social Construction and Technology Determinism . . . . . 51.2 Key Themes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

1.2.1 The Unity of Technology Applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71.2.2 The Continuity of Use Contexts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

1.3 The Significance of Unity and Continuity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91.4 Theoretical Assumptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

1.4.1 An Historical Conception of Human Beings. . . . . . . . . . 111.4.2 An Historical Conception of ICTs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

1.5 Structure and Content . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

2 Mobility and Mobile ICTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172.1 Functional Perspective: Mobility of Humans and Objects . . . . . . 182.2 Interactional Perspective: Spatial, Temporal and

Context Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202.2.1 Spatial Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202.2.2 Temporal Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212.2.3 Contextual Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

2.3 Mobile Services. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242.4 Historicity of Human Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

2.4.1 Biological Inducements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 262.4.2 Socio-Cultural Inducements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

2.5 Historicity of Mobile ICTs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302.5.1 Technological Inducements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 312.5.2 Socio-Economic Inducements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

2.6 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

3 The Historicity of Human Activity and Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . 373.1 Background to Cultural Historical Activity Theory . . . . . . . . . . 373.2 Activity Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

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3.3 Activity System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433.4 Principles of Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

3.4.1 Object-Orientation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 463.4.2 Externalisation and Internalisation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473.4.3 Consciousness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 493.4.4 Contradictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 513.4.5 Mediation and Prosthesis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

3.5 The Historical Epistemology of Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 553.6 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

4 The Co-evolution of Organization, Technology and Personality . . . 614.1 On Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624.2 Modern Organization, Activity and Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64

4.2.1 Embodied Labour and Collocated Organization . . . . . . . 644.2.2 Collocated Activity and Contradictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 664.2.3 Modern Personality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69

4.3 Trends in ICT Innovation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 704.3.1 Technological Trends . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 714.3.2 Socio-Technical Offshoots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73

4.4 Postmodern Organization, Activity and Personality . . . . . . . . . . 764.4.1 Disembodied Human Capital and Distributed

Organization. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 764.4.2 Distributed Activity and Meta-Contradictions . . . . . . . . . 794.4.3 Uncertainties and Autonomy of Adaptation . . . . . . . . . . 834.4.4 Postmodern or Organizational Personality . . . . . . . . . . . 85

4.5 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86

Part II: Empirical Cases and Analyses

5 Mobile Learning and Computing in the British NHS. . . . . . . . . . . 895.1 Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 895.2 Project Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

5.2.1 Pedagogical Framework . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 925.2.2 Implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92

5.3 Information Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 935.3.1 Architecture of Mobile Computing Support . . . . . . . . . . 945.3.2 Mobile Computing: Integration of PDAs . . . . . . . . . . . . 955.3.3 Data Capture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97

5.4 Implementation and Use. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 985.4.1 Stage One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 985.4.2 Stage Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1015.4.3 Stage Three . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1045.4.4 Learning Outcomes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106

xvi Contents

5.5 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1075.5.1 Problematic Learning Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1085.5.2 Marginalisation of Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109

6 Mobile Foreign Exchange Trading and Computing in aBahrain Bank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1136.1 The Kingdom of Bahrain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114

6.1.1 Bahrain as the Middle-East Financial Centre . . . . . . . . . 1146.1.2 Bahrain Geographical Time Zone on the Global

Financial Map . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1156.2 The MideastBank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117

6.2.1 The Bank’s Group Treasury . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1186.3 The Dawn of Mobile ICT-Enabled Trading in MideastBank . . . . 119

6.3.1 Evolution of Mobile ICT-Enabled Trading . . . . . . . . . . . 1196.4 The Experience of Mobile Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123

6.4.1 Interaction Overload in Mobile ICT-Enabled Trading . . . 1236.4.2 From Equivoque to Adaptation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1246.4.3 Construction of Multiple Identities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127

6.5 Summary of Findings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1286.5.1 Volatility and Control . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1286.5.2 Expectations-Driven Configurations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

7 Distributed Activities and Mobile Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1317.1 Conditions and Contradictions in Distributed Activities . . . . . . . 131

7.1.1 Distributed Learning and Contradictions . . . . . . . . . . . . 1337.1.2 Distance and Mobility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1377.1.3 Learning Conditions and Mobile Computing . . . . . . . . . 139

7.2 Organizational Control and Mobile Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1417.2.1 Control and Technology Use . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1417.2.2 Control, Distributed Organization, and

Mobile Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1437.3 Coordination and Mobile Computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147

7.3.1 Individualization of Coordination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1487.3.2 Duality of Flexibility . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149

7.4 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150

8 The Organizational Personality Perspective onMobile Computer Usability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1538.1 The Need for Unity and Continuity in Appropriation and

Perception of Mobile Computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1548.1.1 Motives and Mobile Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1548.1.2 Flexibility of Mobile computing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1558.1.3 Design Properties and Inscriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1568.1.4 The Role of Representation and Perception . . . . . . . . . . 158

Contents xvii

8.2 Conceptualizing Mobile Computer Usability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1628.2.1 Arguments from User Appropriation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1638.2.2 Arguments from Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1668.2.3 Implications for Design and Implementation . . . . . . . . . 1688.2.4 Implications for Research. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170

8.3 Chapter Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1728.4 Book Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172

Appendix: Methodology and Other Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189

Author Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 201

Subject Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207

xviii Contents

Figures

Fig. 2.1 Factors affecting mobile ICT use [Source adapted fromKristofferson and Ljungberg (2000)]. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Fig. 2.2 Mobile information services Source Mathiassen and Sorensen(2008) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Fig. 3.1 a The structure of the unmediated act. b The structure of themediated act: S Stimulus, R Response, and X Mediating Sign[Source Vygotsky (1978)] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Fig. 3.2 General structure of an activity. Adopted from Leont’ev(1978) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Fig. 3.3 Basic structure of an activity at individual level[Source Engeström (1987)] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44

Fig. 3.4 An activity system [Source Adopted from Engeström (1987)] . . . 45Fig. 3.5 Four levels of contradictions within the human activity system

[Source Engeström (1987)] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53Fig. 4.1 Learning activity depicting the differences in motives and the

dual identity of the learner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67Fig. 4.2 Work activity depicting the differences in motives and the

dual identity of the worker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69Fig. 4.3 Unmediated sense-making of actions in a collocated activity . . . . 70Fig. 4.4 Mediated sense-making of actions in distributed activity . . . . . . . 82Fig. 5.1 Sketched architecture of the mobile computing support . . . . . . . . 95Fig. 5.2 The Compaq/HP iPAQ H5450/H3970 handheld computer

and foldable keyboard. a PDA-in-cradle with synchronisationcable; b PDA and folded keyboard; c PDA mounted onopened keyboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

Fig. 5.3 Selected screen dumps of the pocket excel and wordapplications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99

Fig. 5.4 Selected screen dumps of the abcDB application . . . . . . . . . . . . 102Fig. 5.5 Selected screen dumps of the HandBase application . . . . . . . . . . 105Fig. 6.1 Bahrain in context . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116Fig. 6.2 Trading pagers (Reuters SmartWatch) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121Fig. 6.3 Reuters foreign exchange web-services for pocketPC . . . . . . . . . 122Fig. 6.4 24-h trading solutions adopted by the mideastBank. . . . . . . . . . . 123

xix

Fig. 6.5 Screen dumps of the reuters 3000Xtracompanion pocketPC . . . . . 126Fig. 7.1 The central/learning activity system of a PSP. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132Fig. 7.2 Interaction between the central and advanced activity . . . . . . . . . 133Fig. 7.3 Inner contradictions within the central activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135Fig. 7.4 The changing role of the PSP as a factor of distance . . . . . . . . . 138Fig. 7.5 Matrix of control. source Adapted from (Nidumolu and

Subramani 2003) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142Fig. 7.6 Control categories as factors of the strength of

contradictions and copresence of distant authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145Fig. 8.1 Appropriation of the PDA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157Fig. 8.2 Filtration of the PDA’s abstract representation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159Fig. 8.3 Representation, perception, and usability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160Fig. 8.4 Unity and continuity in mobile computer usability . . . . . . . . . . . 162Fig. 8.5 Conceptual framework for analyzing mobile computing . . . . . . . 171

xx Figures

Tables

Table 2.1 Dimensions of mobility. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23Table 8.1 Representation, ubiquity and pragmatism as principles

of the usability of mobile computers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168

xxi

Chapter 1Introduction

The central thesis of this book is that the usability of mobile computers should beunderstood in terms of the correlation between unity of organizational and personalapplications in mobile computers on the one hand, and continuity of organizationaland personal use contexts on the other. This understanding is important becausethe nature of mobile computers and contemporary work practices induces theincreasing inclusion of the user’s personal or cognitive needs of existence anddevelopment—that is, his psychological frame—into the human–computer dyad.The dyad determines mobile computer usability; and so this understanding is,hopefully, useful to designers, implementers and researchers of mobile informa-tion systems in organisations and society. It is also timely because mobile com-puting, as prognosticated in the ubiquitous computing vision (Weiser 1991;Kleinrock 1996), is increasingly becoming a predominant aspect of contemporarycomputing in organizations and society.

The idea that usability of computers goes beyond their functionality is not new(e.g. Goodwin 1987); so also is the understanding that mobile computer usabilitytranscends the traditional organizational context to incorporate aspects of theuser’s private or personal circumstances (e.g. Cousins and Robey 2005). However,extant explanations in the literature show that only few personality-based userneeds are taken into account (e.g. Coursaris and Kim 2006; Blom and Monk 2003;Heo et al. 2009; Bristow et al. 2004; Palen and Salzman 2002). Yet, even whereany propositions take users, their personalities, and their personalization of tech-nology into account, the ideas are limited by weak definitions of user needs.

For instance, Blom and Monk (2003) explain the cognitive dimension of mobileusability by defining user needs in terms of ease of use, improved aesthetics, andrecognition of system. But their definition is bereft of cognitive terms that borderon users’ means of existence and development such as learning, personal infor-mation management and timely notifications of dangerous circumstances. Bristowand colleagues’ (2004) ‘reference markers’—event, task, environment, person, andobject—which they use to define the context for evaluating mobile usability arealso weak in definition of user needs. They define user needs in terms of ‘‘currentpsychological state,’’ leaving out any historical considerations that reflect the

G. O. Wiredu, Mobile Computer Usability, Progress in IS,DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-41074-1_1, � Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

1

origin and development of an organism considered as an individual entity (onto-genesis); and the entire sequence of events involved in the evolution and devel-opment of a group of organisms (phylogenesis).

Furthermore, the framework of Heo and colleagues (2009) for evaluating theusability of mobile phones also suffers from inadequate explanations of user needs.They define user needs in terms of the technology’s functional support andmanipulation style without providing any additional details on the particular needsin their framework. The research by Palen and Salzman (2002) also aims atconceptualizing the usability of handheld computers. They rightly argue thatproblems of usability scale beyond the technology to include parameters such as itspurveyors, network service providers and incentive providers, all working in asocio-technical system. However, like Bristow and colleagues, their conceptuali-zation is weak in the profitability of cognition in general and of perception inparticular. Judging by Coursasis and Kim’s (2006) review, extant research workson mobile computer usability show that very little attention has been paid to users’cognitive needs of existence and development.

Inadequate explanations of the cognitive dimensions of mobile computerusability are also witnessed in the human–computer interaction (HCI) literature onmobile technology which draws implications for usability. They are witnessed, forexample, in accounts of use-in-motion (Barnard et al. 2005), of interactions (Yorkand Pendharkar 2004; Schrott and Glückler 2004), of stress (Picard and Liu 2006),of texting (Mckenzie and Soukoreff 2002) and of design (Lalji and Good 2008;Paternò and Santoro 2003; Dix et al. 2000). These accounts largely reflect theusefulness of technology for work across time and space, as also demonstrated byresearchers in other information technology related fields.

For example, Sørensen and Pica (2005) explain ‘‘rhythms of interactions withmobile technologies’’ as the interplay between virtual work (mobile computing)and physical work (actual policing without mobile computing). A similar idea isexhibited in Weilenmann’s (2001) explanations in terms of negotiation of mobilephone use between ‘‘talk’’ and ‘‘action.’’ Scheepers and colleagues (2006) alsodiscuss mobile technology use in terms of contextual influences between organi-zational and personal contexts. Other efforts are witnessed in Lyytinen and Yoo’s(2002) summary of the research challenges implied by the emerging socio-tech-nical phenomenon of mobile technology use: there is a need for research inves-tigating the divide between the social and the technical. Thus, the body of researchon mobile computing has largely explored the social and organisational aspects ofmobile technology use (see, for example, Ling 2004; Rheingold 2002; Katz andAakhus 2002; Hamill and Lasen 2005). However, the great majority of thisresearch in general emphasizes social impact and in particular favours the study ofeveryday use of mobile technologies.

The sociology-bias underpinning these explanations can be seen in their largeadherence to and satisfaction of the principles of pragmatism and ubiquity.Pragmatism refers to the here-and-now usefulness or uselessness of a mobilecomputer for augmenting or mediating a task according to the task’s dynamics.

2 1 Introduction

Ubiquity refers to the user’s ability to use a mobile computer on-the-move toovercome space and time barriers. In short, these explanations of mobile usabilityare limited because of the following reasons:

• They are modelled with static/bulky computers which are more useful forunderstanding their usability, and less useful for understanding mobile usability

• They are largely organizational and overlook the personal dimension. Theypreclude the increasingly distinctive role of the user’s cognitive needs of exis-tence and survival in user satisfaction.

• They do not account for the unity and continuity of personal and organizationaldimensions in computer applications and use contexts respectively.

• They are destitute of an historical epistemology which is necessary for con-ceptualization. They do not account for the historicity of the user’s personalactivity and perception.

• They do not account for the user’s personality and appropriation of technology.

This book, therefore, primarily contributes a more adequate social-psycholog-ical conceptualization of mobile computer usability based on a more holisticdefinition of user needs. The contribution is an alternative organizational per-sonality perspective which explains the importance of the increasing seamlessnessand mutual shaping between the user’s personal and organizational contexts ofmobile work and computing. The outcome is an social psycholological model thatemphasises the unity of organizational and personal applications in the mobilecomputer as well as the continuity of the user’s organizational and personalcontexts. The conceptualization extends the existing understanding of mobileusability by subjecting it to the interplay between the organizational and personaldimensions of technology applications and of the use context. These premises ofunity of applications and continuity of the use context are my observations fromover 10 years of research on mobile computing in different continents.

1.1 Usability of ICTs: Relevance and General Perspectives

The usability of information and communication technologies (ICTs) as a problemdomain in information systems research has been a pervasive challenge, and it hasbeen theorized by various scholars in the field (see, for example, Goodwin 1987;Davis 1989; Davis et al. 1989; Adams et al. 1992; Goodhue 1995; Goodhue andThompson 1995; Lamb and Kling 2003; Gefen and Straub 1997; Orlikowski 2000;Cousins and Robey 2005). The challenge has always reflected researchers’ andpractitioners’ needs for greater understanding of why people accept, appropriate orresist information technology as a means for predicting and improving useracceptance. Both parties agree that it is important to ‘‘better understand how andwhy people are likely to use their technologies and with what (intended andunintended) consequences in different conditions’’ (Orlikowski 2000, p. 423).Davis and his colleagues also talk about the need for ‘‘a better understanding of

1 Introduction 3

why people resist using computers in order to derive practical methods for eval-uating systems, predicting how users will respond to them, and improving useracceptance by altering the nature of systems and the processes by which they areimplemented’’ (1989, p. 982).

In these theorization efforts, explanations of technology use are premised onfactors such as perception, intentions, interactions and tasks; and have led totheories such as technology acceptance model (TAM) (Davis 1989; Davis et al.1989), social construction of technology (Bijker 2001; Bijker et al. 1987), tech-nology determinism (Winner 2001; Woolgar 1991), structurational model oftechnology use (Orlikowski 1992, 2000; DeSanctis and Poole 1994), and rein-vention of technology innovations (Boudreau and Robey 2006; Rice and Rogers1980; Rogers 1995), to name the most prominent.

In her review of the literature on the relationship between technology func-tionality and usability, Goodwin (1987) points out that usability matters, and that itaffects functionality. However, her suggestion seems to be quite simplistic in theface of TAM where Davis (1989) theorization of user acceptance of informationtechnology is in terms of the relationship between users’ perception of usefulnessand ease of use. Davis’ ideas rather illuminate the importance of perceived use-fulness in determining usability. Similarly, Davis and his colleagues (1989, p. 997)also argue that ‘‘perceived usefulness is a major determinant of people’s intentionsto use computers,’’ deeming perceived ease of use as a secondary determinant ofusability. Replicating Davis’ research, Adams and colleagues (1992) argue againstDavis that usability is loosely coupled with perceived usefulness and perceivedease of use.

The conceptualization of technology use, based on the relationship betweenperceived usability (functionality) and usefulness, has implicit connotations ofgoal-orientation. However, the various theorization efforts have not made themexplicit. This limitation is addressed by Goodhue’s (1995) and Goodhue andThompson’s (1995) theorization based on the fitness between technology and taskwhich gives more prominence to goal-orientation as a determinant of users’evaluation of technology. Goal-orientation in turn implies the shaping of usabilityby organizational factors, suggesting that the concept should not be theorized as astatic one; but rather as a dynamic one linked with organizational conditions.

These scholars, in particular Goodwin, provide snapshots of the variable factorsthat shape usability; but they leave unexplored the idea that the functionality andusability of the same technology can be socially constructed (can vary) within thestrategic relationship between technology and organization structure. Lamb andKling’s (2003) conceptualization of the ‘‘user as social actor,’’ and Cheney andcolleagues’ (1986) conceptualization of end user success based on organizationalfactors reflect the widening of the usability theorization spectrum beyond the mereindividual user to encompass the organization’s internal and external environments,including the user’s interactions. For instance, within the domain of the mobilecomputer usability, the conceptualizations of Sørensen and Al-Taitoon (2008),Sørensen and Pica (2005), Lyytinen and Yoo (2002), Sarker and Wells (2003)

4 1 Introduction

conform with this spectrum widening. This spectrum widening is implied in thesocial construction of technology and technology determinism because each entailssocial, organizational and political forces.

1.1.1 Social Construction and Technology Determinism

On the one hand, social constructionists (e.g. MacKenzie and Wajcman 1985;Bijker 2001; Bijker et al. 1987; Woolgar 1991), argue for the supple nature oftechnology systems based on the social context of use. The context of use definesthe functional essence because usability, ease of use and/or usefulness of a tech-nology will vary from one context to another. A variant of social construction oftechnology, the structurational model of technology (Orlikowski 1992, 2000;DeSanctis and Poole 1994), also emphasizes that technology is socially con-structed during use; but the model rejects the idea that technology embodiessocially-constructed stability and structure.

On the other hand, technology determinists (e.g. Ellul 1964) argue in favour ofthe imposing nature of technology, suggesting that technology invites humanaction and not the other way round. Thus, one can perform many actions with acar, but he or she cannot fly the car like an airplane. While the technologicaldeterminists seem to base their arguments mostly on the design properties oftechnology and the motivations behind those properties, the social constructivistsseem to base their arguments on the activity or context-based interpretation of thedesign properties of technology.

However, technology possesses both determining or limiting and socially-constructed or enabling properties, Technology can be both a determinant ofactions and socially-constructed. For instance, it is reasonable to say that actionsare constrained by the physical properties of technology, and moreover that the‘‘situated use of technology is confined to a set of predefined options and reflectsthe instantiation of a context-free logic embedded in the artifact’’ (Kallinikos2002). However, it is also reasonable to say, at the same time, that an overem-phasis of technological determinism can be misleading because technology isinterpretively flexible to some extent. Bijker (2001, p. 26), for example, argues that‘‘interpretive flexibility …shows that neither an artifact’s identity nor its technical‘success’ or ‘failure’, are intrinsic properties of the artifact but subject to socialvariables.’’

Thus, ‘‘[the] fit between what needs to be done and how it can be done isseldom as tight as the determinists imagine’’ (Sabel 1982, p. 5), confirming alsothat reinvention of technological innovations is almost inevitable. Reinvention, thedegree to which an innovation is changed or modified by a user in the process of itsadoption and implementation (Rogers 1995, p. 174), is an intrinsic assumptionunderlying usability conceptualizations such as social construction, appropriation,structuration and technology adoption. Although social construction deals

1.1 Usability of ICTs: Relevance and General Perspectives 5

explicitly with how the external conditions underlying technology use shape itsshared acceptance or rejection by users (including variations in conditions andacceptance levels), its epistemology is group-based essentially.

Social construction reflects collective perceptions and judgments but canobscure real and important individual perceptions about technology. It illuminatesthe difference between the intended and functional aspects of the essence of bothphysical and psychological tools. Physical tools such as ICTs and psychologicaltools like theories and languages (Vygotsky 1978; Engeström 1987) both haveintentional essences that differ largely from their functional essences (Searle 1995,p. 14). This analytical contrast has proven very important for understanding themutual shaping between organizations or society and the shared judgment offunctional essence in technology use. However, it does not seem to be completelyapplicable to our understanding of mobile computer usability. Two main reasonsaccount collectively for this limitation.

Firstly, the personalization of mobile computers: mobile computers are largelypersonal technologies, personal in the sense that their portability enables person-alization (appropriation to serve personal motives), ‘wearing’ and easy transpor-tation by individual users (Geisler 2003). Mobile computers can be carried by anindividual anytime anywhere (although they cannot be used every time every-where); and this portrays a scenario that contrasts with static and oftentimes bulkytechnologies that can only be used in particular locations at particular times. Thus,when they are deployed to serve sanctioned mobile activities, such deploymentmay entail their use to serve users’ personal motives. A personal motive may notnecessarily conform to the motive behind his or her organizational activity, but it iscertainly directly related to the personal needs of the individual user and can be asstrong as the motive behind the organizational activity. Thus, from the viewpointof the user, deriving personal support from the mobile computer may be asimportant as using it to support the organizational activity.

Secondly, the personal-level evolution of functional essence of mobile com-puters: The functional essence of technology in terms of social construction haslargely been conceptualized only on the collective or organizational level of use.Therefore, such conceptualizations portend the collective evolution of functionalessence. In mobile activities, however, the evolution of functional essence occursat the individual level where mobile users of portable technologies largely operatealone in distributed locations. The judgment of functional essence at the individuallevel is profoundly different from the collective level because the conceptualiza-tion of technology use is derived from how functional it is to both the individualand the collection as he or she uses it in a mobile activity.

Mobile computer usability, therefore, is reflective of individual perceptions thatdeviate from a technology’s original construction or social construction, and it canlead to a new social construction. Yet, what we seem to lack is a conceptualization ofhow and why mobile computers are appropriated as they are used in mobile activitiesand the implications for improving user acceptance of mobile technologies. Giventhe high-potential for personalization of mobile computers by the individual user, aconceptualization incorporating individual activity and perceptions will constitute a

6 1 Introduction

more adequate perspective on mobile technology use. This conceptualization isaccomplished based on the integration of socially-constructed and deterministicdesign properties of mobile computers with the constructs of motives and conditionsdrawn from Activity Theory (Leont’ev 1978, 1981).

1.2 Key Themes

A fundamental premise of this contribution is the idea that the mobile computerpermits work and computation on-the-move. It permits mobile workers to morefrequently span the computational and contextual boundaries between the orga-nizational and personal spheres of their activities. Spanning the computationalboundaries reflects the unity of organizational and personal applications, whilespanning the contextual boundaries reflects continuity of organizational and per-sonal contexts of use.

1.2.1 The Unity of Technology Applications

The spanning of the computational boundaries has been made possible by how ICTinnovation has evolved to now incorporate both personal and organizationalapplications in one box. The current functionality of mobile computers such assmartphones and tablet computers constitutes a significant departure from themainframe computers of the 1950s or even the desktop versions of the 1980s.These differences in functionality have emerged from an evolution of ICT inno-vation which has witnessed the convergence of erstwhile disparate digital tech-nologies in the computer.

Digital innovation has resulted in a mobile computer which has technologiessuch as telephone, camera, television, calculator, sound recorder and player, andradio all embedded in it. This is known as device convergence (Tilson et al.2010b). Related to device convergence are the interconnections between a par-ticular mobile computer and other digital technologies via wired and wirelessnetworks to the global network. This is known as network convergence (Ibid.).Both convergences of devices and networks are increasingly becoming com-monplace in contemporary ubiquitous computing especially in countries such asSingapore and the Republic of Korea (Dourish and Bell 2011).

A direct concomitant of digital innovation trends is the production and value ofmobile services. As diverse devices and networks converge, they do not just resultin a linear increase in information, but an exponential increase. Kallinkos (2006),for example, draws attention to the fact that such an exponential growth ininformation in the current global network society engenders consequences that aresignificantly different from their physical referents. Information growth, forexample, is now a self-referential process rather than a process that referred

1.1 Usability of ICTs: Relevance and General Perspectives 7

directly to its physical versions (Ibid). Innovators of ICT have taken advantage ofthis to shift more of their strategic attention from production of handsets to theproduction of services. The shift is attributable to the realization that innovation intechnologies and products is not equal to innovation in mobile services (see, forexample, Yoo et al. 2005).

In the mobile ICT innovation industry, the immense importance of services hasdetermined the market share dynamics among the leading innovators such asMicrosoft Apple�, Samsung� and Google. Chesbrough (2011), for example, usesthe experiences of these innovators to underscore the value of mobile services.Motorola used to be the number one innovator of mobile handsets, and theirdominance was symbolized by their KRZR model which they sold over 50 millionunits. Then, based on the focus on innovation in the commodity, Nokia and othernew innovators from Asia such as Samsung and HTC� developed more robust,more global and less costly handsets. Nokia then overtook Motorola and becamethe number one innovator; Motorola fell to number seven. Recently, as the basis ofcompetition has shifted from handsets to applications and services, Samsung andApple have overtaken Nokia to become the number one in profitability and marketshare (although Nokia is still the number one in terms of units of handsets).

These events have resulted in mobile computers where organizational andpersonal applications and services are united. Mobile computers are now repletewith several diverse applications which engender an almost unlimited range ofservices. Indeed, users can switch from an organizational to a personal applicationin the handheld computer. Thus, they can be understood as personal technologies,in the sense that the unity of applications and services enables personalization(appropriation to serve personal motives) by individual users (Geisler 2003).Altogether, the use of mobile computers can reflect intimate human–computerrelationships which are responsive to spatial and social circumstances, and whichDourish (2001) labels as ‘‘embodied interaction.’’ In sum, the reality of contem-porary mobile computing entails the user’s ability to move seamlessly betweenorganizational and personal functions to enjoy services pertaining to both of them.

1.2.2 The Continuity of Use Contexts

In respect of the spanning of spatial and temporal boundaries, users can switchquickly and easily from an organizational task to satisfy a personal need at thesame place and time. Modern organization, epitomized by the bureaucratic gov-ernance mechanism (Weber 1947; Du Gay 2000), manifests in clear spatial andtemporal differences between workers’ persons and their roles. Thus workers wereinvolved as role agents to the exclusion of their persons. The non-inclusive termsof workers’ involvement are the social foundations of the bureaucratic order(Kallinikos 2004b).

Kallinikos argues that the constitutive and enduring elements of modernorganization are roles and tasks which have robustly excluded the human qua

8 1 Introduction

person. Roles and tasks are, however, associated with variable elements such asstandardization and centralization which have been altered by ICT innovation anduse. Thus, ICT-induced phenomena such as virtual organizations, dynamic pro-duction systems, and network forms of organization have only largely resulted innon-standardized, decentralized and flexible organizational routines. They haveneither fundamentally altered roles and tasks nor included workers’ persons.

However, the reality of mobile computing is increasingly proving that theconstitutive and enduring elements have not been able to withstand the force ofmobile work that includes aspects of the human person in modern organization.The nature of mobile work relies heavily on individual flexibility and adaptabilityto emerging spatial, temporal and task circumstances (Sørensen and Pica 2005).These render the individual’s personal motives as complementary foundations oforganizational governance. The inevitability of accommodating personal motivesplus the mobility of work, technology, information and the individual togethermake him or her a foundation of organizational governance.

This idea is buttressed by Bolantski and Chiapello (2007) who expect con-temporary employees in what they call ‘the new capitalism’ to be autonomous,informed, spontaneous, creative and able to adapt to different work tasks.Bureaucracy in mobile work now associates organizational role taking with thepersonality of particular modes of the person’s being because mobile computing,supported by the several diverse applications and services, has induced theinclusion of workers’ persons. This contemporary trend is altering the socialfoundations of bureaucracy.

Furthermore, the dispensability of spatial boundary-spanning during mobilework indicates that more flexible structures of coordination are very plausibleorganizational implications of mobile computers. Therefore, the continuity ofpersonal and organizational contexts of mobile ICT use speaks of an alternativemechanism of organizational governance whose social foundation is rather theinclusive terms by which individuals are involved in organizations.

1.3 The Significance of Unity and Continuity

The unity and continuity of the user’s organizational and personal circumstances isimportant for understanding mobile computer usability because they are implied innew phenomena such as digital innovation, mobile services, technology person-alization, and inclusion of personality in organization (see Chaps. 3 and 4). Theyare also implied in several theoretical and empirical general explanations of theuse of all types of technologies.

For instance, unity is the main assumption underlying the concept of technologyappropriation which is an enduring central subject in the relationship betweenhumans and tools. That the use of tools or instruments engenders their appropri-ation is quite well-known as Leont’ev explains: ‘‘[a]n adequate relation betweenman and tool is primarily expressed in his appropriating (practically or

1.2 Key Themes 9

theoretically—only in their significance) the operations fixed in it, by developinghis own human abilities’’ (1981, p. 296). Appropriating is an integral process ofhuman development, and development is achieved through activities.

In a related argument, Marx (1976, p. 87) also draws attention to the idea that‘‘[t]he appropriation of the totality of instruments of production is the developmentof the totality of capacities in the individuals themselves.’’ This means that appro-priating a tool is an active process that occurs during use of the tool to support aperson’s activities and, hence, development. To this end, technology appropriationhas been explored in automobility (e.g. Richet and Ruet 2008) and mobile com-puting (e.g. Wiredu 2007). However, the exploration does not adequately addresshow the unity of applications and services in mobile ICTs shape their usability. Thisis because mobile ICT research has not been undertaken with the assumption that thepersonal and organizational applications have joined together to redefine usability.

Continuity is also hinted of in the accounts of some sociologists (e.g. Shellerand Urry 2006; Bauman 2000) and organization researchers (e.g. Clegg andBaumeler 2010; Palmer et al. 2007; Boltanski and Chiapello 2007). These scholarsrecognize flexibility and adaptation as inevitable aspects of mobility and spatialcontingencies in postmodern organization. However, the concept is also under-explored in studies of mobile computer usability. For instance, the discussionsabove show that personal and organizational contexts of use are becomingincreasingly seamless (e.g. Felstead et al. 2005; Hochschild 1998); and theseamlessness constitutes a context that is significantly different from the discretecontext which precedes it.

Altogether, the under-exploration of the role of unity and continuity weakens theepistemology of mobile usability in the face of the contemporary trends which havebeen discussed above. Their role is fundamental to an extension of the understandingof the relationship between mobile computers, users and organization, especially oftheir dynamics in personal-organizational dialectics. Therefore, this book, incor-porating analyses of these dynamics, contributes more holistic explanations of theusability of mobile computers which can enhance their innovation and use.

1.4 Theoretical Assumptions

The central thesis of this book, and its aim and justification discussed above,suggest the framing of this study with sociological and psychological theorieswhich are historical. An historical perspective is required to understand how newphenomena such as digital innovation, mobile services, technology personaliza-tion, the evolution of personality, and increasing inclusion of personality inorganization shape the usability of mobile computers.

An historical perspective on a subject of interest speaks of both its history andhistoricity. Historicity refers to the evolution and constitution of any inten-tional entity, both in the sense of history as tradition and of its own history.Historicity does not just refer to what is being understood; that is, its pure history

10 1 Introduction

or science. Beyond the history, historicity refers to how the entity is understood asa way of its being in different circumstances through space and time; that is, itsphilosophy. Stated differently, historicity goes beyond the science of evolution ofan entity to incorporate the philosophy of its evolution. This understanding is thechief character of the philosophical hermeneutics of Gadamer (1976).

The historical assumption is applied to the key variables of the mobile computerusability model—organization, technology and personality. Therefore, the fun-damental assumption of this book is that these key variables are historical phe-nomena which must be understood in terms of both the science and philosophy oftheir co-evolution.

1.4.1 An Historical Conception of Human Beings

The historicity of human beings is best understood in terms of our ontogenesis andphylogenesis. A man’s development is shaped both by the growth of his biologicalorgans and by the progress of the community he belongs to. As explained byLeont’ev,

[p]resenting in himself the product of phylogenetic and ontogenetic development in givenexternal circumstances, the individual, however, is not in any way a simple ‘calque’ ofthese conditions; he is specifically a product of the development of life interacting with anenvironment and not environment taken by itself (1978, p. 106).

This means that a human being should be understood as an individual not just interms of his or her biological features and associated needs. To understand anindividual only in biological terms is to assume that the concept ‘individual’connotes indivisibility and wholeness. However, the concept expresses internaland external coordination of both biological and environmental features that reflectinnate and acquired actions and reactions. Therefore, he should be conceived as anindividual in terms of both his or her biological features and social, cultural, andtheir historical underpinnings (Ibid.).

Informed by this conception of humans, advocates of neo-institutionalism (e.g.Powell and DiMaggio 1991) and structuration (e.g. Giddens 1984) call into ques-tion what appears to be people’s autonomous and naturally emanating experiences,reflections, choices, preferences, and actions. They argue that neither actor notactivity is thought to be elementary; rather, cultural-cognitive, regulative andnormative frames are the elementary sources of the meaning of action (Scott 2003).

Therefore, the analysis informing this books’ central thesis keeps ahistoricalconceptions of human action such as rational and strategic choice (e.g. Child 1972)in the background. The conceptions occupying the foreground of the analysis arecultural-historical activity (Leont’ev 1978) and historical perception (Wartofsky1979). By the philosophical assumptions of these foreground theories, the histo-ricity of humans is understood to reflect in their perceptions and activities. Bothperception and activity are understood to be cultural-historical and not just bio-logical and rational (more details on these theories are discussed in Chap. 3).

1.4 Theoretical Assumptions 11

1.4.2 An Historical Conception of ICTs

The historicity of computers is also understood in terms of its socio-culturalconstitution. Basically, computers are tools which Wartofsky conceptualizes asextensions of humans’ biological organs and functions. Ellul (1964, p. 4), warningus about the increasingly domineering role of technology in human civilization,confirms the substitution of our functions: ‘‘technique has taken over all of man’sactivities, not just his productive activity’’ (p. 4). Before Mumford embarked onhis explanations of the origins of technology, he affirmed the fact that ‘‘thematerial basis and the cultural forms of Western Civilization have been profoundlymodified by the development of the machine’’ (Mumford 2010, p. 3). Therefore,technology is not autonomous, isolated or self-contained. It is intrinsically inter-twined with human ingenuity, and so it is rightly a reification of society andculture. ICTs, for instance, are ontologically cultural as exemplified by the maxim‘‘technology is society made durable’’ (Latour 1991).

However, some of the research works which focus on the problem of imple-mentation from a positivist perspective unhelpfully assume that society andcomputers are well-defined monolithic phenomena (Pinch and Bijker 1984). Bythis assumption ICT is deemed as epistemologically special while culture, andhence history, are deemed as sociological phenomena. The corollary is that cultureis perceived as a negative factor because it is a source of resistance or as a positiveone because it is a target to be manipulated for successful technology imple-mentation. This special epistemological consideration of ICT is usually attribut-able to the disappearance of the interpretive flexibility behind the innovation (e.g.by relevant social groups such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engi-neering, and the International Standards Organization) (Ibid.). This considerationinduces researchers to implicitly consider ICT innovation as epistemological tasksinstead of sociological ones. It has led to the masking of the cultural ontology ofICT, especially in implementation analysis, because it has led researchers tooverlook the fact that both ICT and society are themselves culturally-produced in avariety of social circumstances.

Furthermore, the weaknesses of rational-economic and socio-politicaldescriptions of technology use have been pointed out in the information systemsliterature (e.g. Avgerou 2002; Avgerou and Madon 2004; Kumar et al. 1998). Forexample, Kumar and colleagues have draw attention to the limitations of socio-political perspectives that currently dominate the information systems/technologyliterature. They have modelled a ‘third rationality’ or perspective around collab-oration and cooperation whereby trust and relationships, built over time, becomethe foci of ICT implementation analysis.

Therefore, both the information systems and sociology of technology researchstreams have produced sufficient evidence that ICTs are complex socio-culturaland historical products, reflecting some context-specific interactions and rules. Thesignificant argument here is that there is nothing epistemologically special aboutICTs, reflecting their interpretive flexibility which is not just about how people

12 1 Introduction

think of them but more about the flexibility in how they are designed and used(Bijker et al. 1987; Pinch and Bijker 1984). This also reflects the cultural ontologyof ICT which is in harmony with Avgerou’s (2002) idea that ICT is an institutionin its own right.

ICT as an institution contains a cultural-cognitive element by which its func-tionality can be explained in terms of the socially-constructed assumptions behindits design. Explanations of its functionality by the cultural-cognitive elements caninclude roles and role expectations (Kallinikos 2004a). This means that there maybe major technological and human characteristics which must be studied in waysthat transcend both local contexts and the here-and-now in order to emerge withadequate understanding.

The upshot is that the study of computer-based information systems may belimited if placed only in the context of the rationality and economics of the here-and-now. A more holistic study requires its placement in a wider historical contextto achieve an adequate understanding of their social and cultural ramifications.This context should, for example, consider the evolution of writing (Ong 1982),the evolution of personality (Leont’ev 1978), digital innovation (Tilson et al.2010a), historical perception (Wartofsky 1979), the transition from modernism topostmodernism (Lyotard 1984), and interactive control (Beniger 1986). To thisend, the historicity of ICTs implies going beyond their embeddedness in theimmediate techno-economic and socio-political context to include the co-evolu-tion of technology, organization and personality.

1.5 Structure and Content

This introductory chapter has presented the central thesis of this book. In it, I haveundertaken a critical review of the extant literature on mobile computer usability.The review is enlarged to cover the significance of and general perspectives on theusability of computers. These reviews clarify and justify the motivation of thisresearch viz: existing understanding of mobile computer usability is limitedbecause firstly, it is largely organizational and overlooks the personal dimension;secondly, it does not account for the unity and continuity of these dimensions incomputer applications and use contexts respectively; and thirdly, it is destitute ofan historical epistemology which is necessary for conceptualization. To facilitatethe reader’s appreciation of the background to this book’s organizational per-sonality perspective, the key themes—unity and continuity—have been explainedand justified. The historical framework has also been explained and justified withhow they characterize human beings and ICTs.

Part I, which is captioned Literature and Theory, reviews the backgroundperspectives on mobility and mobile ICTs, discusses the Activity theoreticalframework, and applies it to the analysis of the co-evolution of organization,

1.4 Theoretical Assumptions 13

technology and personality. Each of these three is presented as a chapter to guidethe reader with a sound background understanding ahead of the empirical evidenceand their analyses in Part II.

Chapter 2 presents a review of the literature on the phenomena of mobility andmobile ICTs. The review of the subject of mobility is discussed in terms of itsfunctional and interactional perspectives. The functional perspective suggests thatthe mobility of humans and portable computers are intertwined according tohuman motives. However, this perspective is critiqued to be narrow and simplebecause it takes the spatial, temporal and contextual constraints for granted. Thebroader interactional perspective on mobility discusses each of these constraints asa way of structuring the mobility concept for easier comprehension. Followingfrom these, the information, interaction and computing services which are drawnfrom mobility and mobile ICTs combined are discussed. Based on the assumptionthat both mobility and mobile ICTs are phenomena that are mutually-engendered,each of them is reviewed separately according to the historical framework of thisbook. The review leads to the suggestion that mobility results from humans’biological and socio-cultural inducements; and mobile ICTs result from induce-ments due to continuous technological innovation and socio-cultural changes inhuman communities. The review underscores the unity of personal and organi-zational applications and continuity of personal and organizational use contexts.

Chapter 3 explores the theories of activity and perception. These explorationshighlight how the historicity of both theories serves as a framework that unites thesociological and psychological dimensions of mobile computer usability. On theone hand, Activity theory (also known as cultural-historical activity theory)explains human activities in terms of the motives that drive them, their underlyingconditions, and the implications for people’s appropriation of tools. The expla-nation is argued to be helpful for teasing out the interdependencies between per-sonal and organizational motives, and, hence, the implications for mobilecomputer usability. On the other, the theory of perception (also known as thehistorical epistemology of perception) (Wartofsky 1979; see also Vygotsky 1978;Leont’ev 1978) explains human perception in terms of its social, cognitive andteleological mode of human action. Thus, perception is essentially a historicalactivity, and not just a biological or neurophysiological. It is argued to be usefulfor analysing technology usability in terms of its functional representations andhow these representations are filtered by humans’ ontogenetic and phylogeneticmeans of existence.

Based on the assumption that both personality and organization are equallyimportant for understanding mobile computer usability, Chap. 4 analyzes theconcepts of organization, technology and personality in terms of their co-evolu-tion. Because of this book’s emphasis on the role of personality in understandingmobile computer usability, the chapter draws upon the theories of activity andperception, and the history of organization and technology to argue that humanpersonality should be understood not in terms of innate (biological) and acquired(environmental) characteristics. Rather, it should be understood in terms of aman’s aggregate social relationships in his activity, which relationships are

14 1 Introduction

mediated by social and historical factors to reflect higher mental functioning. Towit, personality is neither produced nor necessarily characterized by the highernervous system of an individual. It depends on the socio-historical conditions, andis understood in terms of the activities of an individual in one or another socialenvironment. Based on this understanding, the chapter distinguishes betweenmodern and postmodern personality through historical discussions of modernorganization, of ICT innovation trends, and of postmodern organization.

Part II, which is captioned Empirics and Analyses, presents two chapters ofempirical evidence (5 and 6) and two chapters of analyses and discussions of theevidence (7 and 8). The cases are typical instances of the use of mobile computersin mobile activities. Together, they shed light on how people use mobile com-puters from the perspectives of learning and work activities. These perspectivesare mutually complementary and corroborative, giving credence to the reliabilityof the evidence as support for the theoretical arguments in the subsequent chapters.The cases present real-life narratives from interpretive studies conducted withinterviews and observations of participants as well as studies of documents. Moredetails on the research methodologies for these empirical cases are presented in theAppendix.

The theoretical perspectives and commentaries presented in Part I are used toanalyse the evidence. The aim is to show how and why mobile computer usabilityis a function of the unity of organizational and personal technology applicationsand continuity of organizational and personal use contexts. Therefore, I use thetheories of activity and perception to abstract theoretical arguments from theconcrete evidence in order to make theoretical generalizations about the episte-mology of mobile computer usability.

Chapter 5 presents a case of mobile work-integrated learning in the BritishNational Health Service organized from London and operationalised in somehospitals around the country. The chapter presents data on the background andpurpose of the activity as well as the struggles pertaining to mobile applicationdesigns and use for information management. The use of the mobile computers bythe learners in their activities is understood in terms of interrelations between thefocal activity and other ones. Initial sense-making of mobile computer usability inthe case revealed two challenges. Firstly, there were problematic learning condi-tions due to resistances to the learning activity, contradictory motives betweenauthorities in London and those in the hospitals, and pragmatic demands forpatient care. Secondly, there was marginalization of the mobile computers whichresulted from participants’ necessary focus on the work at the expense of mobilecomputing.

Chapter 6 presents a case of mobile foreign exchange trading in MideastBankfrom an empirical study conducted by Adel Al-Taitoon (2005) during his Doctorof Philosophy research work at the London School of Economics and PoliticalScience, United Kingdom. Adel provides contextual perspectives on the Kingdomof Bahrain as the financial centre of the Middle-East region, and its geographicaltime zone on the global financial map. The organisational structure, global trea-sury, and trading sites of the bank are also presented. The mobile ICTs employed

1.5 Structure and Content 15

for foreign exchange trading inside the dealing room of the MideastBank includeinformational and transactional services for both market and corporate domains ofinteraction. The different mobile ICTs that are used in off-premises trading of theMideastBank are also presented. Towards the end, the chapter discusses theemergence of volatility and control as two dimensions of mobile computerusability in accordance with the personal, situational and organizational circum-stances surrounding mobile foreign exchange trading.

In Chap. 7 the empirical data presented in the two preceding chapters areanalyzed. In accordance with this book’s aim and question, the analyses andsyntheses are undertaken to contribute to an understanding of the mutual shapingbetween mobile computing and distributed activities. Within these deliberations,the key issues outlined in the introductory chapter which confronts this researchare taken up and elucidated in sufficient details. The chapter, therefore, applies thebackground literature and theoretical discussions in Part I to the empirical evi-dence. The aim is to unearth the salient interrelations between components thatcharacterise mobile computing, especially from organizational perspectives. Thechapter explains mobile computer usability from the organizational perspective interms of control. It also explains the concept from the personal-organizationalperspective in terms of coordination,.

The concluding chapter elaborates, through theoretical discussions, the epis-temology of mobile computer usability from a personal perspective in terms ofhistorical perception and user appropriation. It also presents abstractions of theinsights which have been unearthed through the analysis in the previous chapter. Italso presents a summary of the book’s contribution in the form of a conceptualmodel of the unity of personal and organizational applications combined with thecontinuity of personal and use contexts. The distinctiveness of the model is dis-cussed in relation to existing theories of mobile computer usability. Beyond this,the implications for research, design and implementation of mobile computers areoffered. Thus, a framework for the analysis of mobile computer usability isproffered; principles for the design of mobile computers according to the principlesof representation, pragmatism and utility are provided; and guidelines for imple-mentation of mobile information systems are suggested in the chapter.

16 1 Introduction

Chapter 2Mobility and Mobile ICTs

Information revolution and information society are captions which are used tosignify the rapid innovation and diffusion of ICTs, notably the Internet and WorldWide Web (WWW) (Castells 2001). In their wake, the world has witnessed thedevelopment of mobile ICTs to meet users’ demands for information processingand interaction anytime, anywhere (Kleinrock 1996). It does not take too longbefore one encounters people busily working with laptop computers in the train.We also see others organising themselves and their tasks assisted by the func-tionalities of smartphones and tablet computers in both socially- and organisa-tionally-mobile settings. Thus we witness pervasive and ubiquitous computingtriggered by dramatic innovations in ICTs such as Bluetooth, and 4th Generationmobile phones, and their users’ nomadic behaviours (Sørensen 2011). The phrase‘nomadic behaviour’ depicts the depth and breadth of mobile computing which inturn speak of the digitalisation, miniaturisation, and integration of ICTs. It alsospeak of the unprecedented possibilities to access, manipulate and share infor-mation on the move. Thus, Kopomaa (2000), for example, has drawn attention tothe fact that mobile computing is now an integral aspect of our lives at bothpersonal and societal levels.

In accordance with the aim of this book, this chapter presents a review of theliterature on human mobility and mobile ICTs in terms of their perspectives,services and historicity. This review is approached with the assumption that boththe phenomena of mobility and mobile ICTs are largely mutually-engendered.This implies, for example, that this study focuses on the design of mobile ICTs notonly in terms of its engineering, but in terms of socio-cultural structures andassumptions (social shaping), in addition to a focus on the ways in which thesetechnologies impact on society (social impact). Both social shaping and impact areof interest to researchers who undertake the social study of ICTs. They areinteresting because the two social realities are virtually inseparable.

However, although mobility and mobile ICTs are mutually-engendered, they arediscussed separately as distinct analytical categories in this chapter. The aim is toclarify the generative roles that each one plays to serve as foundations for theanalysis of mobile computer usability in the subsequent chapters. Furthermorehuman beings are fundamentally mobile, and therefore human mobility assumes a

G. O. Wiredu, Mobile Computer Usability, Progress in IS,DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-41074-1_2, � Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

17

basic type of mobility upon which other types develop. The following sectionspresent discussions on the functional and interactional perspectives of mobile ICTs.

2.1 Functional Perspective: Mobility of Humansand Objects

Mobility is a human attribute which is as fundamental as interaction, and therelationship between mobility and interaction can be described as mutually com-plementary: people’s interaction needs motivate them to move while mobilitybrings people together to create avenues and possibilities for interaction. Onequestion of relevance is about the scale of human mobility, which usually sur-rounds the distance covered by a mobile individual—on a continuum from microto remote. For instance, in their discussion of the contemporary mobile society,Kristoffersen and Ljungberg (2002) classified human mobility under three broadmodalities—traveling, visiting and wandering. Their modalities rhyme with Luffand Heath’s (1998) modalities which they labeled as micro-mobility, localmobility and remote mobility. In these modalities, the salient denominator thatsubtly distinguishes one modality from another is geographical distance.

Micro-mobility represents human bodily movements and gestures that arevoluntary or involuntary, and it may not necessarily involve the movement of theindividual from one point to another. Local mobility and wandering are explainedin terms of ‘‘extensive local mobility in a building or local area’’ (Kristoffersen andLjungberg 2000, p. 142). Traveling and remote mobility denote extensive move-ments across long distances and between different locations; a traveler usuallyrequires a fast-moving vehicle to move from one point to another. Visitingdemands some form of traveling but its essential component is the prolonged timea person spends at one location to perform some function before moving to anotherlocation. While these categorizations enhance the understanding of humanmobility, and hence an appreciation of the particular modalities people’s move-ments exhibit over time in an activity, they are moderate categories in the sensethat human mobility is a phenomenon that is complex, variegated, and verycontinuous. Nonetheless, the traveling and visiting modes are particularlyimportant in the context of distributed organizing because, as our analysis willevince, they are implicit embodiments of such contexts.

Traveling and visiting are the premises on which Edström and Galbraith (1977),for example, hypothesize the socialization of managers for the creation of inter-national verbal information networks. Traveling, in particular, also underpins thedevelopment of social networks which are luridly captured in The Strength ofWeak Ties (Granovetter 1973). These discussions highlight traveling as a salientcommunication channel between distributed and interdependent work units. Forexample, the ‘‘transfer of employees … creates and sustains the knowledge andinformation to support the decision-making process in an interdependent network

18 2 Mobility and Mobile ICTs

of subsidiaries’’ (Edström and Galbraith 1977, p. 258). The creation and suste-nance of knowledge and information through traveling suggests that humanmobility is more than the mere movement of the individual.

For instance, Urry’s (2002a, p. 185) discussions of the sociology of mobilitypoints to social consequences of the ‘‘diverse mobilities of peoples, objects,images, information and wastes…’’ and the complex interdependencies betweenthem. Mobile humans carry with them their tacit knowledge, interpretive schemesand experiences, as well as other physical objects. While the mobility of thesephenomena depend on human mobility, they are no less significant in the contextof the creation and sustenance of knowledge and information because they con-tribute to the understanding of mobile computing.

Equally important is the understanding of the mobility of objects of utilitywhich humans carry around as mediators of their activities. Here, attention shouldbe paid to the utility of the object within mobile conditions: utility is a factor of theimmediate variables associated with humans, objects and the environment. Forexample, Kristofferson and Ljungberg (2000) argue that the utility of mobile andmobile ICTs (e.g. mobile phones, personal digital assistants, wearable computers)is dependent on three factors—modality, environment and application (Fig. 2.1).The immediate nature of the physical and social surroundings defines the envi-ronment; applications represent the characteristics of ICTs such as hardware,software and data; and modality stands for the fundamental patterns of humanmovement—travelling, visiting and wandering.

The model transcends Kleinrock’s (1996) oversimplified vision of anytimeanywhere use of mobile ICTs. Consistent with Kakihara and Sørensen’s (2002a)space, time and context dimensions of mobility, the ‘environment’ dimensionintroduces some contexts under which mobile ICTs uses may not be possibleeverytime, everwhere (Wiberg and Ljungberg 2001). The utility of a mobilecomputer is dependent on the dynamic relationship between what its physical,systemic and interfacial functionalities afford and the task or activity which it ismediating. What it affords is inherent in a combination of the ‘application’component of the model and the motive which dictates the fundamental pattern ofmovement of the individual using the application to perform or support an activity.

The mobility of objects—natural or artificial, physical or non-physical, tangibleor intangible—is largely dependent on human mobility (cf. Dix et al. 2000). Tothis extent, in most instances, object mobility implicitly implies a fusion of humanand object mobility. The fusion is dictated by the biological and environmental

Modality Application

Environment

Fig. 2.1 Factors affectingmobile ICT use [Sourceadapted from Kristoffersonand Ljungberg (2000)]

2.1 Functional Perspective: Mobility of Humans and Objects 19

needs of humans that motivate and direct their activities. For this reason, objectsare either applied as tools for use in production, distribution, consumption andexchange activities; or are themselves the products to be consumed, distributed orexchanged. This point clarifies the relationship between human mobility and themotives that engender mobility: object mobility depends on human mobility andnecessarily on human motives. Thus, the need to operate objects, and for thatmatter mobile ICTs, may themselves be the motives that induce human mobility.The theorisation of the significance of the mediation of human activities dates backto the seminal works of Bacon (1620). Later the idea of objects’ mediation ofactivities have significantly informed political economics (Marx 1976), develop-mental psychology (Vygotsky 1962, 1978), human activity (Leont’ev 1978, 1982),and expansive learning (Engeström 1987).

2.2 Interactional Perspective: Spatial, Temporaland Context Mobility

While the mobility of humans and objects reflect the functional perspective, it isyet a narrow and simplified characterisation of mobile technology use. It is narrowbecause in it mobility is defined in terms of people’s independence from geo-graphical, temporal, and contextual constraints (Kakihara and Sørensen 2002a, seealso Dahlbom and Ljungberg 1998; Deleuze and Guattari 1986; Fagrell et al. 1999;Wiberg and Ljungberg 2001). It is confined to the corporeal characteristic ofpeople freed from such constraints thanks to mobile technologies and services.However, people are constrained by geographical, temporal, and contextual cir-cumstances when they and their computing tools are mobilised. To address thislimitation, a broader and more advanced characterisation has been conceptualisedby Kakihara and Sørensen (2002) in terms of the mobilisation of three interrelateddimensions of human interaction: across space, time and context.

2.2.1 Spatial Mobility

The definition of mobility inherently incorporates the notion of space: one cannotunderstand mobility without referring to location because it is the movement of anentity from one location to another which defines mobility. The spatial mobility ofsome modern ICTs have ensured the possibility of interactions between peoplewho are geographically independent: ‘‘the boundary between ‘here’ and ‘there’dissolves’’ (Kakihara and Sørensen op. cit.). People are expected to be geo-graphically independent nomads supported by the ‘wirelessness’ and portability ofICTs including their information services (Makimoto and Manners 1997). Thus,spatial mobility goes beyond the mobility of people and objects to include themobility of symbols and space itself (Castells 2001; Urry 2000a).

20 2 Mobility and Mobile ICTs

The importance of spatial mobility of ICTs and human interaction to this studylies in the mobility of information services they afford. It is the mobile informationservice (Sørensen et al. 2002) of a mediating artefact in a particular activity thatgives meaning to spatial mobility. Without mobility of the service, we are left withthe mobility of the object, which, in the context of human activities, is non-essential or insignificant.

A point of importance is that, ultimately, the spatial mobility of humans,objects, symbols and services are interrelated and intertwined. For example, anindividual who carries an tablet or laptop computer or a mobile phone certainlydoes so with an intention to use the service provided by the artefact to perform anactivity aimed at satisfying a motive. During this activity, he or she captures,processes or transmits information using the artefact’s symbolic properties; andhere, the mobility of the individual, the object and symbols occurs simultaneously.If he or she interacts with others using the device, then spatial mobility of theparticular information service occurs. Therefore, the interaction and computingservices provided by mobile ICTs (Ibid.), together with the fundamental mobilityof humans and objects, achieve spatial mobility in terms of ‘‘humans independenceof geographical constraints.’’

2.2.2 Temporal Mobility

In addition to overcoming geographical barriers, mobile ICTs also afford mobileinteraction to save time. Interaction through fixed telephones and exchange ofpaper-based mails is asynchronous and characterised by time delays. With thefixed telephone, interaction confines the user to a specific location; otherwise he orshe has to set voicemail up to allow callers to save their messages for later reading.Reading of voicemail messages and paper-based mail all constitute asynchronousinteraction. Mobile ICTs ensure synchronous interaction because users can interactwith others anytime anywhere. Tablet and laptop computers are wirelessly con-nectible to the internet for synchronous interaction via instant e-mail exchange orinstant messaging. In this sense, interaction and computing information servicesprovided by mobile ICTs can be interpreted as temporally mobile—the time itwould take to interact or process information is mobilised.

The temporal efficiency established by the use of portable artefacts, and ICTs ingeneral, has seen much explication in organisation studies (see for e.g. Barley1988; Orlikowski and Yates 2002). Barley’s work illuminated two strands oftemporality—structural and interpretive. He applied objectified parameters such assequence, duration, temporal location and occurrence rates to define structuraltemporality. Interpretive temporality denotes how organisational actors interpretthese objectified parameters enabling them to ‘‘form opinions and make pro-nouncements about the behaviour of persons operating in alternate temporal sys-tems’’ (Barley 1988, p. 129). Arguments surrounding temporality also point toconsiderations of whether time is symbolised as monochronic or polychronic

2.2 Interactional Perspective: Spatial, Temporal and Context Mobility 21

(Feldman and Hornik 1981; Hall 1959, 1983; Kaufman et al. 1991a). Mono-chronicity refers to the treatment of time as linear and separable, and doing things‘‘one thing at a time’’ (Cotte and Ratneshwar 1999), while treating time polych-ronically means understanding time as naturally recurring and using it for manypurposes concurrently. Mobile ICTs and their information services enable peopleto deal with multiple tasks at the same time and therefore exhibit polychronicity.Thus, Kakihara and Sørensen (2002) argue that the temporality of human inter-action can no longer be explained from a linear clock-time or structural per-spective; it is now highly mobilised into multiple temporal modes based on eachactor’s perspective and interpretation of time itself.

Spatial and temporal mobility have together aroused interest in ComputerSupported Cooperative Work (CSCW) research. Before the introduction of mobileICTs, CSCW researchers concerned themselves with communication, collabora-tion and coordination issues of organisational actors and actions, and support forthese attributes through static computing. For example, they have concernedthemselves with the spatial and temporal dimensions of interaction among inter-dependent workers in relation to technological innovations such as the Internet,groupware and other information sharing systems. Since the mid-1990s, however,many CSCW researchers are integrating mobility into their work (see Luff andHeath 1998; Dix and Beale 1996; Bergquist et al. 1999; Bellotti and Bly 1996;Wiberg 2001). In their studies of air traffic control, newsrooms, ship navigationand financial institutions for instance, Luff and Heath illuminate how ‘‘the mobilityof personnel and artefacts is critical to communication and collaboration’’ (p. 306).This assertion is true. However, the crux of our understanding of mobility also hasto include expositions of mobile computing and interaction with contemporarymobile ICTs.

2.2.3 Contextual Mobility

Contextual mobility is explained by the fact that the contexts in which humans actdo frame and are framed by their performance of the act recursively. Drawingparallels between context and Suchman’s (1987) situated actions, Kakihara andSørensen (2002) bring to the fore the interactional aspects of mobility referring toquestions such as ‘‘in what way’’, ‘‘in what particular circumstances’’ and‘‘towards which actors’’. These questions supplement the spatial and temporalmobility aspects of mobile interaction that respectively treated the questions of‘‘where’’ and ‘‘when’’ only (see Table 2.1).

The relationship between interactors forms the basis of their contextual argu-ments, and it reflects the fact that the flexibility of mobile technology-mediatedinteraction (TMI) can alleviate many contextual difficulties in human interaction,just as it alleviates spatial and temporal difficulties. For example, an unobtrusiveand persistent medium such as a Post-It note can be used to ‘‘lubricate’’ whatwould otherwise be an obstacles-ridden face-to-face interaction between two

22 2 Mobility and Mobile ICTs

parties due to unfamiliarity and weak social relationships. Various mediatingtechnologies provide people with access to a wider society of weakly tied actorsand a wider set of contexts, extending communication possibilities beyond variouscontextual boundaries (Feldman 1987; Granovetter 1982; Haythornthwaite 2001;Sproull and Kiesler 1991). To the extent that mobile ICTs afford lubricatedinteraction with others relatively devoid of contextual constraints, the relationshipsbetween interaction among people and the contexts in which they operate arebeing mobilised in terms of the flexible patterns across their different contexts.

Contextual mobility is founded on interaction via mobile ICTs—contextmobility of interaction services. It is another issue altogether if one concerns him-or herself with an understanding of context mobility of mobile computing services.The socio-cultural and historical changes associated with human mobility andrelated activities are inherently context changes. This is the foundation of Such-man’s (1987) arguments on situated actions: ‘‘The coherence of situated action istied in essential ways not to individual predispositions or conventional rules but tolocal interactions contingent on the actor’s particular circumstances’’ (p. 28).Human actions are therefore determined by two forms of context: on the one handby the particular circumstances or ‘conditions’ in which they are performed, andon the other hand, by the motive of the activity in which actions are embedded (seeLeont’ev 1978).

The motive of the activity being performed will determine the individual’sfundamental pattern of motion and the necessity to compute while being mobile.The activity context is related to the biological and sociological needs of the actor,and the situational context is related to the circumstances that underlie humanactions. In this sense, the motive may remain constant but the situational condi-tions and circumstances may be continuously dynamic and mobile. The trajectoryof mobile computing involves a continuous experience of changing contexts.Every situation presents a different context in which the actor is forced to adapt.For example, in Kristofferson and Ljungberg’s (2000) terminology, a wanderercannot do as much computing with a laptop computer as a visitor can do because

Table 2.1 Dimensions of mobility

Dimensions ofmobility

Aspects ofinteraction

Extended perspectives

Spatial • Where • Geographical movement of not just humans but objects,symbols, image, voice, etc.

Temporal • When • Clock-time versus social time (objective versussubjective)

• Monochronicity versus polychronicityContextual • In what way • Multi-modality of interaction (obtrusive-unobtrusive

versus ephemeral-persistence)• In whatcircumstance

• Weakly and strongly tied social networks• Towards whichactor(s)

Source Kakihara and Sørensen (2002a)

2.2 Interactional Perspective: Spatial, Temporal and Context Mobility 23

the visitor can and will find him- or herself a flat surface to place the device. Thisimplies that, unlike the mobility of interaction services, the context mobility ofmobile computing services—that is, the elimination of contextual constraints—may truly not be possible everytime everywhere (Wiberg and Ljungberg 2001).

2.3 Mobile Services

Mobile services are not automatically given but accessed from mobile ICTs inhuman activities. Access can be a dominant or passive component of an activitydepending on both the functional diversity of the technology (Mathiassen andSørensen 2002) and the level of activity (Leont’ev 1978). Consequently, the typeof information service that can be accessed from a mobile ICT within the activityis a measure of several factors—its physical character, the character of the task,and the conditions provided by time, space and context within which the user usesthe artefact to perform the task. In other words, the information services aredirectly related to a combination of the information processing and interactionaffordances of the technology, and the nature of the activity it is mediating.

In their attempted theorisation of organisational information services, Mathi-assen and Sørensen (2008) developed a taxonomy of information services to depictthe functional diversity of modern ICTs in terms of Mintzberg’s (1983) idea oftask complexity and uncertainty. According to them, modern ICTs offer four typesof information services—computational, adaptive, networking and collaborativeservices (Fig. 2.2).

Mobile information services have been classified under computing and inter-action services. Consequently, it is evidently clear that Sørensen and colleagues’(2002) networking and collaborative services, and to some extent, adaptive ser-vices are all based on the interaction affordances of mobile ICTs.

Based on the preceding idea, Sørensen and colleagues (2002) explain the dif-ferent services which mobile ICTs can potentially offer. Their explanation is,however, parochially centred on mobile interaction via mobile phones predomi-nantly. For example, although computational mobile services are discussed insome detail in their work, their explanations primarily focus on mobile networksand collaboration—on interactions between client mobile devices and centralisedservers, and on peer-to-peer interactions with mobile-enabled applications such asshort and multimedia messaging services. What is not sufficiently explained is thedynamics of computational mobile services in terms of mobile computing orinformation processing with a personal digital assistant, tablet PC or laptopcomputer without necessarily interacting with others in remotely distributedlocations.

Mobile computing is as relevant for understanding the impact of mobile ICTs asmobile interaction. An integration of mobile computing and interaction analysis inrelation to the specific human activities that they mediate will provide a holistic

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understanding of its pervasiveness or ubiquity. However, for a proper under-standing of mobile computing, it is necessary to re-conceptualise Mintzberg’snotion of complexity. Complexity in the context of mobile computing will not onlyrelate to ‘‘the information available in the situation’’ (Sørensen et al. 2002).Complexity also relates to the ‘facilities’ and ‘frustrations’ (Ortega y Gasset 1941)associated with portable computers during the very process of their use forinformation capture and processing on-the-move. Mobile computing is a complexdynamic process that is deeply rooted in psychological phenomena such as sen-suousness, perception and action, and motives. Mobile computing is not a simpletransmutation of static or desktop computing which analysis can be based solely onthe principles of desktop computing. The essence of mobility is premised on thefact that even without portable computers, human movement is always an action oroperation conducted to satisfy a need. Motives are therefore integral aspects ofhuman movement. The introduction of mobile computing can potentially introduceadditional actions or operations to those which originally caused the movement ofthe individual. In this sense, the nature of the individual’s goal-oriented actionsbears significantly on the complexity of mobile computing. In other words, thedegree of complexity in mobile computing will vary depending on the modality ofmobility that is demanded or dictated by the needs and motives of the mobileindividual.

Using Mathiassen and Sørensen’s (2008) framework, interaction can be deemedan information generation task; and computing, an information processing task.Mobile computing tasks may be characterised by low uncertainty within which,according to the degree of complexity, they can offer computational or adaptiveservices.

On the one hand, information capture and processing tasks are normallyundertaken with structured forms designed in applications. In this scenario, themobile computer is deemed to provide a computational service, and the degree of

Fig. 2.2 Mobile information services Source Mathiassen and Sørensen (2008)

2.3 Mobile Services 25

freedom of the user in terms of the adaptability of the portable computer to thedemands of the task is relatively limited. For example, drop-down menus haveproven to be the easiest means of capturing information using mobile ICTs; butstructured applications, in lowly complex situations, are likely to result in whatSørensen and colleagues call a ‘‘dysfunction’’ of structure overload.

On the other hand, if the mobile device’s applications which are to be used inthe task exhibit relative flexibility that allows the user to reconfigure thoseapplications to suit the objectives of the task, then it is said to be adaptive.‘‘Adaptive mobile services are aimed at supporting situations where the exactunfolding of the process cannot be programmed a priori because of a relative highdegree of complexity’’ (Mathiassen and Sørensen 2008) The applications under-pinning adaptive mobile services are less structured; but their manipulation toachieve goal-oriented actions can be counterproductive in the sense that extra‘useless’ information can be captured and processed leading to informationoverload (Ljungberg and Sørensen 2000; Schneider 1987).

2.4 Historicity of Human Mobility

Mobility, being the noun representation of mobile, is an intrinsic and fundamentalcharacteristic of all human beings from the beginning of time. Therefore, itsunderstanding must be historical as a matter of necessity. How then can historicityof mobility be understood? It can be understood from its evolution within thetemporal orders between the earliest and contemporary human beings. It hasalready been pointed out (in Chap. 1) that the historicity of a human being is bestunderstood in terms of ontogenesis and phylogenesis. Based on this understanding,a man should be conceived as an individual in terms of the combination of bio-logical and socio-cultural characteristics. The evolution is, therefore, discussed interms of the biological and socio-cultural inducements which cause human beingsto move.

2.4.1 Biological Inducements

The earliest human beings moved instinctively to satisfy basic biological needssuch as food, clothing, and shelter. Therefore, particular occupations such ashunting and gathering, and particular modes of mobility such as walking andrunning were dominant among them. However, over the years, occupations such asfarming, manufacturing and office work, and modes of mobility using animals andtechnology are increasingly becoming dominant among later humans. In spite ofthese changes, the basic needs are still motivating twenty first century humanbeings to move.

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Furthermore, since the beginning, human beings have been moving to satisfymore of their biological needs on the one hand, and additional wants pertaining tosociety, culture, economics and politics on the other. The trends of obtaining moregoods and services to satisfy biological needs, and beyond biological needs havebeen increasing so much that large sections of the global society today haveacquitted the epithet ‘‘mass consumption societies’’ (Matsuyama 2002). In thesesocieties, the practice of having more food, clothing, houses, information andinteraction has become cultural because it has been institutionalised and has, ineffect, become a major factor in the judgement of people’s societal statuses.

2.4.2 Socio-Cultural Inducements

The trend of adding more non-biological or environmental wants to the repertoireof factors which cause people to move has been increasing since the beginning,and is currently increasing at an increasing rate. Thus, to say that more environ-mental wants are causing contemporary humans to move than their natural needs isto make a statement with a high degree of accuracy. The environmental wants canbe understood as socio-cultural because they pertain to acquired actions andreactions.

This socio-cultural understanding is in harmony with what Dourish and Bell(2011, p. 51) describe as the generative perspective on culture as a social con-struction; that is, a web of significance that has been spun by human beings. Thealternative is the taxonomic perspective which categorizes people according tobehaviours, beliefs and attitudes (e.g. Hofstede 2001). The generative perspective,which assumes culture to be productive of our daily experiences and sense-mak-ing, has two key implications for this study.

Firstly, my interest, in harmony with Dourish and Bell, is not in culture’sessence, but on the active and performative practices it effuses. Thus, I am con-cerned with the understanding of patterns and drivers of mobility as practicesemerging from a socially-generated culture of acquisition of environmental wants.Secondly, the assumption behind the generative perspective applies to both theindividual and collective domains of analysis. For example, culture is an essentialaspect of a human being considered as an individual in any society. At the indi-vidual level, a man’s status is judged according to socio-cultural criteria generatedby that society and defined by it.

At the collective level, the culture of consumerism, which used to be a Westernpractice, is now a global and dominant practice underpinning what many humanbeings perceive to be satisfying. It is a collective cultural practice that is con-summating Maslow’s needs hierarchy (Maslow 1943); it is an integral aspect ofthe socio-economic development agenda of international organizations such as theUnited Nations; and it has aroused the interests of scientific researchers around theworld.

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For example, the practice of seeking for and consuming more information andinteraction, as in scientific and industrial research, is typically cultural. It becamean institutionalized practice even before the invention of the printing press, themotor (upon which the industrial revolution was founded), and ICTs wereinvented. It has been a beneficial practice as it has defined the wealth of nations,especially since the invention of the Internet and WWW. In recent years, ICTinnovation has advanced this cultural practice, leading to a general belief that theworld has moved from the industrial revolution into an information revolution, andthat it has become a post-industrial society (Drucker 1999; Castells 2000; Beniger1986; Kallinikos 2001).

Contemporary sociologists (e.g. Urry 2002b, c; Scheller and Urry 2006;Granovetter 1973; Thomsen et al. 2005), in analyzing the social consequences ofthe new and diverse mobilities of people, objects, images and wastes, have pro-vided clues to explain this phenomenon. What can be gleaned from their expla-nations is that, beyond the biological needs that cause people to move, there arealso strong societal wants that have, since the earliest days of humanity, causedthem to move.

Urry (2002c), for example, explains why people’s mobility through physicaltravel is increasing in the face of greater availability of modern communicationtechnologies such as automobiles, airplanes, trains, the internet and mobile com-puters. He uses face-to-face, face-the-place, and face-the-moment as three bases ofco-presence to explain when and why physical travel occurs. The general instancesof these bases are the following obligations: legal, economic and familial; social;temporal; place; live; and object.

Obligations to go to work or attend a family event or visit a public institutionare legal. Social versions are understood in terms of mandatory trips to talk topeople and note their body language or to develop relations of trust with them.Temporal obligations cause people to travel to spend quality time with loved ones,while place obligations cause them to go on tours. Live obligations refer to theneed to have an unmediated experience of a phenomenon, while object obligationsrefer, for example, to the necessity to travel to sign a contract. In short,

there are crucial flows of people within, but especially beyond, the territory of eachsociety, and these flows relate to many different desires, for work, housing, leisure, reli-gion, family relationships, criminal gain, asylum seeking and so on (Urry 2002a, p. 186).

Travel for work opportunities, for example, which has become a global culturalpractice of postmodern society, was identified by Schumacher (1973) in the 1970s.He wrote about how highly developed transportation and communications systemsmake people ‘‘footloose;’’ that is to say, marvellously mobile in respect of labourdemand and supply.

Mobility, which is caused by these socio-cultural arguments, is also re-inforcedby the benefits of social inclusion and the development of weak ties (Putnam 2000;Granovetter 1973, 1982), as well as by notable trends such as post-modernorganization (Hatch 2013), globalization (Giddens 2002; Beck 1999), urbanization(Williamson 1988) and international migration (Goldin et al. 2011).

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According to Putnam, social inclusion depends upon the development of socialcapital through proximal interactions, leading to both social well-being as well aseconomic success. His argument is based on empirical analysis of how socialcapital correlates strongly with economic growth in Italy. The building of a per-son’s weak social ties also depends upon both the virtual and physical contacts (viaspatial movements) that he or she makes. Granovetter (1982, 1973), in his networktheory, argues that weak ties are very strong. This is because although one’sacquaintances form ties which are weaker than those formed by close friends, theyconnect him or her to other social circles and provide vital resources leading tobenefits such as finding jobs.

One of the predominant features of social evolution is the emergence of post-modernism (see, for example, Lyotard 1984; Taylor 2005; Clegg and Baumeler2010). Postmodern philosophy assumes that truth and authority claims about anyphenomenon are neither absolute nor clear. It assumes that truth and authority aredynamically constructed according to power relationships, personalization anddiscourse. It is a social order which induces people and organizations to be criticalof the universalism which is characteristic of the Enlightenment and modernism.The Enlightenment and modernism are characterized by progressive economic andadministrative rationalization and differentiation according to scientific truthand authority, whereas postmodernism is characterized by pluralism, ambiguity,and the establishment of truth according to the interplay of political and socialforces. For example, Best and Hellner (2001, p. 2) argue that ‘‘the transition to apostmodern society is bound up with fundamental changes that are transformingpivotal phenomena from warfare to education to politics, while reshaping themodes of work, communication, entertainment, everyday life, social relations,identities, and even bodily existence and life-forms.’’ Post-modern organization,which is also a historical phenomenon of the evolution of society, reflects thesepluralistic and ambiguous characteristics because it speaks of an organizationwithout clear spatial, temporal and contextual boundaries. For this reason, trav-elling by an organization’s staff may not necessarily suggest anything aboutwhether he is at work or not.

Global capitalism is one of postmodernism’s chief characters, and has led to theproliferation of multinational and international organizations across the globe.According to Edström and Galbraith (1977), successful coordination of suchnetworks of offices of these organizations requires extensive transfers of managers.More recently, distributed organizing which refers to ‘‘the capability of operatingeffectively across the temporal, geographic, political, and cultural boundariesroutinely encountered in global operations’’ (Orlikowski 2002, p. 249), is alsobecoming common. The requirements for the coordination of distributed work gobeyond extensive transfers of managers to include mobility. For example, Wireduand colleagues (2011) argue that mobility is a valuable mechanism for coordi-nating distributed work. This is in spite of new organizational genres such asglobal virtual teamworking which are made possible by teleconferencing tech-nologies, and purported to reduce mobility. Thus, mobility is a cultural identity ofpost-modern professionals, defining their personalities.

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Globalization, ‘‘viewed as the replacing of one region, the bounded nation-state-society of the ‘west’, with another, that of global economy and culture’’ (Urry2002a, p. 191), correlates strongly with mobility. Thus, drawing from this viewand Beck’s argument that ‘‘capital, culture, technology and politics merrily cometogether to roam beyond the regulatory power of the national state’’ (1999, p. 107),Urry argues that spatial mobility is a practice that has even redefined the conceptof ‘society.’ Sociologists have traditionally defined society as what is ‘‘orderedthrough a nation state, with clear territorial and citizenship boundaries and asystem of governance over its particular citizens.’’ However, Urry, based on hisanalysis of mobility, globalization and inter-regional social networks, re-defines itas a global civil society.

The discussions in this section denote three main ideas. Firstly, the evolution ofsociety correlates strongly with increasing levels of mobility across spatial, tem-poral and contextual boundaries. Secondly, mobility is constituted and manifestedby both personal and organizational forces. Thirdly, the personal and organiza-tional manifestations of mobility are continuous rather than discrete. This meansthat a worker’s movements between organizational and personal space, time andcircumstances are more continuous and convenient than before. These denotationsare affirmed by both the ontogenetic and phylogenetic inducements of mobilitywhereby it is shaped by both individual and societal parameters. The phylogeneticaspects bear on the ontogenetic ones, and is summarized in Lyotard’s maxim: ‘‘Aself does not amount to much, but no self is an island; each exists in a fabric ofrelations that is now more complex and mobile than ever before’’ (1984, p. 15).

2.5 Historicity of Mobile ICTs

Mobile ICTs have revolutionised many human activities in contemporary society;and the desire to understand this revolution has preoccupied researchers fromdisciplines such as information systems, urban sociology, geography, anthropol-ogy, town planning, and economics. These researchers have aimed at contributingan improved understanding of the relationship between ICTs and mobility fromboth technical and social perspectives. As a result, many useful ideas haveemerged which can be depended upon by both researchers and practitioners toenhance ICT innovation and use. One of these ideas is that because mobile ICTsare offshoots of ICTs in general, their historicity should be understood in terms ofthe evolution of ICTs.

It has been pointed out already in this book (in Chap. 1) that technologies areextensions of people’s biological organs or functions which we create to be moreefficient and effective. Efficiency and effectiveness are central principles of eco-nomics which is a socio-cultural phenomenon which in turn induces innovation inhuman beings resulting in mobile ICTs. It is clear, therefore, that the historicitymobile ICTs should not be understood in terms of people’s biological needs but interms of the evolution of their innovativeness. These technologies are very

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important but not vital for the survival of human beings; and so their historicitywill be considered in terms of technology innovation and socio-cultural induce-ments that engender them.

Technology innovation is itself a socio-cultural phenomenon because tech-nology is a social construction and a product of culture. It has co-evolved with theevolution of society, and so it can be best understood in terms of its interdependentrelationships with socio-cultural phenomena. However, for analytical purposes,they are discussed separately to clarify their co-evolution.

2.5.1 Technological Inducements

The etymology of the word technology traces it to the Greek term techne whichtranslates to craftsmanship, craft or art. According to Aristotle, the term refers toskill and art or craft knowledge, as compared with the term episteme which refersto scientific knowledge. Human beings have innovated technologies from thebeginning according to their desire for technical knowledge. The acquisition andapplication of this knowledge to innovate technologies is an important aspect ofthe livelihoods of many people who have lived on earth. Because people’s live-lihoods are constituted by both innate and acquired actions and reactions, theimportance of this technical knowledge is underscored by its enhancement of theseactions and reactions.

The miniaturization of ICTs, which is the precursor to their mobility, istraceable to both humans’ quest and capacity for ICT innovation. The quest hasbeen deep because people’s capacity for ICT innovation directly correlates withincreased productivity of other commodities and better information and interactionmanagement. Better information and interaction management, being an importantaspect of livelihood, is preferred by human beings if enjoyed continuously thanintermittently. Therefore, the miniaturization of ICTs, perceived by ICT innova-tors to satisfy this continuous quest, is understood as a facility for their easiertransportation by human beings.

This miniaturization has been the most visible characteristic of ICT innovationsince the 1950s. Between that time and the 1980s, the mainframe and supercomputer were the main technology used by organizations. Thus, only few peoplein an organization would be in charge of their maintenance and use. These usersand their activities could be monitored and controlled directly by managersbecause of proximity, signifying the relatively low discretion that could be exer-cised by users. Any external organizational activities could only be monitored andcontrolled effectively through rudimentary methods such as transfers, visits andreports. Information systems, during this period, were largely useful for dataprocessing and management reporting from internal sources. Thus, organizations’control of their external interests was fairly limited to non-technological means.

The early 1980s saw the invention of the personal or desktop computer thatwitnessed the proliferation of computers in homes and offices. Individuals could

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now own computers for their personal home use or could be given personalcomputers to use in offices to achieve organizational goals. In spite of this revo-lution, organizational use of computers could still be monitored and controlleddirectly by managers because of the collocation of work, which could signify lowlevels of user discretion. However, various degrees of private uses could beallowed by managers or could be achieved by users by stealth. Thus, user dis-cretion could be deemed as low-to-medium. Organizational control of externaltransactions in the early part of this period was still largely limited to visits andreporting. However, in the latter parts when computer networks were veryadvanced and global, ICT-based control of external activities became morecommonplace.

Personal computers are still popular in offices and homes today, especiallybecause of the invention of the World Wide Web that has ensured their networkingover wide areas such as a country’s entire landscape. However, since the mid-1990s, the world has witnessed the invention of handheld computers that aregaining popularity by the day. This latest invention couples with both wire signalsover fiber-optic and wireless signals to enable their use by organizations to monitorand control mobile and geographically-distributed activities. This coupling hasresulted in what is referred to as anytime anywhere or ubiquitous computing(Dourish and Bell 2011; Lyytinen and Yoo 2002; Kleinrock 1996); and thefacilities of these handhelds are being exploited for controlling inter-organizationaltransactions.

Mobility of ICTs and how that has impacted on our lives is not a contemporaryphenomenon. Simpler mobile technologies such as paper, to more complex onessuch as the motor car and wrist watch were invented many years ago and havelived with us for centuries. Yet, their emergence never generated as much interestamong researchers to pursue mobility studies as it is in contemporary times.Recent enthusiasm in mobility research can be explained by the fact that con-temporary mobile ICTs afford mobile interaction and information processing.Complemented by the proliferation of wireless networks, internet communicationsand device convergence, mobile ICTs have revolutionised modes of computing,interaction and service provision in society.

Mobility of ICTs was energized in the mid 1990s by Leonard Kleinrock’spopular thesis which espouses a vision of anytime anywhere access to computingand interaction (see Kleinrock 1996). Consequently, nearly all publications onmobility make reference to ‘anytime, anywhere.’ With reference to humans, herevealed the lack of systems support needed to assist various forms of ‘nomad-icity’, and discussed the intrinsic technical challenges and solutions. These chal-lenges are inherent in the possibility of incoherence or frustration in the utilizationof objects which often result in the ‘immobility’ of mobile ICTs. This is thecornerstone of Wiberg and Ljungberg’s (2001) claim that anytime anywhereaccess may not necessarily imply everytime everywhere access. Mobile ICTs,together with the proliferation of mass digital communication and the convergenceof ICTs (Lyytinen and Yoo 2002), have founded new fertile research interests asacademics seek the understanding of their impact, and as organisations and

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individuals in society pursue the maximisation of returns from their use in timelyinformation processing and interaction.

In information systems research, new mobile ICTs have generated a new waveof research efforts which seek to understand how they impact on society andorganisations. Most notably, explanations of the significance of mobile ICTs arepremised, most luridly, on perceptual psychology. The concept of ‘‘affordance’’(Gibson 1979; Norman 1988; Gaver 1991, 1996; Zaff 1995), drawn from ideas inthe psychology of perception, is the fundamental principle underlying currentconceptualisations of mobility that espouse the differences in portable technolo-gies. Gibson, for example, defines affordances as the opportunities for action forthe observer provided by an environment. Gibson’s affordances mirror whatOrtega y Gasset (1941) describes as ‘‘facilities’’ and ‘‘frustrations’’ that are notproperties of the world but properties that lay solely in our ‘‘interaction with theworld’’—our interaction with reality. This sense of affordance is reflected inmobile ICTs—what they afford affects the fluidity or incoherence and clumsinessin our activities (Cook and Brown 1999).

The innovation of mobile ICTs and mobility is not only traceable to technicaland instrumental forces; it is also traceable to socio-cultural inducements.

2.5.2 Socio-Economic Inducements

Postmodern organization, as a contemporary phenomenon of the evolution ofsociety, has not only been characterised by travelling. It has also been charac-terised considerably by changes in work configuration, in governance of nationstates, in the role of information and knowledge, and in the power relationsbetween employees and employers. Modern organization is characterised largelyby collocated work configurations. This configuration was even the feature ofbranch offices of multinational organizations. However, postmodern organizationhas increasingly witnessed configurations such as global virtual software team-work (Carmel 1999; Carmel and Tjia 2005) which is supported heavily by tele-conference and internet technologies.

Beyond this, the combination of the Internet and postmodernism has promotednew working modes such as the home-office (Felstead et al. 2005), and havefurther induced demand for mobile ICTs which would allow for mobile and dis-tributed work. The socio-political undercurrent of this trend is democracy which isincreasingly becoming the dominant form of governance of nation states aroundthe world. Although it manifests and is practiced in diverse forms around theworld, its central philosophical assumptions of individualism and increaseddevolution of power from central authorities to citizens is very formidable.Besides, its influence reaches beyond the macro-level of national governance andthe micro-level of individual freedom to the meso-level of organizationalgovernance.

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Thus, democratization of the organization has led to increasing levels ofemployee empowerment therein. The increased powers of labour unions and therelative weakness of organizations testify to the reality of these phenomena.Besides, more employees are increasingly demanding less regimental and stressfulwork schedules. Many working mothers, for example, have ridden on this phe-nomenon to press on their organizations to allow them to work from home. Relatedto this is the service economy of postmodernism which thrives on knowledge, andhence on information.

Thus, the generation and processing of data and information are now pre-dominant and continuous features even for manufacturing and agricultural orga-nizations. ICT is fundamentally different from industrial technology of the modernorganization because the microprocessor chip of the computer is different from themotor of the industrial machine. Whereas the object of the chip is the replacementof the brain as the source of knowledge, the object of the motor is the replacementof human muscle as the source of energy (Weiner 1961). Today, ICTs havebecome ubiquitous in all spheres of the global economy that the idea of infor-mation revolution is not in question. Consequently, it is not just the form andcontent of information that matters now in organization, but its timeliness anddepth because these are the services which will facilitate with work of the post-modern worker and satisfy the postmodern customer.

All these trends have provided fertile grounds for technology innovators todevelop mobile ICTs to provide postmodern organizations with information-related solutions. For this reason, many organisations are remodelling themselvesto centre their strategies on customer relationship management through the pro-vision of mobile services. Thus, it is wiser for employees to be allowed thefreedom to adopt mobile work practices to serve customers anytime anywhere.This was witnessed in the mobile foreign exchange traders which Sørensen andAl-Taitoon (2008) studied. These traders were equipped by their banks withmobile computers which enabled them to broker transaction deals with customersat all times and from anywhere. As a result of all these trends, human mobility hasbeen reconceptualised based on how the affordances of modern ICTs havereshaped modern forms of human migration and activities. This reconceptualisa-tion is exemplified by phrases such as ‘postmodern nomads’ (Bauman 1993, 2000),‘postmodern professionals’ (Kakihara and Sørensen 2002b), and ‘social mobility’(Goldthorpe 1987; Hope 1972).

Inherent in these phrases is the reality of a postmodernized identity which isexemplified by the arrangement of individuals’ lives according to aesthetics, vol-atility, fluidity as contrasted with stability and security of modernism. Thisarrangement has a strong affinity with personality development according to theimportance of knowledge and personal information management. The life and workof the postmodern professional conforms to the fluidity and liquidity of organiza-tion and the mobility of work. His human capital has become the focal commodityin postmodern organization, as compared with his labour as the focal commodity.Therefore, there is great premium on his intellectual capacities with which he canmatch the knowledge demands of his organization and uncertain consumption

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patterns in the environment. The premium translates to the necessity of continuouspersonal information and interaction management wherever he goes. In otherwords, he needs mobile computers to achieve enhanced mobility. In short, thenecessity for personality development according to the requirements of postmodernorganization represents a strong inducement for the innovation of mobile ICTs.

Another inducement is the increasing dominance of capitalism and the serviceeconomy which are directly accountable for the proliferation of mobile computers.The nature of capitalism in contemporary democratic governance is such that theentrepreneurial and innovative freedoms of producers and consumers of ICTs arehighly facilitated and extolled. Innovative development and use of ICT are highlyencouraged because they are considered to be integral aspects of socio-economicdevelopment and progress. For example, the ‘open’ phenomenon in ICT, which isexemplified by open source software development, open research and developmentand open innovation, is very typical of the IT effects of capitalism and serviceprovision (Enkel et al. 2009; Lettl et al. 2006). Besides, the contemporary trend incomputing is that consumers are becoming producers of technology. For instance,technology development now offers platforms for users to customise software intonew forms and to contribute content to websites. In short, capitalism and theservice economy have also become clear determinants of mobile ICT innovation.

These discussions denote the following: Firstly, that the mobile ICT innovationcorrelates strongly with increasing desires for technological and information man-agement support at the personal level for mobility across spatial, temporal andcontextual boundaries. Secondly, mobile ICT innovation is constituted by the sat-isfaction of both personal and organizational needs. As a corollary, mobile ICTs areembedded with both personal and organizational applications, signifying their unityin single devices. Thirdly, the unity of these applications provides more conveniencefor the user to move across the computational boundaries between personal andorganizational activities. Similar to the denotations from the discussions onmobility, these denotations are affirmed by both the ontogenetic and phylogeneticinducements of mobile ICT innovation and use whereby they are shaped by bothindividual and societal parameters.

2.6 Chapter Summary

The mobility of humans and objects can be understood in terms of functional andinteractional perspectives. The functional perspective speaks of the support pro-vided by mobile computers in terms of the modalities of human movement—travelling, wandering and visiting, or remote mobility, local mobility, and micro-mobility. These modalities provide quite a narrow perspective on mobility becauseit is only concerned with space. The interactional perspective is more compre-hensive because it explains the concept in terms of space, time and context. Theseterms are explained as constraints, so that mobile ICTs can help users overcomethem.

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Mobile services are obtained from mobile ICTs. The services are information,interaction and computational. Information services are required for reducinguncertainties and equivocalities pertaining to information. Interaction services areimportant for collaboration, coordination and peer-to-peer networking that createsawareness and facilitates task accomplishment. Computational services refer to theavailability of mobile computers for continuous information capture and pro-cessing. They also refer to the ease of use of mobile computers.

In terms of historicity, mobility is attributable to humans’ biological and socio-cultural inducements. The biological inducements are food and interactions. Thesocio-cultural inducements are mass consumption of goods, work, housing, leisure,religion, family relationships, criminal gain, asylum seeking, social inclusion, thedevelopment of weak ties, globalization, urbanization, and international migration.The inducements of mobility denote that it is constituted and manifested by per-sonal and organizational forces which are continuous.

Mobile ICTs result from inducements due to continuous technologicalinnovation and socio-cultural changes in human communities. Technologicalinnovation inducements are the need to extend the human organs with instru-mentation, and the desire for technical knowledge and skills. The inducements dueto socio-technical changes are the emergence of postmodern organization, thetransition from an industrial to an information economy, and the increasingdemand for continuous capacity for information and interaction management. Theinducements of mobile ICT innovation suggest that it necessitates the design ofboth personal and organizational applications in one device. The inducements alsosignify the unity of these applications which enable more convenient spanning ofthe computations boundaries between personal and organizational activities.

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Chapter 3The Historicity of Human Activityand Perception

The analysis of the empirical evidence in this book and the ensuing theoreticalarguments draw upon two theories that are essentially historical—activity andperception. Activity theory (AT, also known as cultural-historical activity theory)assumes that human activities are social and objective, and essentially cultural-historical. It explains human activities in terms of the motives that drive them,their underlying conditions, and the implications for appropriation of tools. AT isapplicable to the analysis of technology use in both organizational and non-organizational (personal) conditions. In particular, it is applicable for the analysisof personal-organizational tensions that inform the usability of mobile computers.Thus, an activity perspective has greater potential to explain better how and whypeople use portable technologies in both personal and organizational contexts.

AT is complemented by the theory of perception (also known as the historicalepistemology of perception) (Wartofsky 1979; see also Vygotsky 1978; Leont’ev1978) which assumes that perception is also a historical, social, cognitive andteleological mode of human action. The theory throws more light on the ATprinciple of consciousness which is applicable to the analysis of the role of themental dimension of human actions in mobile computer usability.

The rest of this chapter outlines and discusses the intellectual and historicalcharacter of the theories of activity and perception. The aim is to unearth thebackground circumstances that both shape mobile computer usability and enhanceour understanding of it.

3.1 Background to Cultural Historical Activity Theory

In his discussion of the Social Origins of Indirect (Mediated) Memory, Vygotsky(1978, p. 38) distinguished between elementary and higher mental functions inhuman beings. Elementary functions are completely genetic, and directly related tonatural memory; therefore they are unmediated responses to environmental stim-uli. However, ‘‘[natural] memory is not the only kind…even in the case ofnon-literate men and women’’ (ibid., p. 39). Human beings are characterised by

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higher mental functions that represent development based on their extensions ofbiological memory.

They extend the operation of memory beyond the biological dimensions of the humannervous system and permit it to incorporate artificial, or self-generated stimuli, which wecall signs. This merger, unique to human beings, signifies an entirely new form ofbehaviour (loc. cit.).

The new form of behaviour is inherently a reflection of development of highermental functions. Leont’ev draws upon this idea in his treatment of the essence ofmediation in this form of development:

Mediated memory, in turn, develops along two lines: (a) along that of a development andperfecting of methods of using aids, which continue to be in the form of stimuli actingfrom outside, and (b) along the line of a transition from external means to inner ones. Sucha memory, based on a highly developed capacity for instrumental use of components ofexperience that are predominantly internal (inner ‘symbolic aids’), constitutes the last andhighest stage in its development (Leont’ev 1981, p. 349).

Sign operations of human beings are therefore external phenomena that mediatetheir elementary stimulus—response functions. Signs and symbols are ‘‘secondorder’’ intermediating stimuli that ensure higher mental functioning (see Fig. 3.1).

In this formulation, there is emphasis on the inseparability of mediating signand activity: ‘‘This intermediate link is a second order stimulus (sign) that is drawninto the operation, here it fulfils a special function;…[the] term ‘drawn into’indicates that an individual must be actively engaged in establishing such a link.’’(Vygotsky 1978, p. 39).

The theory of Activity (Leont’ev 1978, 1981) derives from this formulation: thestimulus-sign-response relationship is transformed into a subject–tool–objectrelationship by Engeström (1987)—the subject’s responses to external objectstimuli are mediated by tools and signs (psychological tools). The philosophicalassumptions of Activity are founded on the following ontology: every humanactivity is conducted by a subject who pursues an object with a motive to trans-form the object into a product or outcome; the relationship between the subject andobject is always mediated by some physical and psychological tools. It isimportant to note that, psychologically, tools and signs are mutually interrelatedand separate at the same time:

[a] most essential difference between sign and tool, and the basic real divergence of thetwo lines, is the different ways that they orient human behaviour. The tool’s function is toserve as the conductor of human influence on the object of activity; it is externallyoriented; it must lead to changes in objects. … The sign, on the other hand, changesnothing in the object of a psychological operation. It is a means of internal activity aimedat mastering oneself; the sign is internally oriented (…).

The mastering of nature and the mastering of behaviour are mutually interlinked, just asman’s alteration of nature alters man’s own nature (p. 55; italics in original).

Activity therefore departs from a simplistic notion of natural, elementary andunmediated perception that is biological or physiological towards a complex idea

38 3 The Historicity of Human Activity and Perception

of perception as a mode of action that is always mediated by cultural-historically-produced and -communicated tools and signs. Against this backdrop, ActivityTheory is a ‘‘philosophical and cross-disciplinary framework for studying differentforms of human practices as development processes, with both individual andsocial levels interlinked at the same time’’ (Kuutti 1995). The main idea presentedby the theory is that the relationship between an individual and the world ismediated by his or her activities which reflect ontogenesis and phylogenesis.

Thus, Vygotsky draws upon the ideas of Marx (e.g. Capital 1909) to initiate hisexpositions of human activities within which he posits a learning subject and alearning object mediated by tools—physical and psychological tools. In theseexpositions, he challenges ideas of learning as cognitive development (Piaget1970) by arguing contrarily that learning is inherently social. He stresses that theorigins of thinking are founded on social interaction, and hence learning is aprocess of social development instead of cognitive development. He lays emphasison the interconnections between people and the cultural context in which they actand interact in shared experiences (Crawford 1996).

3.2 Activity Structure

Activity is a molar, not an additive unit of the life of the physical, material subject. …activity is not a reaction and not a totality of reactions but a system that has structure, itsown internal transitions and transformations, its own development (Leont’ev 1978, p. 50).

When an individual performs an activity, the process of development—of thetransformation of the subject and object—is very dynamic and occurs over aprolonged period of time. An activity is directed by a motive: it ‘‘answers adefinite need of the subject, it is directed toward an object of this need, it isextinguished as a result of its satisfaction, and it is produced again, perhaps inother, altogether changed conditions’’ (Leont’ev 1978, p. 62). The motive isaroused when the person has identified an object which he or she perceives willsatisfy his or her need. The motive is a result of stimulation in the consciousnessof the subject by biologically—and sociologically—satisfying external objects;and it gives an activity a determined direction. The motive, according toLeont’ev, may be ‘‘either real or ideal, either present in perception or exclusivelyin the imagination or in thought’’ (loc. cit.). The general macrostructure of anactivity incorporates both internal and external activities of the subject; it is

S R

(a) (b)Fig. 3.1 a The structure ofthe unmediated act. b Thestructure of the mediated act:S Stimulus, R Response, andX Mediating Sign [SourceVygotsky (1978)]

3.1 Background to Cultural Historical Activity Theory 39

constituted by a series of conscious and goal-oriented actions which are alsoconstituted by subconscious operations (see Fig. 3.2).

A series of actions together constitute an activity, and they are conductedthrough a planning-orientation-execution phase. This implies that actions are per-formed consciously and are directed at the achievement of immediate or interme-diate goals. Generally, goal-oriented actions result in objective products that satisfythe motives by which an activity was stimulated. However, in a collective activitythat manifests in division of labour among a community performing the activity, thesubjective goals of an individual may not be directly related to the motive of theactivity. Goals are intermediate and necessarily partial results that are achieved byseparate actors in a collective activity. Here, the partial results in themselves cannotsatisfy the needs of the actors.

Their needs are satisfied not by these ‘intermediate’ results but by a share of the product oftheir collective activity, obtained by each of them through forms of the relationshipbinding them one to another, which develop in the process of work, that is, social rela-tionships (Ibid., p. 63).

Therefore motives are not arbitrary creations but are given in social objectivecircumstances—they are objective. However, during the performance of theactions related to the given objective goals, the dynamic conditions that underliethose actions may induce a subjectivisation or personalisation of the goals bythe subject resulting in subjective goals. Subjective goals represent the personalsense made of the goal-oriented actions, and they may directly correspond to themotives of other activities of the subject. Thus, one’s action’s goal may be servingthe motives of different activities; and the different motives of those activities willresult in the action having a different, and often contradictory, personal sense tothe subject.

It follows from it that the aim of one and the same act can be cognised differently,depending on what motive precisely it arises in connection with (…). Depending on whatactivity the action forms a part of, it will have one psychological character or another(Leont’ev 1982, p. 404–405).

The logic in Leont’ev’s exposition of the theory of activity levels makes it auseful analytical tool for studying work and learning processes. These levels arenot only useful in their reactive sense. They can also be applied proactively inplanning and modelling learning activities, as illustrated in Checkland’s (1999)levels of systems thinking:

Activity Motive Why?

Actions Goals What?

Operations Conditions How?

Fig. 3.2 General structure ofan activity. Adopted fromLeont’ev (1978)

40 3 The Historicity of Human Activity and Perception

The idea of levels, or layers is absolutely fundamental to systems thinking. (…) Theformal aim of this kind of thinking prior to model building is to ensure that there is clarityof thought about the purposeful activity which is regarded as relevant to the particularproblem situation addressed (p. A23).

Checkland’s analysis of these activity levels serves as a useful methodologicaltool for this study because it offers guidelines for analysing the origin or planningstage of a work or learning activity. The structure activity-actions-operations inLeont’ev is respectively represented as why-what-how in Checkland. An activity’smotive answers the question why, and the intentional characteristic of goal-ori-ented actions is a response to what must be achieved. Goals are however achievedin specific conditions which present a problem of how or by what means. The latteris the operational or methodical aspect of actions ‘‘which is determined not by thegoal in itself but by the objective conditions of its achievement… I call themethods for accomplishing actions, operations’’ (Leont’ev 1978, p. 65) (seeFig. 3.2).

All the three levels—activity—actions—operations—are interrelated in thesense that, depending on certain psychic experiences such as emotions and feelingsof the subject, one of them can be transformed into the next.

Activity may lose the motive that elicited it, whereupon it is converted into an actionrealizing perhaps an entirely different relation to the world, a different activity; conversely,an action may turn into an independent stimulating force and may become a separateactivity; finally, an action may be transformed into a means of achieving a goal, into anoperation capable of realizing various actions (Leont’ev 1978, p. 67).

First, an action can be transformed into an activity:

The motive of activity, by being shifted, may pass to the object (goal) of the action, withthe result that the action is transformed into an activity (Leont’ev 1982, p. 401).

The passage onto the goal of the action inherently changes it into a new motiveand hence an activity. The passage usually occurs when the object suddenlyassumes the role of satisfying an identified need of the subject. From another anglean activity can be transformed into an action when its motive ceases to coincidewith the subject’s needs and becomes subservient towards the achievement ofother motives.

Second, conscious actions can develop into subconscious operations through acontinuous learning and skill development process. An action is transformed intoan operation when the subject has learned how to perform the action so adeptlythat it no more subordinates his consciousness in performing. Human operationsare the targets of automation or, in the terminology of Leont’ev, ‘‘technization’’ bytechnology. Automation of human operations has been the inspiration of a con-siderable share of all technology in use (Kuutti 1995).

The collapse of actions into operations exemplifies learning and skill devel-opment, and this results in the individual increasing his or her mental capacity toperform more operations. As more of a subject’s actions collapse into operations,the greater will be the skill development of the subject concerned, leading to a

3.2 Activity Structure 41

fulfilment of the motive of his or her activity. Kuutti (Ibid.) calls this the‘‘broadening scope of actions’’, which means that as more actions collapse intooperations, the newly formed operations join the existing set of operations whichthen form integral sub-parts of actions.

The point is that for the subject himself the comprehension and achievement of concretegoals, his mastering of certain modes and operations of action is a way of asserting,fulfilling his life, satisfying and developing his material and spiritual needs, which arereified and transformed in the motives of his activity (Leont’ev 1978).

Two learning implications can be drawn from this extract: first, the number ofactions is reduced for the same activity enabling the individual to perform thereduced actions more efficiently and effectively. On the other hand—and I refer tothis as the broadening range of actions—those actions, which hitherto could not beperformed, are introduced into the frame of ‘current’ actions aimed at satisfyingthe subject’s other motives. Thus for one activity, as more of its actions arecollapsed into operations, the satisfaction of its motives will demand less mentalresources (consciousness); this can allow the subject to engage in more actionstowards the achievement of goals that fulfil other motives. This is how learningand development occur: for an activity, as one develops a skill for performing itsactions, he or she is able to perform many subconscious operations which were allonce actions that demanded total consciousness in performing. It, therefore,becomes relatively easier to satisfy the motive of that activity allowing fordevotion of more physical and mental resources to actions whose goals satisfyother motives.

Granted that an operation is determined by the goal that is given in particularconditions requiring a certain mode of action, operations can also degenerate intoactions when the subject encounters adverse conditions in an activity. For exam-ple, the process of learning to drive a manual car in dry weather proceeds fromchanging conscious actions such as speed, steering and pedals control into sub-conscious operations. But then those operations are likely to change back intoconscious actions when it begins to snow and the road gets slippery because, all ofa sudden, speed, steering and pedals controls will begin to re-demand the con-sciousness of the driver. The back-and-forth transformation of actions and oper-ations has direct implications for the analysis of learning and unlearning,especially in technology-mediated learning.

The uses of mediating physical and psychological tools may constitute activi-ties, or may constitute actions and operations of an activity. In other words, theanalysis of mediation by physical instruments has to open up to the fact that theinstrument can assume any of the activity levels depending on several otherenvironmental factors that impact directly or indirectly on the activity. Theidentification and analysis of the dynamic properties of physical tools are partic-ularly important when one considers the complexity of modern ICTs. Theseinstruments contain complex inscriptions of interrelated rules of designers meantfor information capture, processing and transmission. Moreover, the ease orclumsiness of their uses are factors of their physical, interface and system design

42 3 The Historicity of Human Activity and Perception

properties; the location, time and context of use; and the motives they have beendeployed to help accomplish. These factors have some bearing on the degrees ofimprovisation and structuration of ICTs by users.

3.3 Activity System

AT is inspired by the following relationship based on artificial or self-generatedsigns that are reinterpreted as tools and signs: tools referring to physical instru-ments, and signs referring to psychological tools in the form of ‘‘language; varioussystems of counting; mnemonic techniques; algebraic symbol systems, works ofart; writing; schemes, diagrams, maps and mechanical drawings; all sorts ofconventional signs; etc.’’ (Vygotsky 1981, p.137). Engeström (1987) makes adistinction between physical instruments and psychological signs: ‘‘the primarylevel of mediation by tools and gestures dissociated from one another…and thesecondary level of mediation by tools combined with corresponding signs or otherpsychological tools.’’ To him, it is in the secondary level of mediation whereoptimum results are attained.

It is the transformation of the object that motivates the existence of the activity.In work and learning terms, the outcome is not just a transformation of the objectbut a transformation of both the subject and object. Object transformations arereflected in Engeström’s Marxist interpretation of human production and con-sumption: ‘‘Production is always also consumption of the individual’s abilities andof the means of production. Correspondingly, consumption is also production ofthe human beings themselves’’ (Engeström 1987). The continuous performance ofan activity by the subject is inherently a cyclical internalisation-externalisationprocess of assimilation by the subject of the properties of the object as it is beingtransformed (Fig. 3.3).

At the social level—where the individual performs an activity in collaborationwith other people—an activity becomes more complex because of its collectivenature. Based on Marx’s Capital (1909), Leont’ev laid emphasis on a collectivemotive that manifests in the division of labour in the performance of an activity.He elaborated the collective and cooperative nature of the performance of anactivity, citing the infamous example of the primitive hunt (1978), but he did nottell us much about the intrinsic concepts of community and its rules.

AT, popularly attributed to Leont’ev, draws on the cultural-historical psycho-logical works of Vygotsky; but the activity system or triangle is a result of anelaboration of Vygotsky’s basic structure by Engeström, a contemporary championof the theory. In his theory of Expansive Learning (1987), he draws on Marx’s(1909, 1969, 1971, 1976) and Zinchenko’s (1983) knowledge of the economics ofhuman labour to remodel the subject-tool-object structure to reflect the collectivenature of an activity, and hence the social nature of learning. Engeström’s well-known activity system incorporates the community-based elements of humanactivity (see Fig. 3.4).

3.2 Activity Structure 43

In this system, the relationship between the subject and the object is mediatedby tools in addition to interactions with community members and the rules gov-erning the division of labour among community members. Engeström’s concep-tualisations suggest that all the elements of the structure are interconnected andthey shape each other based on a transition from human adaptation to consump-tion. Drawing on Marx’s Grundrissse (1976), he depicts how an individual sub-ject’s consumption subordinates his or her activity to production, distribution andexchange (communication). Marx writes:

Production creates the objects which correspond to the given needs; distribution dividesthem up according to social laws; exchange further parcels out the already divided sharesin accord with individual needs; and finally, in consumption, the product steps outside thissocial movement and becomes a direct object and servant of individual need, and satisfiesit in being consumed. Thus production appears to be the point of departure, consumptionas the conclusion, distribution and exchange as the middle… (Ibid., p. 89).

Through his analysis of production, distribution, exchange and consumption,Marx amplifies the social or collective nature of objects—a property that impliesthat, to the subject, the sense of his or her involvement in the actions that lead tothe transformation of the object is always two-fold: that is, in its objective senseand personal sense. Engeström deduced from Marx and Leont’ev to elucidate thefact that each of production, distribution, exchange and consumption, while rep-resenting integral actions that realise the holistic motive of society, is an activity initself.

In other words, each sub-triangle…is potentially an activity of its own. (…) In a morecomplex and differentiated society, there exist a multitude of relatively independentactivities, representing all the sub-triangles. But within any such relatively independentactivity system, we find the same internal structure as depicted in [the activity system]…This has the important implication that there is no activity without the component ofproduction… (Engeström op. cit.).

Kuutti (1995) provides a slightly different interpretation of the interrelation-ships between the elements of the activity triangle. This is depicted by the differentgeometric shapes of the elements. He establishes relationships between the ele-ments through mediation: the relationship between the subject and the communityis mediated by the implicit and explicit rules shaping the community; and further,the relationship between the community and the object is mediated by the division

Subject Object

Tool

Outcome

Fig. 3.3 Basic structure of an activity at individual level [Source Engeström (1987)]

44 3 The Historicity of Human Activity and Perception

of labour among members of the community (mediators in rounded rectangles).Based on Vygotsky’s ideas, the activity system suggests that each of the elementsof the activity system, apart from the subject, object and outcome, constitutes asign and tool which mediate an activity.

The interrelations of elements of the activity structure are useful for describingand analysing the interrelated parts of any work or learning system. Leont’ev’sactivity structure addresses the issue of context within changing conditions—andhence within the activity. But Engeström’s triangles—founded on multiple activitysystems—take care of the external context or environment of an activity. Forexample he has focused more of his arguments on the contradictions within ele-ments of an activity, and more importantly between that activity and what he calls‘‘neighbour activities.’’

In a collective activity, the subject’s management of the rules as well as thedivision of labour and social interactions within the community are all actions thatdemand conscious planning, modelling and execution. In other words, the medi-ators of the relationship between the subject and object are such that their effectiveutilisation in the transformation process initially constitutes actions. For example,learning or skill development occurs when the magnitude of mental resources(degree of consciousness) that these mediators demand continuously diminishtowards subconsciousness, allowing the learner to transform the object moreefficiently and effectively by broadening his or her range of actions and/or scope ofactions.

Behind the structure and system of activity, AT is built on a set of psycho-logical principles which depict the dynamics of the developmental process thatoccur in the transformative or developmental relationship between an individualand the objects which he or she acts on. The next section is devoted to a detaileddiscussion of each of the key principles of activity: object-orientation, internali-sation and externalization, consciousness, contradictions, and mediation andprosthesis.

EXCHANGE

CONSUMPTION

DISTRIBUTION

PRODUCTIONTransformation

Tool

Subject Object

CommunityRules Division of Labour

Outcome

Fig. 3.4 An activity system [Source Adopted from Engeström (1987)]

3.3 Activity System 45

3.4 Principles of Activity

3.4.1 Object-Orientation

When a conscious activity is being performed, it is always aimed at an object. Inan external activity—in human labour—the subject is confronted with elements ofthe external environment, of reality. The nature of objects can be deemed as eitherontological or epistemological, and they can represent either subjective orobjective phenomena depending on the perception of the subject (see Searle 1995).The inherent objectivity of an activity stems from the externality of objects thatexist in social conditions, and which subordinate human actions to them. Essen-tially, it is these social conditions that ‘‘carry in themselves motives and goals of[the individual’s] activity, his means and methods…’’ (Leont’ev 1978, p. 51). Thisunderstanding of the objective and social sense of objects and activities is dem-onstrated in Il’enkov’s (1977) analysis of the concept of the ideal. The ideal,according to him, is independent of the consciousness and will of the individualsubject; it is a sign or symbol historically and culturally built collectively bysociety for society which mediates activities in the sense of Vygotsky’s psycho-logical signs (1978). The ideal

…confronts the individual as the thought of preceding generations realised (‘reified’,‘objectified’, ‘alienated’) in sensuously perceptible ‘matter’—in language and visuallyperceptible images, in books and statues, in wood and bronze, in the form of places ofworship and instruments of labour, in the designs of machines and state buildings, in thepatterns of scientific and moral systems, and so on. All these objects are in their existence,in their ‘present being’ substantial, ‘material’, but in their essence, in their origin they are‘ideal’, because they embody the collective thinking of people, the ‘universal spirit’ ofmankind (Il’enkov 1977) (italics mine).

Thus, there is a distinction between crude material matter of natural origin andidealised material of cultural-historical origin built through collective sense-making of people. The essence of an object lies in its satisfaction of the motives ofhuman labour; it is the entity that shapes the will and consciousness of the indi-vidual as he or she seeks to survive in society through his or her labour (activities).Within the external environment, a plethora of objects can be pursued by indi-vidual subjects. By virtue of a combination of the biological and environmentalneeds of a subject, an object—or a transformation of the object—is pursued in anactivity. Leont’ev’s psychology of needs suggests that a need in itself does nothave an inherent capacity to direct an activity: its latency as a condition onlybecomes transformed into a driving force when it ‘‘meets’’ the particular object,which, it perceives, will satisfy it. This is the point where a need becomesobjectivised; that is, transformed into a motive. To illustrate, the biological needwill instigate the want for food in the subject, but the environmental need, basedon the ideal, will direct the subject’s activity to particular kinds of food.

Several activities can be performed by a subject at the same time, but oneactivity is differentiated from another by its object. ‘‘It is exactly the object of an

46 3 The Historicity of Human Activity and Perception

activity that gives it a determined direction.’’ (Leont’ev 1978). Primarily, anactivity implies objectivity as the performance of an activity is inherently thepursuit of an object. Thus the essence of an activity lies in the transformation of anobject as a means by which the individual satisfies his or her needs. Objectstherefore direct activities. Leont’ev explained:

Being, the life of each individual, is made up of the sum-total…of successive activities.(…) Activity is a non-additive unit of the corporeal, material life of the material subject.(…) The basic, constituent feature of activity is that it has an object. In fact, the veryconcept of activity (doing) implies the concept of the object of activity. …the object ofactivity appears in two forms: first, in its independent existence, commanding the activityof the subject, and second, as the mental image of the object, as the product of thesubject’s ‘‘detection’’ of its properties, which is effected by the activity of the subject andcannot be effected otherwise (1978).

Objects are inherently external and environmental. An activity is objectivebecause society or the environment appears as a superstructure in the mind of thesubject, and he or she is forced to adopt and survive in this superstructure. Thisdoes not imply that the subject exists in opposition to society, rather the super-structure contains his or her motives and goals. In the expression of Leont’ev,‘‘society produces the activity of the individuals forming it’’ (ibid.). Society isobjective in nature because of cultural-historical development of the interrela-tionships between its human species. Phylogenetic development ensures a com-munal survival within which ontogenesis dictates to the individual subject to adaptwithin the community. The interrelationships between individuals built on pro-duction and exchange, and on language and communication leads to the objecti-fication of society: all items of communication—names, signs, symbols,commodities and gestures—have collectively, socially defined meanings and notindividual and subjective meanings.

To this end, the principle of object-orientation offers an insightful appreciationthat guides this study in identifying the motives that underlie the actions ofworkers or learners. Particularly, it offers pointers for the investigation of thenature of mediating instruments in learning. Furthermore, given that there aremultiple activities competing for learners’ attention at any one time (Engeström1987), object-orientation is highly instrumental as an analytical and methodo-logical tool in clearly identifying and differentiating the various objects andassociated motives in relation to the learners’ actions and operations. This servesas a foundation for analysing the interdependencies between interrelated activities,and for ascertaining the causes and effects of the movement of mediating toolsbetween the statuses of tools and objects in an activity.

3.4.2 Externalisation and Internalisation

Object transformation is not just an external activity: it is an intertwined dualismof external objective physical activity and internal mental activity. Once the

3.4 Principles of Activity 47

subject identifies an external object that he or she perceives to satisfy his or herneeds, an external activity—directed at the object—is initiated by the subject inpursuit of a transformation of the object. The relationship that is established ini-tially between the subject and object is an appreciation by the subject of theproperties of the object that he or she seeks to transform. During the performanceof the external activity, there is a corresponding psychological process in whichthe subject generates mental representations of the properties of the object andhow he or she intends to surmount the problems associated with those properties.This mental reflection of the objective world is not merely a wholesale process ofassimilation of the external object; rather, this reflection is mediated by the pro-cesses in which the subject comes into practical contact with the external objectand makes personal sense of the problem associated with it.

Therefore, mental images are not objective properties of the objective world:they are rather subjective properties shaped by the subject’s interpretation of theindependent properties, connections, and relations of the objective world(Leont’ev 1978). The process of formation of mental representations of theobjective world is what Leont’ev labels as ‘‘interiorisation’’:

a transition that results in processes external in form, with external material objects, beingtransformed into processes that take place on the mental plane, on the plane of con-sciousness; here they undergo a specific transformation—they are generalized, verbalized,condensed, and most important, they become capable of further development whichexceeds the boundaries of the possibilities of external activity (Ibid.).

This is a succinct expression of his ‘‘psychological reflection of reality’’ inwhich personal subjective meanings are formulated from objective externalmeanings. During this process, the subject can perform an internal transformationof mental subjective properties of the external object to an extent that eventranscends the bounds allowable in physical transformation. These internal pro-cesses are later externalised by the subject physically to ensure a material trans-formation of the object; and it immediately initiates another interiorisation process.

The most critical aspect of the relationship between external and internalactivity is that internal activity derives from external activity and not the other wayround. ‘‘The genetically initial and fundamental form of human activity is externalactivity, practical activity’’ (Leont’ev 1978). This principle is in harmony withVygotsky’s argument that an individual’s thought derives first from his or herinteractions with the external world (Vygotsky 1962). In an activity, the psycho-logical process of internalisation of an object’s properties is not merely externalaction transformed into a pre-existing internal ‘‘plan of consciousness’’; it is theprocess in which this internal plan is formed (Leont’ev 1978). This plan formationprocess is essentially conscious.

Thus, externalisation and internalisation do not represent a linear process but acyclical one. The community of external and internal activity, mediating theinterrelations of the subject with his or her objective world, is fundamental to theunderstanding of work and learning. We are interested in the developmental studyof work and learning processes and their external manifestations. In other words,

48 3 The Historicity of Human Activity and Perception

the understanding of learning must transcend phenotypic (descriptive) analysistowards genotypic (explanatory) analysis (Lewin 1935; Vygotsky 1978). Theessence of the principles of internalisation and externalisation is in its usefulnessfor describing the external, phenotypic aspects of an activity in relation toexplanations of its internal genotypic aspects. In reality

two types of activity can have the same external manifestation, whether in origin oressence, their nature may differ most profoundly. [Therefore] special means of scientificanalysis are necessary in order to lay bare internal differences that are hidden by externalsimilarities (Vygotsky 1978, p. 63).

Based on internalisation and externalisation, the explanations of the impact ofthe properties of external objects on workers and learners can be enhanced. Itmakes possible an examination of the relationship between the deployed supporttools in any process and the resulting transformed external actions. This form ofanalysis enhances an apposite judgement of the efficacy of learning support toolssuch as mobile computers.

3.4.3 Consciousness

A central feature of an activity is its productive character—its orientation totransform an object into a static product. According to Leont’ev, an activity isterminal, that is, it is ‘‘extinguished’’ at some point where the product absorbingthe activity is realised. This phenomenon is a reflection of Marx’s interpretation ofhuman labour: ‘‘a transition of static activity into a static product.’’ (Marx 1909).Given that the product of an activity does not yet exist at the beginning or duringthe performance of the activity, the transformation proceeds only by virtue of anidealisation of the product of activity—the creation of a mental representation ofthe material properties of the outcome by the subject. These mental representationsare conscious creations of conscious reflection.

…the mental image of the product as a goal must exist for the subject in such a way that hecan act with this image—modify it according to the conditions at hand. Such images areconscious images, conscious notions or, in other words, the phenomena of consciousness(Leont’ev 1978).

The notion of consciousness which postulates an extraction of mental repre-sentations from external reality challenges the idea that mental images are originaland genetic images of individuals that are projected into the world (Ibid.).Vygotsky’s theory of child learning, espoused in agreement with Leont’ev and inopposition to Piaget (1970), postulates that the child’s first thoughts revolvearound images and speech that are derived or extracted from its external envi-ronment, and not the other way round. Il’enkov (1977), also uses his knowledge ofthe ideal to corroborate this actuality: ‘‘…both will and consciousness are deter-mined by this ideal form, and the thing that it expresses, ‘represents’ is a definitesocial relationship between people…’’.

3.4 Principles of Activity 49

Consciousness in activity, therefore, implies internal conscious reflection ofexternal activity as the origin of thinking and not external activity emanating frominternal thought processes. Of course from the beginning, the subject is consciousof the objects of his surrounding environment, but this is what Leont’ev callsimage-consciousness, which is related to direct visual perception. However, con-sciousness is not a matter of the subject’s formation of mental images of static orpassive objects; rather, consciousness implies continuous imaging of an activity:the subject’s imaging of his or her interaction with and transformation of theobject. Here, activity also becomes an object of consciousness: consciousnessbecomes activity-consciousness. This notion is significant in understanding theprocess of human development or learning inherent in an activity. It implies thatlearning is inherently social, and hence appropriate external support can lead tobetter learning and development.

It is through consciousness that an activity is sustained, by availing to thesubject an idealised image of the material product of activity. This idealisation ofactivity through imaging and language presents an opportunity for the subject toperform mental transformations of the object to an extent far greater than whatwould be possible in external activity. Through activity-consciousness, ‘‘manbecomes aware of the actions of other men and, through them, of his own actions.They are now communicable by gestures or oral speech. This is the preconditionfor the generation of internal actions and operations that take place in the mind, onthe ‘plane of consciousness’’’ (Leont’ev 1978).

Meaning, therefore, has a dual existence on the individual plane of con-sciousness—personal subjective sense and objective meaning. Personal senses arenot independent phenomena; they are meanings formed from objective meanings.Objective meanings are culturally- and historically-evolved idealisations that areassimilated from early stages of ontogenesis. The knowledge of objective mean-ings is drawn from Vygotsky’s theory of child learning—the child’s assimilationof ‘‘‘ready-made’, historically evolved meanings [that] takes place in the child’sactivity during its intercourse with the people around it’’ (Vygotsky 1978).Objective meanings derive from the development of language, and obey the socio-historical laws and inner logic of their development. Language is ‘‘the product andmeans of communication of people taking part in production. [It] carries in itsmeanings (concepts) a certain objective content, but content completely liberatedfrom its materiality.’’ (Ibid.). It is the combination of activity-consciousness andthe use of language that underpin the learning and development of the humansubject. They are the original basis of cognition of the learning individual as he orshe engages in social interaction and conscious actions. They ‘‘express themovement of science and its means of cognition, and also the ideological notionsof society—religious, philosophical and political’’ (Ibid.).

However, the personal demands of individuals as they engage in consciousactions embodied in activities lead to the individualisation and subjectivisation, butnot the destruction, of objective meanings. Regardless of whether the individual isconscious or unconscious of the motive of an activity, there is a conscious personalevaluation of the immediate objective circumstances, leading to the development of

50 3 The Historicity of Human Activity and Perception

personal senses. Thus personal senses become refractions of objective meanings bymeans of the individual’s unique characteristics such as needs, emotions, previousand current experience, temperament and personal principles.

Personal senses vary from objective social meanings by degree. The greater thedegree of refraction, the more confrontational or ‘controversial’ the individualbecomes; and if the individual persists in the objectivisation of his or her personalsenses through external activity, the process can result in alienation and/or aninnovative outcome. Learning and innovation are thus factors of the forms ofpersonal senses that subjects make of the objective meanings during the perfor-mance of conscious actions.

The development of the personal senses by workers and learners out of theobjective social meanings underlying the motive of the learning activity makes theprinciple of consciousness very resourceful in this study. It is a methodological toolwhich augments an understanding and interpretation of the interview responses andobservations made in the study, as well as an analysis of the impact of externalinstruments in the learning process. Stated differently, the concept of personal senseserves as the underpinning for the evaluation of the social semiotics of the empiricaldata which will be sourced from the participants in the empirical cases.

The personal and objective senses of goals of actions generate contradictionsbecause, in a capitalist society, the personal sense of goals is oriented towardspersonal ‘‘leading’’ motives always opposes the objective sense of those goals thatorient towards the motives of employees, or capital owners for that matter.

3.4.4 Contradictions

An activity is inherently dynamic due to the fact that objects are characterised bydual existence in the individual consciousness of the subject. The dualistic prop-erty of an object incorporated in its individual and social characters pulls thesubject from opposite sides and causes him or her to remain ever dynamic in termsof the sense-making of goal-oriented actions. Herein lays the contradictoriness inthe activity of the subject: that is, the dialectic in the consciousness of the subjectbetween independence of individualistic, personal production on the one hand, andthe subordination to social, collective production on the other hand. Engeström(1987) uses the term ‘‘object-activity’’ to portray the non-static and complex natureof objects, highlighting typical complex objects such as other human beings orcapitalist markets. The contradictions naturally imply continuous dynamics in thebehaviour of the elements of an activity.

This fundamental contradiction in activity is traceable to the analysis of the‘‘division of labour in society’’ by Marx in Capital (1909). Marx’s conceptuali-sations are richly expressed in the origins of division of labour in human activitieswhich were oriented towards production of products, and subsequently, theintrinsic transformation of products into commodities. On the one hand, there wasan initial natural division of labour as a product of familial, tribal or communal

3.4 Principles of Activity 51

bonds shaped by differences in physiological factors such as age and sex: this wasthe first stage of subjugation of the individual by social forces. On the other hand,there was a subsequent division of labour as a result of differences betweencommunities or tribes or families in terms of environment, means of production,subsistence, modes of living, and products.

At the interface of two communities, ‘‘it is the spontaneously developed dif-ferences which…calls forth the mutual exchange of products, and the consequentgradual conversion of those products into commodities’’ (Ibid.). Interdependenciesbetween societies are thus created through commoditisation of products andexchange; moreover, products assume an objectivised social character. Theessence of Marx’s description of the division of labour is the exposition of thecontradiction inherent in the nature of the product of activity—product as productversus product as commodity. As a product, it has a primary use value—valuablein its utility by the producer. As a commodity, it has acquired a social exchangevalue in addition to its primary use value; these values co-exist in the con-sciousness of the subject as personal sense and objective meaning. To Engeström,‘‘the essential contradiction is the mutual exclusion and simultaneous mutualdependency of use value and exchange value in each commodity’’ (1987).

Marx’s analogy of the contradictory nature of products of activity is a tellingrevelation of the sociality of ‘individual’ activities. There is always some form ofcontradiction within each of the elements of an activity system expressed as areflection of an inner conflict between product-as-utility (use value) and product-as-value (exchange value) of the subject’s perception. It represents a summary ofEngeström’s (Ibid.) first of four levels of contradiction (see Fig. 3.5). The con-tradiction at the product—or outcome–end naturally results in contradictionswithin each of the elements of the activity system. For example, a school pupil canbe caught in-between seeing himself or herself as achieving grades and as a sense-maker. His contradictory perceptions will also apply to the instruments, rules,community and division of labour that mediate his or her learning.

Engeström’s theory of Expansive Learning is based on the contradictorycharacter of human activities; it elucidates the understanding of learning as a factorof managing and overcoming contradictions within the elements of one activity,and those between one ‘‘central activity’’ and other ‘‘neighbour activities’’.Level 1 Primary inner contradiction (double nature) within each constituent

component of the central activity.Level 2 Secondary contradictions between the constituents of the central

activity.Level 3 Tertiary contradiction between the object/motive of the dominant form

of the central activity and the object/motive of a culturally moreadvanced form of the central activity.

Level 4 Quaternary contradictions between the central activity and its neighbouractivities.

‘‘The ‘neighbour activities’ include first of all the activities where the imme-diately appearing objects and outcomes of the central activity are embedded (let’s

52 3 The Historicity of Human Activity and Perception

call them object-activities). Secondly, they include the activities that produce thekey instruments for the central activity (instrument-producing activities), the mostgeneral representatives being science and art. Thirdly, they include activities likeeducation and schooling of the subjects of the central activity (subject-producingactivities). Fourthly, they include activities like administration and legislation(rule-producing activities). Naturally the ‘neighbour activities’ also include centralactivities which are in some other way, for a longer or shorter period, connected orrelated to the given central activity, potentially hybridizing each other throughtheir exchanges’’ (Engeström 1987).

The coexistence of contradictions within elements of the activity system in theconsciousness of the subject (first level) is an elaboration of Leont’ev’s concep-tualisation of objective social meanings and their subsequent subjectivisation intopersonal senses by a subject. The most outstanding contribution made byEngeström’s levels of contradictions is found in his conceptualisation of therelationship between an activity and other activities—a phenomenon which is notmuch discussed in the works of Leont’ev. In it, a foundation is laid to aid theanalysis of an activity in relation to ‘‘neighbour’’ activities, of an understanding ofthe nature of contradictions pertaining to an activity, and of the problemof learning and human development within multiple interrelated activities in termsof subordination of the subject by which type of activity.

3.4.5 Mediation and Prosthesis

The object transformation process is mediated by physical and psychological toolsresulting in a triangulation of the process—subject-tool-object (see Fig. 3.3). Here,mediation departs significantly from ‘‘augmentation’’ (Kaptelinin and Kuutti 1999)

Fig. 3.5 Four levels of contradictions within the human activity system [Source Engeström(1987)]

3.4 Principles of Activity 53

in which artefacts merely enhance limited and ‘‘native’’ human capabilities for thesolution of more difficult problems. Mediation engenders ‘‘re-mediation’’, that is, itbreeds new varieties of mediation (op. cit.).

The objective properties of physical tools symbolize shared cultural-historicalunderstandings that inform the subject. Bruner (1986) calls them ‘prostheticdevices’ which man uses in accomplishing tasks—in performing activities.Physical tools are material in nature, with enabling and limiting properties intowhich are crystallised methods and operations (Leont’ev 1978); however, it isduring the operationalisation of the tool that the particular limiting and enablingproperties are realised. When an individual performs an activity, his or her rela-tionship with the object is mediated mainly by physical tools and the history andculture that has shaped his or her understanding and interpretation of the propertiesof the tool and object.

Between both Leont’ev and Vygotsky, there is concurrence in the fact thathuman learning is always mediated, that there is always some form of mediation ofthe relationship between individual subjects and their objects. For Vygotsky,physical tools and psychological tools—such as language and culture—mediatethe relationship. To emphasise the significance of tools in child learning, Vygotskydrew on Bacon’s aphorism: ‘‘Neither the naked hand nor the understanding left toitself can effect much. It is by instruments and helps that the work is done, whichare as much wanted for the understanding as for the hand’’.1 He argued stronglyagainst the understanding of work or learning founded on a polarisation, ratherthan a combination, of idealism or materialism in favour of an understanding oflearning based on a combination of both. The hallmark of his popular thesis is anexplication of some ever-present environmental mediating factors between asubject and object; and which represent the original source of conscious thoughtand higher psychological functioning of the subject.

Leont’ev followed up the development of the idea of mediation on a slightlydifferent basis of understanding: to him, it is the relationship developed ordeveloping between the subject and object—the form of the subject’s developmentof a personal sense of the relationship with the external object—which mediatesthe subject and his or her world. Thus what Vygotsky may see as a mediating toolmay be seen as an object by Leont’ev.

The essential idea to be gained from Vygotsky and Leont’ev, in terms of theunderstanding of tool-mediated conscious human activities, is that both the tooland ‘object’ are all objects in the external world; the necessary implication is howmediation assists the subject in his or her development during the performance ofan activity. An important question related to the subject–tool–object discussionwill be how, when, and under what circumstances does a mediating tool becomean object of an activity and vice versa? In other words, what we draw from thisreview is an understanding of an activity as a process which is fundamentally

1 ‘‘The New Organon Or True Directions Concerning the Interpretation of Nature’’ (Bacon1620).

54 3 The Historicity of Human Activity and Perception

mediated by physical and psychological tools, and which, further mediates thesubject and his world. For the purposes of this study, the properties of physicaltools, including their ease of use and perceived ease of use, and how, during theactivity, these properties influence the movement of the perception of the objectbetween a tool and an object is central. An instrument’s properties and how theycan affect its perception as an object or tool by the user in an activity is a functionof combined perception and action. This is the focus of discussions in the nextsection.

3.5 The Historical Epistemology of Perception

This epistemology assumes that perception of a tool in an activity is not to beunderstood simplistically as natural, elementary and unmediated; and merelybiological or physiological. Rather, it is to be understood as a complex mode ofaction that is always mediated by the tool’s properties and signs produced andcommunicated by cultural-historical circumstances; that is, by ‘‘representations’’(Wartofsky 1973). This idea underlines the necessary active relationship betweensubject and tool, and points out the weakness in relying only on biological- orphysiologically-based notions of perception to understand the efficacy of medi-ating tools and the signs in human activity. In the words of Wartofsky,

…the very foundation of what is distinctively human in perception is its character as asocially and historically achieved, and changing mode of human action; and therebyinvested with a cognitive, affective and teleological character which exemplifies it as asocial, and not merely a biological or neurophysiological activity (1973, p. 196).

Perception is necessarily a mode of human action that shares the essentialcharacteristics of human actions such as intentionality, consciousness, historicity,goal-orientation, and as constituents of activity. We understand tools and signs as‘‘representations’’ that mediate perceptual actions; that are artificial (socio-cul-tural); and that are produced and communicated by humans in their ontogeneticand phylogenetic means of existence. We also regard both tools and signs, ingeneral, as artefacts that consist of both ‘‘signifying’’ and ‘‘signified’’ properties(Saussure 1983), and in this regard, the perception of an artefact reflects thesemiotic ‘‘variation in modes of representation that perception itself comes to berelated to historical changes in other forms of human practice, and in particular, tosocial and technological practice’’ (Wartofsky 1973). The signifier is the formwhich the artefact takes, its structure; and the signified is the concept is represents(Saussaure ibid.).

According to Wartofsky (ibid.), on the one hand, the genetic mode of repre-sentation is the ‘‘fundamental activity of producing and reproducing the conditionsof species existence, or survival’’ that is distinctively human due to our creation ofartefacts (ibid.). That is to say, the genetic mode of representation derives fromhumans’ transformation of part of the environment into artificial extensions of our

3.4 Principles of Activity 55

biological organs. Tools that exhibit genetic modes of representation are perceivedas ‘‘primary artefacts.’’ On the other hand, the reflexive mode of representationconsists of ‘‘symbolic externalisations or objectifications of such modes ofaction—‘reflections’ of them, according to some convention, and thereforeunderstood as images of such forms of action—or if you like, pictures or models ofthem.’’ (ibid.). To him, the signs and symbols, that Vygotsky labels as ‘‘psycho-logical tools’’—e.g. language, language, theories, norms and modes of action—,and that can be communicated in one or more sense-modalities are perceived as‘‘secondary artefacts’’.

The notion of the external orientation of physical tools and the internal ori-entation of signs are reflected in Wartofsky’s semiotic conceptualisation of tools asstructural representations (of ‘‘primary artefacts’’) and signs as functional repre-sentations (of ‘‘secondary artefacts’’). In the case of ‘‘primary artefacts’’, theirstructural conceptualisation is based on the idea that they are simply the envi-ronmental implements which are of interest or use in production. In the case of‘‘secondary artefacts’’, their functional conceptualisation is founded on theirfunctions as preservers and transmitters of ‘‘the acquired skills or modes of actionor praxis by which this production is carried out.’’ (Wartofsky 1973, p. 202).

He conceptualised a third mode of representation based on ‘‘imaginativepraxis’’—‘‘abstract.’’ Imaginative praxis does not connote mere mental activity,although it is compatible with and sometimes derivative of it. Rather, imaginativepraxis connotes actions that are detached from actual direct praxis and areexemplified in play, drama, rehearsals, enactments and modelling. The represen-tations (of ‘‘tertiary artefacts’’) generated in imaginative praxis are abstractions oftheir use in actual praxis: they are

abstracted from their direct representational function…and suggest that they constitute adomain in which there is a free construction in the imagination of rules and operationsdifferent from those adopted for ordinary ‘this-worldly’ praxis. …That is to say, just as indreams our imagery is derived from our ordinary perception, but transcends or violates theusual constraints, so too in imaginative praxis, the perceptual modes are derived from andrelated to a given historical mode of perception, but are no longer bound to it (ibid.,p. 209).

Tools that exhibit abstract modes of representation are perceived as ‘‘tertiaryartefacts.’’ Through imaginative praxis, ‘‘possible worlds’’ are conceived andperceptual alternatives can be enacted, modelled and tested leading to theiractualisation. The essence of ‘‘tertiary artefacts’’ lies in the conscious teleology,goal-orientation and values that characterise the alternative imaginative perceptualmodes behind their production and communication. It is important to note here thatalternative imaginative perceptual modes possibly ‘‘[feed] back into actual praxis,as a representation of possibilities which go beyond present actualities.’’ (loc. cit).This assertion mirrors Leont’ev’s exposition of the transformation of representa-tions on the mental plane: ‘‘… they are generalized, verbalized, condensed, andmost important, they become capable of further development which exceeds theboundaries of the possibilities of external activity’’ (Leont’ev 1978).

56 3 The Historicity of Human Activity and Perception

Mode ofrepresentation

Description Representation Perceivedartifact

Genetic Production and reproduction of the conditions ofspecies existence, or survival that is distinctivelyhuman due to our creation of artifacts

Structural Primary

Transformation of part of the environment intoartificial extensions of our biological organs e.g.Hammer, PDA, etc.

Reflexive Symbolic externalisations or objectifications ofproduction action—‘reflections,’ pictures ormodels of them

Functional Secondary

Produced mentally as communicable signs ormethods of production e.g. language, theories,norms, etc

Function as preservers and transmitters of theacquired skills or modes of action or praxes bywhich this production is carried out

Abstract Imaginative praxes connoting production actionsthat are detached from actual praxes, exemplifiedin play, drama, rehearsals, enactments andmodeling

Abstract Tertiary

The objective properties of technological tools symbolize shared, preserved andtransmitted cultural-historical understandings that inform their users. They arematerial (‘‘primary’’) in nature, with enabling and limiting properties into whichare crystallised signs, methods and operations (Leont’ev 1978), ‘‘psychologicaltools,’’ (Vygotsky 1978) and ‘‘secondary artefacts’’ (Wartofsky 1973); however, inmost instances, an understanding of their production and exchange suggest thatthey are ‘‘tertiary artefacts’’ reflecting the abstraction and modelling underlyingtheir ‘‘off-line’’ production.

The upshot is that perception is a mode of human action which is mediated byvariations in modes of representations—structural, functional and abstract—andwhich is essentially aligned with the cultural-historical evolution of all forms ofhuman activity.

Consequently, we will derive our understanding of affordances from this his-torical epistemology of perception; that is, we seek to ground the affordances ofportable computers on the idea of perception as a mode of human action. Sinceartefacts are ever-present representational mediators (structural, functional orabstract) of perceptual actions, our beginning hypothesis is that the perception ofan artefact is dependent on its assumption of a primary, secondary or tertiary statusin an activity. The assumption of any of these statuses is also a function of thetotality of those actions (constituting an activity) which the individual’s perceptionforms a part. Moreover, we will draw upon the understanding of the modes ofrepresentation of portable computers to premise the historical epistemology ofperception necessary for teasing out their affordances.

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This epistemology provides a more holistic definition of user needs, and jus-tifies its adoption for this study. Furthermore, in previous human–computerinteraction research, it has been profitable for evaluating interactive technologiesin the contexts of computer supported cooperative work systems design (Bødkerand Christiansen 1997; Bødker and Grønbæk 1991), of design-oriented knowledge(Bartelsen 2000), of the unity of consciousness and activity (Engeström andEscalante 1996; Goodwin and Goodwin 1996), of artifacts-in-use (Bannon andBødker 1991), of learning (Bernhard 2007), and of meaning construction(Maschietto and Bartolini Bussi 2005). Petersen and colleagues (2002) have evenused aspects of this epistemology to deal directly with the usability of interactivetechnologies, explaining usability in terms of a process of evolution.

Interestingly, it has not been applied to explain mobile computer usability inspite of the influential role of individual users’ perceptions and motivations in thiscontext. This epistemology is applied to the analysis of mobile computing becauseit will facilitate the understanding of the filtering roles of personality, personali-zation, consciousness and mobility in a more holistic manner.

3.6 Chapter Summary

This book applies the theories of activity and perception as frameworks for theanalysis of human activities because they are historical. The origins of indirectmemory, stimuli, signs and responses (which inform activity) are social. In anactivity, a subject transforms an object into an outcome, and the transformation ismediated by physical and psychological tools (such as theories, languages, etc.).The combination of tool and sign mediation suggest the following: the subject’sresponses to external object stimuli are mediated by tools and signs.

An activity has a hierarchical structure which is constituted by the following: itis directed by a motive at the highest level, and answers the question why. It isconstituted by actions which equally serve the motives of other activities. Actionsare directed by goals which may not align with the motive of the activity—theyanswer to the question what. Actions are normally performed unconsciously, butmay degenerate into conscious operations if conditions change. Operations andconditions answer the question how. Human development is achieved when moreoperations become actions, and vice versa.

An activity is also a system of relations between the subject, object, mediatingtools, rules, division of labour, and community. It highlights the idea that theperception of a man’s activity as an individual action is limited. An individualalways performs his actions as part of other actions in a society. Therefore, it iscollective in essence and reflects a society’s production, exchange, distribution,and consumption of goods and services.

The principles of activity drawn from its structure and system are object-ori-entation, signifying that they are always directed at external or environmentalobjects which satisfy motives; externalization and internalization, suggesting that

58 3 The Historicity of Human Activity and Perception

an activity is a dualism of mutual external physical and internal mental parts;consciousness, implying internal reflection of external activity and not the otherway round; contradictions, pointing to the reality of diverse activities which differaccording to their objects, and to the inherent tensions between them; and medi-ation and prosthesis, indicating that shared culture and history, which give birth tomediating tools, are necessary considerations in the analysis of activities.

A mediating tool’s properties and how it is perceived by the user in an activityis a function of combined perception and action. Perception is mediated by thetool’s properties and signs produced and communicated by cultural-historicalcircumstances called representations. There are genetic, reflexive and abstractmodes of representation which correspond to structural, functional and abstractrepresentations respectively. By these representations, a tool can be perceived as aprimary, secondary or tertiary artefact respectively. The assumption of the status ofany of these artefacts is a function of the totality of those actions (constituting anactivity) which the individual’s perception forms a part.

3.6 Chapter Summary 59

Chapter 4The Co-evolution of Organization,Technology and Personality

Understanding both the nature and the character of human personality in relationto organization and technology is important for the epistemology of mobileusability being espoused by this book. This has become necessary especiallybecause of the fact that mobile computers are invariably personal technologies.They are personal in the sense of how they shape and are shaped by the evolutionof personality. However, personality-based user needs are seldom considered inexisting accounts of mobile usability. For instance, one of the motivations behindthe espousal of this book’s thesis is that extant theories are bereft of cognitiveideas about the user’s means of existence and survival such as learning, devel-opment, personal information management and timely notifications of dangerouscircumstances (Blom and Monk 2003). Furthermore, from the organizationalperspective, mobile work now associates organizational role taking of theWeberian bureaucratic order with the personality of particular modes of a person’sbeing. This is because mobile computing is underpinned by diverse softwareapplications and it engenders organizational services innovation. These attributesof mobile computing have induced the inclusion of workers’ persons in theorganizational frame.

To wit, it is people who constitute the labour force of an organization, and so itis also important to understand how the co-evolution of and mutual shapingbetween organization and personality shape mobile computer usability. Theboundaries between organizational and personal territories are becoming blurredand workers are increasingly spanning them (Felstead et al. 2005); but how havewe come to this state? This chapter discusses the co-evolution of organization andpersonality, especially in relation to the changing character of capital in themodern to postmodern transition. The discussion will throw light on the individ-ual’s changing personal and organizational identities which are occasioned bypredominant factors such as the mobility of labour and capital, the informationrevolution, ubiquitous computing, digital innovation, and open service infra-structure. By this light, the unity and continuity of the mobile computer user’stechnological, organizational and personal circumstances which inform this book’sthesis of mobile computer usability will be explained.

G. O. Wiredu, Mobile Computer Usability, Progress in IS,DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-41074-1_4, � Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

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The explanations begin with a foundational definition of human personalityaccording to the theory of Activity. The changing character of human activities isdiscussed in terms of the historicity of organization whereby the differencebetween modern and postmodern organization is discussed. The informationrevolution, engendered by ICT innovation, is also discussed as the main parameterthat has transitioned organization from modernism to postmodernism. Based onthe foundational definition of personality, postmodern organization is interpretedaccording to the assumptions of the theory of activity to emerge with a definitionof postmodern personality.

4.1 On Personality

A comprehensive understanding of the evolution of human personality is animportant aspect of the study of mobile computer usability. This is because thetechnology user, as a person, is a concrete subject of his activity which is mediatedby a mobile computer. Understanding his concrete character as a subject is nec-essary in order to avoid a presumptuous attitude towards it; and to criticallyinvestigate its psychological, socio-historical, and philosophical origins andcharacter.

Informed by Activity Theory, the first point to note is that there is a socialpsychological distinction between an individual and his personality. The theoryassumes that the personality of an individual evolves in accordance with hisactivities. His understanding, performance and consequences of his activities mayreflect his nature and environment but not necessarily derived from them.Therefore, at the heart of this distinction is the idea that a man is not a mereproduct of phylogenesis and ontogenesis. He is also a product of the developmentof life in the sense of interactions with his environment.

[P]ersonality originally arises in society, that man enters into history (and a child entersinto life) only as an individual given determined natural properties and potentials, and thathe becomes a personality only as a subject of social relations. In other words, as distinctfrom the individual, the personality of a man is in no sense pre-existing in relation to hisactivity; just as with consciousness, activity gives rise to personality (Leont’ev 1978,p.105).

It is true that the individual’s biological (innate) and environmental (acquired)reactions increase in complexity in the course of life. The increase is due to thedifferentiation and integration of biological organs and functions. However, anindividual’s actions and reactions in his activity express the difference between hisand another individual’s innate and acquired characteristics—each one isincreasingly individualized. This means that the increase in his complexity at thesame time shapes and identifies him as a distinctive entity. By the integration ofhis organs and functions in particular, he assumes an indivisible and wholecharacter. Therefore, the concept of individuality is premised on the assumption

62 4 The Co-evolution of Organization, Technology and Personality

that there is indivisibility and wholeness of a man’s peculiar characteristics whichare ascribable to his very nature and environment.

Conversely, the concept of personality is premised on the assumption that thesubject enters into social relationships and acquires new characteristics that alonedetermine his or her personality. According to this assumption, man’s nature orbiological reactions are excluded in the characterization of him as a personality.For example, it is well-known in our language that we do not speak of the per-sonality of a baby although clear qualities of individuality can be seen in it. Rather,we speak of the personality of an individual with reference to a more mature stageof his life, signifying that it is a ‘‘relatively late product of the social–historical andontogenetic development of man’’ (Leont’ev 1978, p.107).

By the late stage of his life, a man’s personality reflects his activities which maybe grounded in his natural abilities. However, those abilities are not the necessarydeterminants of his personality. Likewise, his personality may be grounded in hisacquired characters, but those per se do not constitute the real basis of his per-sonality. By the late stage, even people born with a disability may be characterisedby a personality that reflects nothing about that condition, as in the followingillustration:

A child is born with a dislocated hip, which condemns him to lameness… Just imagine,when his peers chase a ball in the courtyard, the lame child stands by; then when hebecomes older and the time comes for dancing, he can do nothing more than ‘hold up thewall.’ How will his personality develop in these conditions? This cannot be foretold; itcannot be foretold especially because in spite of the very severe exceptionality of theindividual, the formation of personality is not determined identically. In itself it cannotgenerate, let us say, an inferiority complex, reticence, or, on the contrary, a cordialattentiveness to people, or in general any kind of genuinely psychological features of aman as a personality. The paradox lies in that the requisites for development of personalityin their very essence are innumerable (Leont’ev 1978, p.109).

Therefore as we are seeking to understand the origin and character of thepersonality of a man, we are seeking to understand a phenomenon which is moredynamic than what other notable psychological models have espoused. One ofthem is the two-factor model, which ascribes the formation of personality to innateand acquired characteristics (Allport 1961). As I have explained above, it presentsa limited and oversimplified understanding of the phenomenon. It is devoid of thedevelopments due to his interactions with the environment (not the environmentitself). Therefore, it is a discrete representation of the personality of man wherebythe concept is understood in terms of biology and function. This representation isweak even, if aspects of the environment have been assimilated by a man, becausethe environment does not have a personality. Another notable explanation isprovided by the cultural-anthropological model which assumes that the real basisof human personality lies in his genes which are varied in the course of life byculture. However, when a man assimilates a cultural trait, he only assimilates ageneralized construct (Linton 1945), so that although he is the carrier of this trait,and the trait is personified in him, yet it is without personality—just like theenvironment.

4.1 On Personality 63

[T]he real basis for human personality is the aggregate of his relationships to the worldthat are social in their nature, but relationships that are realized, and they are realized byhis activity, or precisely, by the aggregate of his multifaceted activities (Leont’ev 1978,p.112).

… the real basis for human personality lies not in genetic programs deposited in him, notin the depths of his natural disposition and inclinations, not even in the habits, knowledge,and wisdom acquired by him, including professional learning, but in that system ofactivities that is realized through his knowledge and wisdom (Leont’ev 1978, p.113).

Therefore, the assumption behind this activity model of human personality isthat it is produced and characterized by the social relationships in the individual’sactivity. Recall that an activity is essentially historical, and that historically-mediated actions and reactions reflect the higher mental functions of men(Vygotsky 1978). Thus, the activity model ascribes personality to a man’saggregate social relationships in his activity, which relationships are mediated bysocial and historical factors to reflect higher mental functioning. Personality isneither produced nor necessarily characterized by the higher nervous system of anindividual. It depends on the socio-historical conditions, and is understood in termsof the activities of an individual in one or another social environment. In short, thisresearch assumes the position that the transformation of a man’s personality isdirectly related to the transformation of his activities.

Based on this assumption, the study of the evolution of human personality as afundamental aspect of mobile usability must, as a matter of critical necessity, bepremised on a study of the construction, development and transformation ofactivity. Wherefore, to understand how the dynamism in the concept of personalityshapes mobile usability, we must understand its real basis in this activity model.

4.2 Modern Organization, Activity and Personality

A predominant activity of a man throughout his life is his work. In his work, heoffers his labour for or in an organization in return for cash or kind wages thatenable him to take care of himself and his dependants. In this section, the relationsbetween organization, capital, and labour is discussed under the social orders ofmodernism and postmodernism. The Activity theoretical framework is used toexplain the relations in terms of contradictory motives, leading to the definition ofmodern personality.

4.2.1 Embodied Labour and Collocated Organization

In modern organization, the character of work and organisation are such thatlabour and capital are tied together because capital is heavy—machines, physical

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raw materials, heavy trucks, and large buildings. Therefore, however much labourcan exercise both physical and occupational mobility, it is largely embodied incapital characterised by the heaviness of the latter. This is a description ofembodied labour (Bauman 2012) whereby the hired body, owing to its strongattachment to capital, causes inertia leading to a limitation in the mobility of work.

In terms of organization, this description is complemented by the iron cagemetaphor of the theory of bureaucracy (Weber 1947, Du Gay 2000). The iron cageexplains the rationalization and bureaucratization of organization in terms ofefficiency and functionality in the acquisition and management of resources. Thus,structural change in organization, according to this theory, is attributable tocompetition among firms and bourgeois demands for equality under the law(DiMaggio and Powell 1983). However, this attribution speaks of a functionalistapproach to organization which, reflecting Taylors scientific management andMarx’s labour theories, perceives labour as a commodity. Interestingly, this per-ception has remained even though the theory of bureaucracy has been criticizedespecially by contingency and institutional theorists who argue that it undermineshuman relations and is bereft of historical, social, cultural and environmentalconsiderations (Gouldner 1955).

Thus, the iron cage metaphor, in both its contingency and institutional senses,still signifies more rigidity and less mobility of both labour and capital. Contin-gency theory explains bureaucracy in modern organization as a more stablemechanism which reflects a more certain environment. By its assumptions, thegreater certainty in the environment is understood in terms of the followingnotable contingencies which used to exhibit less uncertainty in the industry age:technology, suppliers and distributors, consumer interest groups, customers andcompetitors, government, and unions (e.g. Lawrence and Lorsch 1967b).

Institutional theory rather explains the more stable bureaucratic mechanism inmodern organization in terms of the resilient aspects of social structure (e.g.DiMaggio and Powell 1983). In this interpretation, the iron cage and hence therational, bureaucratic and mechanistic structure of industrial organization isattributed to the cognitive, normative and regulative processes produced andreproduced over time. However, the conceptualization of labour as a commodityremains. Thus, both institutional and contingency theories suggest that organiza-tions of the industrial age keep capital in an iron cage and exhibit a more mech-anistic structure whereby labour is perceived as a commodity. Labour in this era,according to Bauman (2012), is therefore embodied with capital and subjected tosupervision and control in formal organization.

The endurance of this perception of labour as a commodity in the three theoriesof organization is due mainly to two factors. Firstly, organizational capital has lowaffordances for the personal development of the worker. Because the industrial agecapital is heavy and travels slowly, its contacts with labour are more periodic thancontinuous. The typical work schedule was such that a man goes to offer his labourwithin some stipulated time table. During this time, he engages with phenomenawhich are foreign in the sense that they have very few affordances for his personaldevelopment. Rather, they have greater affordances for the achievement of the

4.2 Modern Organization, Activity and Personality 65

organizational motives because of bureaucratization and rationalization aspira-tions. Furthermore, the social foundations of the bureaucratic order speak strictlyof only the admission of the worker’s role and task in modern organization(Kallinikos 2004). Therefore, bureaucracy is characterized by the non-inclusiveparticipation of the human person. Based on this philosophy, the design of capitalresources and work routines largely reflect optimization of labour effort as it isapplied to them.

Secondly, organizational instruments for conversion of raw materials are lessappropriable by the worker. As a general rule, the use of tools in activities for theconversion of raw materials engenders their appropriation. ‘‘An adequate relationbetween man and tool is therefore primarily expressed in his appropriating(practically or theoretically—only in their significance) the operations fixed in it,by developing his own human abilities’’ (Leont’ev 1981, p. 296). Appropriating isan integral process of human development, and development is achieved throughactivities. This integral nature of appropriation shows in Marx’s (1976, p. 87)explanation: ‘‘The appropriation of the totality of instruments of production is, forthis reason, the development of the totality of capacities in the individualsthemselves.’’ This means that a worker’s appropriation of a tool is an activeprocess which occurs during his use of it to support his activity and development.

However, as he offers his labour in exchange for income, he concentrates hisefforts primarily towards the achievement of the organizational motive. At thesame time as he does this, he suppresses his personal motive or subjects it to theorganizational one. The low presence of his personal motive is due to the fact thathis appropriation of the instruments used to convert raw materials contributes littleto his personal needs. Truly, he is able to learn the skills of transformation of theraw materials which skills becomes his personal property. However, he is largelyunable to appropriate those conversion instruments to satisfy his personal needs.

4.2.2 Collocated Activity and Contradictions

Related to these two factors above is how they induce the collocation oforganizational resources and activities. Contingency theory explanations ofrationalization and bureaucratization of organizations suggest that external envi-ronmental factors strongly impact on the differentiated and integrated structure oforganizations (Lawrence and Lorsch 1967a). The segmentation of resources torespond effectively to the external environment results in differentiation. However,the differentiated factors must necessarily be integrated to achieve unity of effort.This achievement relies heavily on behavioural attributes including knowledgewhich would be sticky without the collocation of work.

Knowledge is sticky if organizational circumstances prevent or retardinformation flow between differentiated departments (Szulanski 1996). Thus, thecollocation of work is an important factor for integration because it is an instanceof the context that defines and has strong potential to aggravate the stickiness of

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knowledge (Brown and Duguid 2001). In short, it is not only the embodied labourand heavy capital that cause organizations to arrange resources and controlmechanisms in close proximity to each other so that efficiency gains can be made.The aspiration to reduce the stickiness of knowledge and enhance its leakinessamong differentiated factors is also a significant causal factor.

Concerning collocated organization, the theory of activity suggests that theinner contradictions experienced by the worker or learner are significantly differentfrom those experienced in distributed organization. Both collocated working andlearning are characterised by the proximity of individual subjects in an area.However, even in this context, there are considerable differences between workand learning according to the relationship between the central, advanced andobject activities facing the subject

In learning activity, the dominant motive is subject production; that is, thecognitive transformation of the learners. It is characterised mainly by a contra-diction between the central motives of the learners and the advanced motives ofthe instructors. These motives may be entirely different and even conflicting: forexample, in the classroom, the learner whose motive of school-going is to meetwith friends to play will always be in conflict with the instructor whose culturallyadvanced motive is the cognitive transformation of the learner. To be fair, thisform of contradiction is a feature of the early stages of human ontogenesis, whenthe child’s mind is predominated by play. In later stages, when adulthood isreached, studying replaces playing and learners tend to understand the culturallyadvanced motive as acceptable (Engeström 1987) or ‘‘only understandable’’(Leont’ev 1982). The empirical case in Chap. 5 exemplifies this understandingwhich resulted in the adoption of the motives of the advanced activity by thelearners. It has to be said, however, that in the typical learning setting, the essentialinner-contradiction is a direct attribute of the personality of the learner: the learneridentifies himself as the subject of learning while the instructor identifies him as apart of the objects to be transformed. This follows from the fact that while bothparties potentially share the same outcome, their objects and motives may beentirely different or, at worst, conflicting (see Fig. 4.1).

The potentially shared outcome contains the ‘‘double nature’’ (Engeström 1987)contradiction of the value of the outcome. For example, is the outcome—theskilled individual—conceived to be an instrument or success demanded by the

ADVANCED ACTIVITY

Learner Instructor

CENTRAL ACTIVITY

Potentially shared outcome

ObjectLearner

object

Fig. 4.1 Learning activity depicting the differences in motives and the dual identity of thelearner

4.2 Modern Organization, Activity and Personality 67

object activity or an instrument of learning content mastery? An instrument ofcontent mastery signifies a product of primary use-value, while an instrument ofsuccess signifies a commodity of exchange-value in addition to the primary use-value. This double nature of the outcome or product of learning activity constitutesthe consciously reflected image which must ‘‘exist for the subject in such a waythat he can act with this image—modify it according to the conditions at hand’’(Leont’ev 1978). Stated differently, the image of the outcome, including its doublenature, determines the will, consciousness and the personal-sense made of thetransformative learning actions.

In this form of collocated learning, there are two possible scenarios: On the onehand, both the learner and instructor are immersed in the object activity withinwhich the learning object is embedded, as typified in workplace learning. On theother, the object activity may be removed from the collocated setting leaving thelearner to learn with either a mental image of the real object or its representation(Il’enkov 1974). The latter scenario is exemplified in learning through experimentsand simulations. In the instance where all three activities feature co-presently, theobject and advanced activities are almost merged into one, whereby the instructorremains the subject, and the learner and the learning object are his objects. The onlydifference here is that the erstwhile learning image or object representationbecomes the real object. The significance of this merger of object and advancedactivities is in the fact that the learner remains under the tutelage of the sameinstructor, and this is important as far as the control of learning actions is concerned.

In collocated work, the relationship is rather dominated by a contradictionbetween the motives of the central activities of workers and the advanced activitiesof the authorities of the organisation. Unlike learning activities in which thecognitive transformation of learners (subject production) reigns as paramount,work activities are oriented towards object production. For example, the instructorin a learning activity is motivated by transforming his or her objects—the learn-ers—into skilled products. His work, however, obtains its objective basis in thewider context of his or her institution or on the principles of the discipline that hisor her instructions are founded.

The economics of human labour (e.g. Marx 1909) suggest that labour is fun-damentally a subsidiary aspect of the entire societal production. Societal pro-duction is objective because outcomes are ultimately aimed at exchange,distribution and consumption necessarily by society and not by the producers. Incollective work, for instance, the owners of the work capital are motivated bysocietal production that fulfils their capital accumulation needs. Societal produc-tion also represents an advanced motive compared with the central motives of theworkers. Stated differently, human labour or activities are always subordinated toan advanced motive.

The actions of a worker, although subordinated to others’ advanced motives,are also ultimately aimed at satisfying his immediate needs. This is where themotives of his central activity are directed; and this constitutes the fundamentalcontradiction of motives in work. Leont’ev’s famous illustration of the primitivehunt elucidates this fundamental contradiction:

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A beater, for example, taking part in a primeval collective hunt, was stimulated by a needfor food or, perhaps, by a need for clothing, which the skin of the dead animal would meetfor him. At what, however, was his activity directly aimed? It may have been directed, forexample, at frightening a herd of animals and sending them toward other hunters, hiding inambush. That, properly speaking, is what should be the result of the activity of this man.And the activity of this individual member of the hunt ends with that. The rest is com-pleted by the other members. This result, i.e., the frightening of game, etc., understandablydoes not in itself, and may not, lead to satisfaction of the beater’s need for food, or the skinof the animal. What the processes of his activity were directed to did not, consequently,coincide with what stimulated them, i.e., did not coincide with the motive of his activity;the two were divided from one another in this instance. (1982, p. 210).

This division portrays the fundamental contradiction in work; that is, contra-diction between the individual worker’s central motive and the advanced motive ofthe authorities of the organisation which employs him. Again, the most extremeform of this contradiction reflects in the personality of the worker—a subject of hiscentral activity and a tool of the imposing advanced activity. In a typical worksetting, since the worker is directly involved in the object activity, his central andthe object activity systems possess the same elements. This is in spite of the factthat the motives of object transformation may also be contradictory (see Fig. 4.2).

The significance of these clarifications lies in the fact that collocated activitiesare always characterised by ‘‘double nature’’ contradictions. The learner’s orworker’s central motive potentially conflicts with or is subordinated by anadvanced motive. Therefore, the collocation of activities is necessarily charac-terised by the tension in the subject’s mind between individual motives and theimmediate organisational motives understood as the advanced motive. Thistranslates into a direct unmediated relationship between external and inner con-tradictions. This unmediated relationship directly bears on the ‘‘double’’ sense-making of actions of workers or learners (Fig. 4.3).

4.2.3 Modern Personality

The foregoing discussions suggest that in modern organization a man’s personalityis less organizational because his relationship with the organization is quite dis-continuous as far as the satisfaction of his personal needs are concerned. To earn a

Worker

ADVANCED ACTIVITY

Worker Superior

CENTRAL/OBJECT ACTIVITY

Potentially shared outcome

Object Object

Fig. 4.2 Work activity depicting the differences in motives and the dual identity of the worker

4.2 Modern Organization, Activity and Personality 69

living, he should suspend his personal motives or make them subservient to theorganizational motives; he should be confined within an organizational iron cage;he should contend with heavy and slow-moving capital and be less mobile; hiscapital has less affordances for the satisfaction of personal needs; and the instru-ments for his conversion of raw materials are less appropriable. Recall that ‘‘thereal basis for human personality is the aggregate of his relationships to the worldthat are social in nature’’ (Leont’ev 1978, p.112). The aggregate is constituted byhis personal and organizational activities (and motives), but it is characterized bythe discontinuities between them.

The personal and organizational motives are contradictory, and the organizationmay not satisfy the personal motive in order to survive. This is reflected in thediscussion of bureaucracy’s iron cage whereby labour’s roles and tasks areincluded in the organization but the person is excluded. Given that bureaucracy istechnique-saturated according to modernism and rationality flowing from theEnlightenment, Ellul throws more light on the personality of the modern man interms of how he is divided in his relation to his technical world:

One part of him was given over completely to the monster and subjected to the interior andexterior rules; but the other part he could keep for himself: his inner life, his family life,his psychic life (Ellul 1964, p. 410)

The exclusion of the worker’s person reflects less premium on trust for him, andless dependence on his discretionary behaviours for competitive advantage.Therefore, his personality is such that there are weak ties between him and theorganization.

4.3 Trends in ICT Innovation

A new form of organization has emerged as an offshoot of social and technologicaltrends. This form, which is goes by the description postmodern, stands in con-tradistinction to the modern organization in terms of its origins, characteristics,and consequences discussed in the previous section. It is not discretely differentfrom modern organization, signifying that it is not a replacement or substitution.For example, in contemporary times, both modern and postmodern organizationsexist. Postmodernism as an emergent phenomenon is heavily characterized by ICTinnovation and its offshoots; and these characteristics are discussed below.

Primary Contradictionscentral vs. advanced

(immediate)central vs. object (immediate)

Inner Contradictions(simple contradictions)

Fig. 4.3 Unmediated sense-making of actions in a collocated activity

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4.3.1 Technological Trends

ICT innovation is the most telling technological driver which has transitioned theworld from an industrial to an information economy. This economy is also sig-nified by other terms such as information revolution (Drucker 1999), networksociety (Castells 2000), information society (Beniger 1986), and the age of flex-ibility (Kallinikos 2001). It is not wonderful to understand that the power oftechnological innovation causes a fundamental change in the world. The treatiseson techniques, machines, civilization and society by Ellul (1964) and Mumford(1971, 2010) inform us sufficiently that technological innovation significantlyshapes human society in all its avenues at all times. So endemic are technologyand methodology in all spheres of the global economy that the transition fromindustrial to information technology has brought in its wake an informationrevolution.

At the basic level, ICT is fundamentally different from industrial technology ofthe modern organization because of the difference between the motor of theindustrial machine and the microprocessor chip of the computer. The object of themotor, according to Weiner (1961) is the replacement of human muscle as a sourceof energy. This idea, coupled with the birth of the computer about the time hewrote, made him anticipate the information revolution. Therefore he spoke of asequel to the industrial revolution which would be characterized the replacementof the human brain as the source of knowledge. Drawing from both of theserevolutions which consisted in replacing both the human muscle and brain, Ellul(1964, p. 42) also anticipated ‘‘the application of technique in all spheres of life.’’

Since the middle of the twentieth century, what Weiner and Ellul anticipatedhas been manifesting at an increasing level. ICT innovation has so overwhelmedand transformed the world’s socio-economic circumstances in the last sixty yearsthat no one is able to tell the end of this transformation. For example, by the turn ofthe century, ICT innovation, witnessed particularly in the Internet and World WideWeb (WWW), had turned the world into a global village, leading to the concept ofglobalization. Thus, Giddens (2002), for instance, writes that globalization and itsconsequences reflect a ‘‘runaway world;’’ and also suggests that the communica-tions revolution, which began when a commercial satellite was launched in 1969,is one of the main inducements of globalization.

Against this backdrop, how can we understand ICT innovation and its impacton organization and personality? ICT innovation has persistently and aggressivelyfollowed Weiner’s idea that the object of the information revolution is thereplacement of the human brain as the source of knowledge. The human brainperforms four basic functions—capturing, processing, storing and disseminatinginformation. Thus, the innovation has progressively pursued the complementationand/or substitution of these functions. Today, almost every electronic gadget has asemiconductor computer chip embedded in it. The miniaturization of computerswhich has resulted in mobile computers originates from innovators’ pursuit tomake them more powerful. The pursuit has manifested in the increasing capacities

4.3 Trends in ICT Innovation 71

of the microprocessor chip, hard drive, battery, cable, and wireless systems; indigital innovation; and in the expansion of the Internet and WWW.

Gordon Moore’s prediction in the late 1960s that the power of microprocessorchips would double every eighteen months has been surpassed by the exponentialexpansion of the chip over the last twenty years. Popularly known as Moore’sLaw, the prediction was that the number of transistors which could be placed on amicroprocessor chip would double every year. The chip, which is the computer’scentral processing unit (its brain), is a multipurpose, programmable, clock-driven,register-based device that accepts binary data as input, processes it according toinstructions, stores it in its memory, and provides results as output.

An even greater capacity increment in the hard disk drive (HDD) also charac-terizes ICT innovation. Popularly known as Kryder’s Law, it predicts greaterexponential increases in the areal storage density of magnetic HDDs compared withMoore’s Law. Mark Kryder said in 1995 that ‘‘[t]oday the density of informationwe can get on a hard drive is much more important to enabling new applicationsthan advances in semiconductors’’ (quoted in Walter 2005). Current HDDs are usedto record, read, back and store data at increasingly smaller length scales. Based onthis, Kryder predicted that ‘‘[i]n a few years the average U.S. consumer will own10–20 disk drives in devices that he uses regularly’’ (quoted in Walter 2005). Sincethe introduction of the HDD in 1956, the density of information it can record hasincreased greatly from a paltry 2,000 to 100 billion bits, all crowded in the smallspace of a square inch. That represents a 50-million-fold increase that dwarfs theprogress in Moore’s microprocessor chips. Without this phenomenal increase,Apple’s iTunes store, its iPad, cloud-based storage, on-demand television, andrecord and playback in high-density television would not be possible.

The emergence of the Lithim-Ion rechargeable battery in the 1970s and con-tinuous improvements in its capacity have also contributed significantly to ICTinnovation. This battery has enabled the operation and proliferation of most por-table consumer electronics such as laptop and handheld computers. This batteryhas one of the best energy densities, and only a slow loss of charge when not inuse. For example, a pack loses only about five percent of its charge per month,compared with a 20 % loss per month for Nickel-Metal Hydride pack which is itsclosest competitor (Brain 2006). Continuous improvements in the energy densityof the Lithium-Ion battery since its invention have led to both their miniaturizationand enhanced capacity. These have enhanced mobile computing with laptop, tabletand handheld computers.

The cables which carry data in computer networks have also undergone sig-nificant improvements in their transmission and carrying capacities. From twisted-pair copper to coaxial to fibre-optic cables, the world of network computing haswitnessed exponential increases in both data transmission rates and carryingcapacities. Thus, until the invention of the fibre-optic cable, Internet bandwidthswere low and reflected the absence of interactivity and inadequate multimedia innetwork computing. This is because while the transmission speed of the twistedpair cable is 10–100 mb per second over a maximum distance of 100 m, the fibre-optic cable is unlimited in speed and distance, theoretically speaking. The

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application of fibre-optic cables from large networks such as the Internet to localarea networks over the past decade has spawned phenomena such as Internet 2.0,Web 2.0, VoIP, RSS Feeds, interactive websites which support blogging, wikis,social networking, and online gaming services.

Alongside the cables, wireless transmission in network computing has alsoundergone significant improvements. The carrying capacities and transmissionrates of microwave data channels have evolved from first generation to fourthgeneration today. For example, the fourth generation system provides mobile ultra-broadband Internet access to laptops with USB wireless modems, to smartphones,and to other mobile devices. Conceivable applications include amended mobileinternetworking, IP telephony, gaming services, high-definition mobile TV, videoconferencing, 3D television and Cloud Computing (www.wikipedia.org, accessedon 20 July 2013).

Digital innovation is another predominant driver of ICT innovation. Accordingto Tilson and colleagues (2010b), the divergence of technological functions indifferent gadgets was due to the nature of analogue technological infrastructureswhich kept distinct industries largely separate. They were kept separate becauseanalogue signals are tightly coupled with their physical infrastructure. The highfixed costs of these infrastructure favoured industry concentration and strongregulation. However, the digitizing process, which a key object of digital inno-vation and a revolutionary idea of computing, has succeeded in converting ana-logue signals into binary digits (bits). Thus, today, the same storage, transmission,and processing technologies can store, transmit or manipulate any type of digitalinformation (Ibid.). Today, there is loose coupling between transmission andstorage technologies, the industrial boundaries associated with diverse analogueinfrastructure have been dissolved, and fixed distribution costs can be sharedacross services. Therefore digitizing has caused a change in the underlying eco-nomics of information distribution.

4.3.2 Socio-Technical Offshoots

The most significant offshoot of the digitizing process is digitization which refersto the socio-technical process of applying digitizing techniques across industriesand contexts in ways that affect and shape their underlying infrastructures (Ibid.).Digitization is meant to foster efficient and effective creation, storage and distri-bution of content, applications and services. Thus, it has led to the transformationof telecommunications infrastructure since the 1970s, of broadcast television sincethe 1990s, and of book publishing since the beginning of this century. The cata-lysts of this transformation are the ubiquity of small and powerful digital com-puters; and the ubiquity of connectivity (Ibid.).

Ubiquity of digital computers affords unlimited flexibility in informationmanipulation because of the change from loose to tight coupling between analogueand digital systems. The digitizing process is still constrained significantly by

4.3 Trends in ICT Innovation 73

technical standards of bodies such as the Institute of Electrical and ElectronicEngineering and International Standards Organization. Yet the permeation ofdigital computers and their smooth interoperations with legacy systems continue.Beyond interoperations, digital devices now exhibit functional convergence whichrefers to the integration of erstwhile separate technological functions into a singledevice. For example, the camera, computer and telephone used to be distinctdevices rendering their functions divergent; but these functions are now integratedinto smartphones and laptop computers.

Ubiquity of connectivity is understood in terms of the role played by theInternet Protocol in the upward and downward flexibility of digitizing, asexplained by Tilson and colleagues (Tilson et al. 2010a):

The other key element to unleashing the flexibility of digitizing was the rise of packetswitching and of the Internet Protocol (IP) in particular. IP provides Upward flexibility forthe creation of any application or service that can use its simple communications capa-bilities—without having to get the permission of the network operators. It also providesdownward flexibility in that a wide range of physical networks and behaviours with diversecharacteristics can be used to provide fully compatible connectivity. IP thus helped breakthe tight coupling between services or applications and the underlying network (see alsoCerf and Kahn 1974).

Thus, there is loose coupling between applications and underlying infrastruc-ture to the extent that almost any digital electronic device is interoperable orcompatible with another—from automobiles to aeroplanes to geo-positionalsatellite systems. The consequence of the ubiquity of digital computers and ofconnectivity is network convergence, and divergence in services, business modelsand organization (see also Hanharan 2007).

Network convergence is understood in terms of the Internet’s capability tosupport any kind of information service provided by any digital device. It is alsounderstood in terms of how audio, video and data communications coexist effi-ciently and effectively within one network. It is believed to deliver high returns oninvestments to businesses in the sense of reduced support, maintenance and net-work costs, reduce physical space requirements, and reduced administrationoverheads. Against this backdrop, network convergence has resulted in consider-able changes in the structures and boundaries of practically all communicationsand media industries. Thus,

[w]ithin two decades, boundaries between content providers, advertising agencies, tele-com and pay-TV operators, computing companies, and device manufacturers becameblurred. Increasingly heterogeneous bundles of services encroached on established busi-ness models while previously separate infrastructures commingled. Recorded music, TV,and books have all had to yield to radical digitalization from the 1980, 1990, and 2000s,respectively. This in turn provoked regulators to tailor their approaches to facilitate or toconstrain the process of convergence (Tilson et al. 2010b, p. 750).

What is obvious, therefore, is that industry convergence has closely followednetwork convergence. Once the Internet assumed the status of an infrastructure inits own right, this was an inevitable offshoot given the enormous returns oninvestment it promised to industry players. Industry convergence has thrived on

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the flexibility afforded by digital innovation as witnessed in the convergence of thecomputer and television industries. However, it goes beyond the interoperations oralliances between telecommunication industries; it also incorporates alliances,mergers and joint ventures even between competing organizations. This is alsounderstood as co-petition (e.g. Gnyawali and Park 2009, Levy et al. 2003) andhorizontal integration (Yoffie 1996) which are informed by value web assumptionswhereby firms simultaneously compete and collaborate with others in an industryto enhance their strategies. Thus, co-petitors, through integration of their supplychains share technical and commercial know-how as well as risks among them-selves in industry convergence.

At the same time, we are experiencing considerable socio-technical divergencein services, business models and organization as a result of the Internet’sassumption of an infrastructure in its own right.

A new kind of unbounded Service divergence has emerged, enabled by (a) lower costs andglobal reach encouraging wide participation in service production and distribution (e.g.,open source), and (b) new market conditions created by multisided markets. The outcomehas been a hitherto unimaginable variety of new services: search, e-commerce, socialnetworking, information sharing and pooling, gaming, video production and music dis-tribution, just to name a few. The previously tight interlocking of services, technologies,and stable industry organization has rapidly morphed into a dynamic tapestry of unfore-seen dependencies among content, devices, networks, and social compositions. This hasresulted in fast shifting trajectories among coevolving digital infrastructures and newforms of social and institutional order, which have significantly widened struggles aroundwho will control the creation and offering of new information-based services (Tilson et al.2010b, p. 750) (emphasis in the original).

In service divergence, there are unbounded opportunities in the means of cre-ating and distribution of content, applications and services. The IP makes noassumptions about services because of the loose coupling between digital devicesand types of information. Kallinkos (2006), for instance, suggests that the con-sequences of information are unlimited, so that information in the current networksociety engenders outcomes that are unbounded and significantly different fromtheir physical referents. Stated differently, information growth is now a self-ref-erential process rather than a process that referred directly to its physical referents.Therefore, this process coupled with the flexibility in the device and networkconvergence is translated into flexibility and openness in service architecture andinnovation (Chesbrough 2011).

The corollary new business models and organizational forms which haveemerged do not merely exhibit a digitization of the ‘cow paths’ of analoguesystems. Beyond this, they exhibit heterogeneity and infinite possibilities wherebythe new business models reflect high levels of integration of these trends. Thus, thenew business models exemplified by eBay, Netflix, Google, Yahoo, Amazon, andFacebook significantly challenge incumbent organizations because they areunrestricted by historical physical and analogue infrastructures, and have infiniteopportunities to continuously harness the flexibility of digitizing.

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The new organizational forms which have emerged indicate significantdepartures from historical forms. ICT innovation has produced novel effects onorganizational coordination and the production and consumption of informationand digital media. For example, the world has witnessed a shift from hierarchicalto network mechanisms of control. There are now organizational forms which aredevoid of centers of control as witnessed in open source systems (e.g. Linux),collaboratively-created references (e.g. Wikis), and individual and collectivepublications and evaluations (e.g. Blogs). The Information systems field is repletewith literature which explains how ICT innovation has induced organizations tostructure (e.g. Barley 1986) and re-engineer their processes (e.g. Davenport andShort 1990), manage their knowledge (e.g. Swan et al. 1999), geographically-distribute their activities (e.g. Hinds and Kiesler 2002), and monitor, control andcoordinate their interests from remote locations (e.g. Olson and Olson 2000,Wiredu and Sørensen 2006).

4.4 Postmodern Organization, Activity and Personality

The upshot of the previous sub-section is that, conceptually speaking, the socio-technical offshoots of ICT innovation reflect postmodern organization which bearsthe following characteristics: light capital and disembodied labour; human capitalas the focal commodity; and distributed organization and mobile work.

4.4.1 Disembodied Human Capital and DistributedOrganization

In postmodernism, the perception of labour as the focal commodity in the eco-nomics of organization is no more tenable because the competitiveness of orga-nizations is assumed to have shifted from heavy capital to intellectual capital(Stewart 1998). Thus, machines, physical raw materials, heavy trucks and largebuildings are no longer the most determinant capital resources for the postmodernorganization. If they were, firms like Microsoft and Google would not be wealthierthan IBM and General Motors today.

In its heavy stage, capital was as much fixed to the ground as were the labourers itengaged. Nowadays capital travels light—with cabin luggage only, which includes nomore than a briefcase, a cellular phone and a portable computer (Bauman 2012, p. 58).

Particular implements such as cellular phone and portable computer symbolisethe range of ICTs and computer networks which facilitate the transformation ofdata into information, and then from information to knowledge. Technologies ofinformation and communication in turn symbolise the lightness which

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organizational capital in postmodernism has assumed. The lightness of capitalsuggests that it no longer tethers labour, implying that labour is characterized bylarge degrees of disembodiment.

The disembodied labour of the software era no longer ties down capital: it allows capital tobe exterritorial, volatile and fickle. Disembodiment of labour augurs weightlessness ofcapital. The mutual dependency has been broken unilaterally; while the capacity to labouris as before incomplete and unfulfillable if left alone, and dependent on the presence ofcapital for its fulfilment, the reverse does not apply any more. Capital travels hopefully,counting on brief profitable adventures and confident that there will be no shortage of themor of partners to share them with (Ibid, p. 120).

Disembodied labour signifies a weak attachment of labour to capital which,coupled with ICTs, lead to notable innovative structures such as distributedorganization and mobility of work. Distributed organization refers to ‘‘the capa-bility of operating effectively across the temporal, geographic, political, and cul-tural boundaries routinely encountered in global operations’’ (Orlikowski 2002,p. 249). These innovations reflect the shift from hierarchical to matrix, network,and virtual forms of organization characterized by decentralized authority, team-work (Hitt and Brynjolfsson 1997), e-lancing (Malone and Laubacher 1998) andglobal sourcing (Willcocks and Lacity 2006). They signify the release of labourfrom the iron cage as alluded to by Drucker (1988) who speaks of a shift fromcommand-and-control to information-based organization of knowledge specialists.Indeed, the lightness of capital suggests that it is not efficient to confine labour tothe iron cage. It is not efficient because labour-as-commodity alone is not anadequate match for fast-moving capital. The adequate match is rather humancapital which is the knowledge, competence, and ability of people to work on lightcapital (Schultz 1963).

Human capital as the new commodity is the adequate match because this capitalimplies the worker’s adaptability to changing environmental circumstances of thepostmodern organization which are typified by distributed and mobile work. Notethat human capital is being perceived as the focal commodity neither because it isdevoid of labour nor because it is only a symbolic form of capital, and not capital-in-essence. Firstly, human capital is indeed a character of human labour, but it isbeing perceived as capital to emphasise its knowledge quality in contradistinctionto the skills quality of labour. Secondly, it is essentially capital just as land andmachines. However, it is given focus in postmodernism because of its emphasis oninvestment in people, as compared with investments in land, buildings andmachines in modernism.

Mobilised labour and mobilised capital represent a significant departure fromembodied labour and heavy capital in terms of the social foundations of bureau-cracy. Whereas bureaucracy in modern organization manifests in the involvementof workers only as role agents to the exclusion of their persons (Kallinikos 2004),bureaucracy in postmodernism includes their persons (Wiredu et al. 2011).Kallinikos romanticizes postmodernism in The Age of Flexibility (2001) where, inharmony with Zuboff (1988), he emphasizes the organizational and economictransformation brought by the information revolution. Interestingly, he argues later

4.4 Postmodern Organization, Activity and Personality 77

that the constitutive and enduring elements of postmodern organization are roleand task which still robustly excludes the human as person (Kallinikos 2005).

To him, postmodern organization forms reflecting ICT innovation has onlylargely resulted in non-standardized, decentralized and flexible organizationalroutines, but has neither fundamentally altered roles and tasks nor includedworkers’ persons. However, Wiredu and colleagues argue that the constitutive andenduring elements—that is, roles and tasks—have not been able to withstand theforce of mobile work that includes aspects of the human person (Wiredu et al.2011). The nature of mobile work relies heavily on individual flexibility andadaptability to emerging spatial, temporal and task circumstances. These renderthe individual’s personal motives as complementary foundations of organizationalgovernance. The inevitability of accommodating personal motives plus themobility of work, technology, information and the individual together make him orher a foundation of organizational governance. This idea is buttressed by Bolantskiand Chiapello (2007) who describe contemporary employees in what they call ‘thenew capitalism’ as autonomous, informed, spontaneous, creative and able to adaptto different work tasks. Therefore, bureaucracy in postmodernism associatesorganizational role taking with the worker’s mode of being and doing. In short, thesocial foundations of the bureaucratic order in postmodernism are rather theinclusive terms by which individuals are involved in organizations.

Note that this inclusion does not suggest that postmodern organization is tan-tamount to total institutions such as prisons and psychiatry hospitals (Goffman1961) or feudal organization (Gellner 1983). Rather, it reflects human capitalelements such as individual adaptation and creativity, employee empowerment,and de-emphasis of objective or standardized phenomena. Individualism andemployee empowerment counter the ideals of total institutions where degradingpostures and restrictions on autonomy are imposed on inmates. Likewise, thede-emphasis of objective or standardized phenomena does not necessarily corre-late with the ideals of feudal organization such as hereditary social classification.

Human capital as the focal commodity in this analysis of postmodern organi-zation is motivated by two factors. Firstly, the placement of premium on thepersonal development of the worker (e.g. Schultz 1963). The focus on knowledgeas a vital raw material for competitiveness makes personal development essential.Personal development is not only about enhancement of the intellectual capacitiesof the worker; it also entails the capacity for adaptation to changing places andcircumstances of work. Given the highly uncertain environment and the changingconsumption patterns of customers, the focus on human capital is understandable.

Secondly, the organization must allow of the worker’s appropriation of the lightcapital beyond adaptation capacity. It must, as a matter of necessity, accommodatethe appropriation of the technology that manipulates raw materials which areinformation and knowledge. Given that the capital and labour are both mobilizedand distributed across both personal and organizational spaces and times, appro-priation of technology to satisfy personal motives is a matter of course.

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4.4.2 Distributed Activity and Meta-Contradictions

It has already been discussed in the previous section that the distribution oforganizational resources and activities conforms to postmodernism. Recall alsothat contingency and resource dependency theories assume that external envi-ronmental factors strongly impact on the differentiated and integrated structure oforganizations (Lawrence and Lorsch 1967a, Pfeffer and Salancik 1978). Given theemergent factors that define postmodernism—ICT innovations as capital which islight, human capital which is mobilized, inclusive involvement of the workerwhich has redefined the social foundations of bureaucracy—distributed organi-zation is not mysterious. These emergent factors join with the diverse anduncertain consumption patterns in the postmodern environment to necessitate thisform of organization.

It is a form that implies extended differentiation and easier means of integra-tion. Extended differentiation is necessary in postmodernism because there aregreater contingencies around technology, suppliers, distributors, consumers, andcompetitors in the organizational environment. For example, Cooper and Burrell(1988, p. 91) argue that ‘‘organization is less the expression of planned thought andcalculative action and a more defensive reaction to forces intrinsic to the socialbody which constantly threaten the stability of organized life.’’ The notions of‘runaway world’ (Giddens 2002), ‘risk society’ (Beck 2012), ‘liquid modernity’(Bauman 2012, Clegg and Baumeler 2010), and infinite consequences of infor-mation (Kallinikos 2006) all point to environmental uncertainty and insecurityassociated with or consequential to postmodernism. For example, Bauman writesthat ‘liquid modernity’ is

… concerned with looser forms of organization which could be put together, dismantledand reassembled at short notice or without notice: it is such a fluid form of assembly whichfits their view of the surrounding world as ‘multiple, complex, and fast-moving’, andtherefore ‘ambiguous,’ ‘fuzzy’ and ‘plastic’…

Today’s business organization has an element of disorganization built into it: the less solidand the more fluid it is, the better (Bauman 2012, p.154).

In spite of the extended differentiation, there is easier means of integrationbecause of instrumental significance of digital information for coordination andcontrol over distance (Olson et al. 2001, Cairncross 1997). Digital informationleads to very leaky knowledge which facilitates the reduction of uncertainties andequivocalities among collaborators. For this reason, digital information representsa strong instrument for integration of differentiated organizational factors ofproduction. For example the leakiness coupled with light capital and disembodiedhuman capital have been leveraged to organize globally-distributed softwaredevelopment activities which are more economical than their collocated versions(Sahay et al. 2003, Carmel 1999).

Compared with its collocated version, a distributed organization is one whichactivities are performed in at least two remotely-separated locations, and in which

4.4 Postmodern Organization, Activity and Personality 79

the worker/learner typically acts in one location away from authorities orinstructors in the other. The distance between the worker/learner and the instructorintroduce new problems of remote control, coordination and collaboration into theactivity; but at the same time, distributed activities hold promise for efficiencygains especially when modern ICTs are deployed to overcome distance and timebarriers. Distance learning and distributed work are new commonplace expressionsused to describe contemporary distribution of human activities. A distributedactivity necessarily increases the level of human mobility, as actors usuallyoscillate in-between two locations at least, and within one location as actionsdemand.

In a purposeful distributed activity—learning or work—the actor may performtwo sets of collocated actions, and this departs significantly from unitary localisedactivities in the sense that one authority or instructor can be co-present in only onecollocated area at any one time. In this respect, the actions that may count towardsthe same activity may be performed under different authorities and instructorsfrom one location to another. Consequently, the individual may receive instruc-tions from different authorities whose motives are contradictory. In short, theremote distribution of actions may complicate the contradictions associated withcollocated activities because of the likelihood of additional external contradictionsbetween the motives of authorities in different locations.

Both learning and work activities exhibit similar characteristics when distri-bution becomes a factor in terms of the location of subjects and objects. Forexample, in distance learning, the subject, learning with either the real object or itsrepresentation is accountable to the instructor at some point but the immediacy ofhis or her environment may induce other contradictions into his or her activity.How, for instance, does he or she reconcile the learning activity with otherimmediate activities in the absence of the distant instructor? Distributed work isalso confronted with a similar problem: the transformation of the work objectusually occurs in a one location under an immediate authority whose motives maycontradict those of the distant authority. Furthermore, work and learning aresimilar on the grounds that in nearly all instances, individuals’ actions in a distantlocation represent their separation from their authorities/instructors who hold theadvanced motives of the distributed activity.

The first necessary upshot is that the distribution of activities induces furthercontradictions from other immediate dominant activities into the frame of theindividual’s actions. In understanding what happens when an individual contrib-utes his or her actions to the advanced motive from a distant location, it isimportant to remember that the central activity of the actor may not necessarilyoccur in objective circumstances. For example, in contemporary distance learning,it is possible for one to conceive a learner who performs his or her central activitywith computer-aided simulations and other representation of the learning object. Insuch an instance, the object activity is as removed from the central activity as it iswith classroom-based learners.

Thus, although in most instances, the sense behind the distribution of an activityis to immediately avail the object activity to workers or learners at a distance, it is

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not always the case. However, even if it is not the case, the motives of the centralactivity are likely to contradict with the motives of any immediate activity. Oneconsiderable certainty is that since the central motive is derived from the personalsense-making of the subject, it is an intrinsic part of him or her. Thus, the advancedand object activities may remain collocated and static in distributed activities, butthe central activity, and hence motive, is always mobile and dynamic in responseto the conditions encountered by the subject in time and space.

It must be said, however, that these scenarios above do not hold as muchchallenge for understanding the problems of a distributed activity as the one inwhich the distant learner is immersed in the object activity for practical learning orwork purposes. Much of the following deliberations will therefore centre on thescenario of a distributed activity in which the distant actor is immersed in theobject activity. Here, the similarity of contradictions within the subjective andobjective motives of work and learning may persist and shape the actions, but thekey difference remains: that is, learners begin at the periphery of the object activitycompared with workers in the core. However, the difference is not as crucial as onesimilarity; that is, in both distributed work and learning, efficiency dictates that theindividual mainly participates in the object activity away from their distantauthorities who champion the advanced motive of the distributed activity.

A third form of distributed activity appears in a hybridisation of the twoextremes: workplace and experiential learning (Kolb 1984) are some of its popularepithets. While they depict the hybridisation, they do not sufficiently enlighten uson the impact of the distance factor. This hybrid is exemplified by the empiricalcase presented in Chap. 5—learning within the object activity. The perfectinstance of workplace learning occurs when the performances of all three activi-ties—central, advanced and object—coincide in one location. The unity of theseactivities does not suggest contradiction-free actions; rather, production is sub-jected to a triple-nature contradiction of identity of the learner or worker. Heidentifies himself as the subject of his central activity; he is identified as an objectof the advanced activity by its subjects; and he may be identified as a tool of theobject activity also by its subjects. The tool perception is important because itstotal reverse is full acceptance and integration into the object activity as a subject.

Distance and distribution rips apart the unity of these activities leading to ageographical separation of advanced and central activities; by implication, remoteseparation of learner/worker and instructor/authority. In learning, the ultimatemotive is for the learner to be integrated into the object activity, leading to edu-cational strategies which place premium on the practical aspects of learning. Inaddition, contemporary advancement in ICTs has greatly reduced distance andtime barriers by enhancing communication, collaboration and coordination amongdistributed workers and among learners and instructors. These are some of the keydrivers of contemporary distribution of sanctioned human activities. Within thecontext of earlier arguments made in this book, it is the nature of contradictionsassociated with distribution of an activity which determine the kind and range ofpossible actions performed by individuals in any location.

4.4 Postmodern Organization, Activity and Personality 81

The range of possible actions is a direct result of the magnitude of controlwielded by immediate authorities—if there happens to be any—in the locationwhere an individual finds himself performing remote actions of a distributedactivity. In the absence of an immediate authority, the individual assumes that role;which implies that his or her central activity is likely to equate his or her objectactivity. For this reason, it is interesting to examine the contradictions generatedby the immediate dominant motives associated with each location of a distributedactivity.

The problem of contradictions in distributed activities is more complicatedcompared with collocated activities. The individual actor is confronted with thechallenges of his or her immediate environment, and at the same time with thedistant advanced activities of authorities or instructors to which they have to aligntheir actions. Essentially, the contradiction between the motives of an individual’scentral activity and the imposing advanced activity remains primary, even thoughthey may be geographically separated. However, another primary contradiction isestablished in the individual’s collocated environment between his central activityand the immediate object activity. In other words, at a distance, and in the likelyabsence of the authority, there may be a contradiction between the worker’s centralactivity and other immediate neighbour activities; the latter form of contradictionis characteristic of any collocated activity. In addition to these, and more crucially,there may be another contradiction established between the motives of theauthorities who control the collocated object activity and the distant advancedactivity (see Fig. 4.4).

It is important to note again that these two primary forms of contradictionsultimately translate into inner-contradictions in the consciousness of the learner orworker, but their interconnection is determined by the nature of the contradictionsbetween the motives of the advanced and object activities. Although these con-tradictions are external from the point of view of the individual, they bear directlyand continuously reshape the primary contradictions confronting the individual;that is, they mediate the central/advanced primary contradictions and the conse-quent inner contradictions. This continuous reshaping is a result of the powerrelations between the agents of the object and advanced activities, which translate

Primary Contradictions1. Central vs. advanced

(distant)2. Central vs. object

(immediate)(external)

Interlocational Contradictions

advanced vs. object

Inner Contradictions(metacontradictions)

Fig. 4.4 Mediated sense-making of actions in distributed activity

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into the types and range of actions the individual subject will or is allowed toperform in a distant location. If we come to think of the fact that the contradictionsbetween the object and advanced activity reshape the primary contradictions of theindividual, then it can be argued that the newly formed inner contradictions wouldbe metacontradictions—contradictions of contradictions between the motives ofthe object and advanced activities. What would therefore abound in distributedactivities are metacontradictions between the contradictions associated with thecentral and advanced motives on the one hand, and those associated with thecentral and object motives on the other hand, one set affecting the other.

The corollary is the impact on the identity, or perceived identity, of the indi-vidual in production within the immediate object activity. The individual’s par-ticipation in the object activity provides him with a tool-or subject-identitydepending on his degree of ‘‘social participation’’ (Wenger 1998) in the practice ofthe community of members of the object activity. For a learner, at the outset, he isusually a peripheral participant whose ultimate motive is the attainment of anexchange-value identity. However, peripheral participation is usually associatedwith undertones of non-acceptance, conformity, subjugation and being perceivedas a tool by core community members. Successful participation signifies theconstruction of an exchange-value identity which necessitates a progression fromperipheral to core membership, from use-value to exchange-value identity, from atool of the object activity to its subject. In work, progression from peripheral tocore membership is a movement from being perceived as an object to beingperceived as a subject of production. Now these progressions are not givens, norare they smooth. They potentially entail irritable problems of power, politics,control, resistance with which the learner or worker has to grapple in the process(cf. Star 1991). To wit, the individual’s participatory actions are likely to bedictated, determined and controlled by subjects of the object activity—the coreparticipants of the community.

The modes of belonging to a community, according to Wenger (1998), manifestin members’ engagement in the negotiation of meanings, imagination of broaderperspectives, and alignment of their energies, ‘‘activities, and interpretation ofevents with structures, forces and purposes beyond their community of practice.’’Given the reality that both learners and workers remain accountable to theirinstructors and authorities, their participation in and hence alignment with theimmediate object activity demands occurs concurrently with their alignment withthe requirements of the distant advanced activity. In other words, individuals arebound to satisfy requirements of objective and advanced motives at the same time.

4.4.3 Uncertainties and Autonomy of Adaptation

People who work in distributed organization settings do not have the privileges ofimmediate observations and informal and spontaneous communications throughwhich mutual awareness between them is gained. Experiences which could be

4.4 Postmodern Organization, Activity and Personality 83

shared easily without talking in collocated work now require talking by the dis-tributed workers. Studies in workplace design and informal communications pointto the importance of incidental information obtained from co-workers in main-taining a sense of community (e.g. Luff and Heath 1998, Walker 1992). Further-more, information that could be obtained informally in collocated work nowrequires some level of formality to obtain. According to Felstead and colleagues(2005), these workers experience uncertainty because they ‘‘often do not knowwhat type of environment they will be working in and what resources will beavailable as they move from place to place.’’ All these circumstances engenderuncertainties and conflicts that significantly undermine interdependencies. Theassociation between uncertainties, conflicts and interdependencies gains moreprominence in distributed organization mainly because workers are destitute of theinformal awareness that collocated workers enjoy in the office building.

Uncertainty is also engendered when supervisors, due to distributed organiza-tion, are unable to coordinate work effectively. The proximity of collocatedworkers helps supervisors of distributed workers to ensure that workers’ exerciselow discretion in their operations. Therefore, the allowance for distributed workersto exercise greater discretion also contributes significantly to uncertainty. Uncer-tainties, the premium on human capital, and the mobility of light capital (i.e.mobile computers) coerces distributed organizations to place more trust theirworkers. The forced trust is a significant premise of the inclusion of the persons inthe bureaucracy of postmodern organization.

Apart from the problem of uncertainty, distributed workers cannot adapteffectively when they are also obliged my management, according to Felstead andcolleagues’ (2005, p.166) suggestion, to submit continuous updates of theirmovements and activities to others in the team and to management. If the personalmotives behind their social lives are also considered as needs that they are natu-rally obliged to satisfy, then they will be overwhelmed with interactions. Theseobligations to adapt, report activities, and satisfy personal needs may not only bemutually exclusive during intense real-time interaction periods. They may alsoengender equivocalities in worker’s minds and cause them to resist managementcontrol through ‘‘incomplete compliance, feigned ignorance, engineered systemfailures and irony’’ (Ibid. p.171).

Furthermore, when distributed workers are understood as coordination mediafor managing interdependencies between organizations and their customers orcollaborators, then coordination by their adaptation to emergent or situateddemands is necessitated. Star and Griesemer label such adaptation as plasticity—the capacity for a medium to be adaptable to local needs ‘‘yet robust enough tomaintain a common identity across sites’’ (1989, p. 393). Such media or people arelabeled as ‘boundary objects’ that exhibit boundary spanning behaviors.

These discussions suggest that loose (rather than tight) coupling betweencentral authorities’ and distributed workers reduces the interaction burden onmobile workers and facilitates coordination by autonomy of adaptation. Theinteraction burden is reduced when central authorities permit mobile workers tointeract asynchronously with them. This requires giving greater autonomy and

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responsibility to workers to manage emergent spatial, temporal and task circum-stances through their adaptation to them. These high levels of workers’ autonomywill allow them to choose the media they would want to use to interact with centralauthorities. Such a loosely coupled system of interaction grants more interactionspace to the worker and contributes significantly towards the personal and orga-nizational usability of mobile computers. In sum, coordination by autonomy ofadaptation by distributed workers addresses uncertainties engendered by emergentcircumstances that they face.

4.4.4 Postmodern or Organizational Personality

The transition from modernism to postmodernism engenders a new quality ofpersonality which is more organizational. This quality reflects the new structure ofthe tension between the personal and organizational. The postmodern man’srelationship with postmodern organization is more continuous as far as the mutualsatisfaction of organizational and personal motives are concerned. The postmodernprofessional may still subject his personal motives to his organizational ones tosome degree, but he is not confined within the organizational iron cage. He workswith mobile computers in a ubiquitous computing and distributed work environ-ment, signifying that his capital is light and fast-moving. One of his key rawmaterials is knowledge which is leaky yet potentially tacit. Therefore, theinstruments for his conversion of the raw material are more appropriable.

For instance, for the organization to survive in the postmodern environment ofincreased uncertainties due to less stable consumption patterns, it must accom-modate the satisfaction of personal motives. Personal motives such as continuousintellectual capacity development through information management and adapta-tion to dynamic spatial, temporal and contextual mobility patterns have becomeessential human capital needed by the organization. On the whole, his personal andorganizational activities (and motives) are characterized by strong continuitiesbetween them; and so the postmodern personality is such that there are strong tiesbetween the worker and the organization.

For example, Kakihara and Sørensen (2004) point to increasing ubiquitous andpervasive technologies, shifts in working practices, and application of mobiletechnologies as the antecedents of the postmodern professional. This professionalis not only mobile in spatial, temporal and contextual senses; his work is alsocharacterized by interactional, locational and operational mobility.

Locational mobility concerned with the workers’ extensive geographical movement,operational mobility in relation to their capability for flexible operation as an independentunit of business, and interactional mobility associated with their intensive and fluidinteraction with a wide range of people. The mobile professionals’ work practices displaya high level of those mobilities, although the levels of mobility are uneven according to thenature of each work practice (2004, p. 184).

4.4 Postmodern Organization, Activity and Personality 85

Felstead and colleagues also (2005) talk about this in terms of the changingplaces of work whereby the distinction between the professional’s home and workis becoming blurred increasingly.

To conclude this section, it is necessary to note that one essential and distin-guishing feature of a distributed activity is its immediate impact on individuals’actions. The primary contradictions of a collocated activity directly affect thepsyche of an individual subject leading to his personal sense-making and sub-jectivisation of objective circumstances. In contrast, the primary contradictions ofa distributed activity indirectly affect the psyche of the individual; they aremediated by interlocational contradictions between object and advanced motives.These mediating interlocational contradictions are functions of parameters such aspower, control and other political motives of authorities concerned.

The individual’s experience of multiple identities as a result of the distributionof an activity is interesting; however, this provides us with little insights into theunderstanding of his or her actions in a distributed activity. The issues that holdpromise in leading us to a proper understanding of the actions of a distributedactivity are the mediating factors; that is, the contradictions between the motivesof the object and advanced activities. In effect, the relevance of the exposition ofmetacontradictions lies, not in its essence, but in its immediate source—the con-tradiction between the motives of the object and advanced activities. This sourceharbours a complex array of power interrelations within which explications of themagnitude of immediate or remote control of individuals’ actions can be directlysourced. What is most interesting, therefore, is an exposition of how thesemediating factors shape the actions, and hence sense of actions, of the individual ina distributed activity. These empirics of these issues are presented in the next twochapters, ahead of their analyses in the subsequent ones.

4.5 Chapter Summary

Human personality is understood in terms of a man’s activity, and not in terms ofhis innate (biological) and acquired (environmental) characteristics. His activity isin turn understood in terms of the aggregate of his relationships with his socialworld. One of the key aspects of his social world is his workplace or organization.Modern organization is characterized by the tight coupling between heavy andslow-moving capital and labour. Labour is perceived as a commodity in the factorsof production. The structure of modern organization which is necessary foreffective control is collocation because it enhances surveillance of labour.Bureaucracy is also necessary therein because the motives of the organization andworker are contradictory. These contradictory motives, which are external,translate into internal contradictions characterizing the worker. However, they areunmediated contradictions because organization is collocated. Based on all these,the modern personality of a man is a discontinuity between his personal andorganizational circumstances.

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The transition from modern to postmodern organization is catalyzed by theinformation revolution which is characterized by ICT innovation since the middleof the previous century. ICT innovation is witnessed in the increasing capacities ofthe microprocessor chip, hard drive, battery, cable, and wireless; in digital inno-vation; and in the expansion of the Internet and WWW. Essentially, ICT inno-vation tends to replace the human brain with the microprocessor chip as the sourceof knowledge, just as the engine tended to replace the human muscle with theengine as the source of energy. The major offshoot of ICT innovation is thedigitization of erstwhile analogue information which has led to the functionalconvergence of erstwhile diverse technologies, and to network, industry, andservice convergence. These offshoots, on the contrary, have also led to socio-technical divergence in services, business models, and organization as a result ofthe Internet’s assumption of an infrastructure in its own right.

Postmodern organization entails the shift in focus from heavy and slow-movingcapital to light and fast-moving ones—that is, from industrial machines to ICTs.Labour is freed from its tight coupling with capital, and is characterized bymobility and understood as human capital. The form of bureaucracy necessary forcontrolling light non-human and mobilized human capital is now inclusive of thehuman person. The key raw material is now knowledge (as compared withphysical goods in the modern organization), and so organization can be distributedand work can be mobilized. The contradictions between personal and organizationmotives are now mediated by distributed organization. Besides, labour mobilityand shifting consumption patterns in the environment engender more uncertaintiesfor the postmodern organization. To survive, the organization must accommodatethe satisfaction of personal motives which include the development of the intel-lectual and adaptive capacities of the mobile worker. As a result, the postmodernprofessional’s personality is characterized by continuity between personal andorganization circumstances.

4.5 Chapter Summary 87

Chapter 5Mobile Learning and Computingin the British NHS

The objectives of this study, as set out in Chap. 1, orient towards the achievementof this requirement. The task demands a re-conceptualisation of the whole idea ofdistribution of activities based on an empirical study.

The focus of this and the following chapters is detailed presentations ofempirical works on the situational and contextual use of mobile computers inremotely mobile and distributed settings. Although idiographic, these cases pre-sented are typical instances of the numerous cases of the deployment and adoptionof mobile ICTs to support remotely mobile and distributed activities in postmodernsociety. Based on an action research strategy adopted in the empirical study of thischapter, I gained an immediate and close appreciation of the dynamics of mobilecomputing in the training of a group of professionals for a new professional role.

The next section presents a background of the case with particular focus on thekey drivers that stimulated the mobile learning activity. This is followed by theoutline of the learning project which sets out the key outcomes, pedagogicframework and implementation in the following section. The next one narrowsdown to tackle the information management aspect of the learning project leadingto a detailed account of the implementation and use of PDAs. After that, the keyfindings of the empirical study which sets the grounds for subsequent analysis anddiscussion are presented. The last section presents the summary of the results ofthe study.

5.1 Background

The PSP—Perioperative Specialist Practitioner—represents a new medical pro-fessional role in surgery which was instituted to take over some of the functionsthat were performed by junior doctors in the British National Health Service(NHS). The establishment of the new role translated into a comprehensive anddistributed workplace learning pilot project. This project constitutes the empiricalcase in focus in this study.

G. O. Wiredu, Mobile Computer Usability, Progress in IS,DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-41074-1_5, � Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

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The key driver of this learning activity was the European Union Working TimeDirective (EUWTD) which required junior doctors to work a maximum of 58 hper week—in fact, the maximum number of hours would further drop to 48 h byAugust 2005. At the time, junior doctors worked for more than the number ofhours per week allowed under the directive. As of January 2003 until August 2004,the legislation was not being enforced; its full enforcement was expected fromAugust 2004. The EUWTD placed pressure on arrangements for medical coverwithin UK hospitals. Since the production of junior doctors in UK was suffering atthe time, and even training of many more of them was expected to take more thana few years to complete, pressure was mounting on the NHS to fill the impendingvacancies with a new category of professionals.

As a measure to tackle this looming crisis, the NHS Changing WorkforceProgramme at the Department of Health (DoH) established 19 pilot projects toaddress the mandatory reduction in the workload of junior doctors to 58 h a weekby August 2004. One of these, the PSP, was a new professional role which aimedto expand hospital surgical teams by providing patients with integrated care beforeand after an operation. The goal of integrated care was to provide patients with astable relationship by being affiliated with a single PSP throughout their stay inhospital, rather than a fragmented series of contacts with different healthcareworkers. The role was also aimed specifically at perioperative management forelective and emergency surgical care which included a range of diagnostic andprocedural skills. PSPs would assume many of the diagnostic and proceduralresponsibilities carried out by junior doctors.

The role encompassed many of the responsibilities that were carried out by Pre-registration House Officers (PRHOs) and Senior House Officers (SHOs) at the time.It was expected that the new role would use operational flexibility to provide aconstructive response to the EUWTD, coupled with significant improvements in theeducational component of the SHO post. The pilot training project took an activity-oriented approach which was driven by clinical needs and underpinned by account-able assessment of competence. These included pre-operative clinical assessment,routine post-operative monitoring and care, identification and management of post-operative complications, and determining fitness for discharge from hospital.

To operationalise this project, 12 health professionals with different backgroundspecialities were selected through rigorous interviews. All of them were matureprofessionals with many years experience of working in the NHS. Before leavingtheir old occupations to become PSP trainees, nine of the participants were nurses,two were operating department practitioners and one was a physiotherapist.

5.2 Project Outline

The aim of the project was to develop new professionals—PSPs—to undertakepre- and post-operative care of surgical patients. This aim relied on the achieve-ment of the following key outcomes:

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• The development of a permanent new role within hospital surgical units,allowing a more efficient performance of clinical duties and improved continuityof care within surgical teams.

• The provision of adequate clinical cover for perioperative patients at all times,in line with the EUWTD requirements. This would include surgical tasks andthe provision of postoperative care.

• The development of an educational template for rolling out the new rolenationally if it proved to be successful. This would allow its application to smallhospitals and Diagnostic and Treatment Centres (DTCs) across the country.

• The opportunity to redesign the current SHO role, maximising the educationalopportunities of the post in line with learning needs of junior doctors.

Initially, the PSP was conceived as an extended nursing role. However, abroader view was later adopted and it was recognised that the crucial outcomeshould be a competent practitioner whose skills are accurately aligned with servicerequirements. It was thought, for example, that staff within the professions allied tomedicine, such as physiotherapy, might wish to move into this new field. The keycomponents of the operationalisation of project were:

• Effective training, irrespective of professional background;• Accountable assessment of competence;• Close alignment between service needs and training provision; and• Professional support throughout training.

The pilot’s planned trajectory progressed logically from definition of the stateof practice at the beginning, through the design of a training programme for thenew role, to provision of appropriate training and application, to supervisedclinical practice. Formal evaluation was envisioned to form the backbone of theentire process. At the completion of each stage, deliverable outcomes would begenerated and assessed.

It was believed that the potential impact of this project would extend far beyondthe single surgical units within which much of the learning would take place. Itwas also believed that, if successful, the pilot could produce a blueprint for a moreefficient approach to the provision of surgical care at the national level. This wasespecially relevant for small hospitals and for the emerging Diagnositic andTreatment Centres, where no provision of 24 h medical cover existed at thebeginning of the project.

The pilot was engineered to have a significant impact on the role of the SHO. Atthe time, the published Chief Medical Officer’s report entitled ‘‘UnfinishedBusiness—Proposals for Reform of the SHO Grade’’ highlighted the need for amodernised SHO grade which would provide time-limited, managed basic spe-cialist training programmes.

The PSP project was run by a team at Imperial College London and consisted ofa manager (or leader), an administrative assistant, an educational consultant and aconsultant from the Department of Health. A learning technologist was appointed6 months after the project began. PDA software was developed in collaboration

5.2 Project Outline 91

with The Department of Information Systems at the London School of Economics(LSE). The LSE team consists of a departmental head, a PhD student (myself) andtwo MSc students. They provided technical assistance and advice but wereremoved from the day-to-day running of the programme.

5.2.1 Pedagogical Framework

The training project was a full-time learning activity and lasted for 1 year fromApril 2003 to April 2004. It consisted of two components: intensive one-weektraining modules at Imperial College London alternating with longer periods(mostly 6 weeks) of supervised clinical practice within the surgical team at eachparticipant’s hospital across the country. This arrangement allowed the classroom-based skills learnt during training sessions in London to be consolidated andextended in the workplace. These skills included:

• Pre-operative assessment and investigation.• Understanding of normal and abnormal states relating to surgical procedures.• Identifying and treating common and important complications.• Carrying out clinical procedures including taking patient histories, ordering

tests, taking blood and putting up intravenous infusions.

The classroom-based one-week modules used a range of teaching styles:didactic lectures, scenario-based learning, skills training and computer simulationsof surgical procedures. Technical, professional and communications skills weretaught on an integrated basis. For example, a PSP could learn techniques for takingblood while simultaneously answering questions from an actor playing the role ofa patient. This method was deigned to recreate the process of healthcare skillsdeployment in practice in the hospital ward.

A flexible pedagogic approach was also adopted, with continual revision andrestructuring of training modules. Ongoing evaluation allowed an assessment ofthe changing educational needs of the PSPs. Interviews at the end of every trainingmodule were conducted by an independent, professionally accredited psychologistwho encouraged negative (critical) as well as positive (commendatory) feedback.Group interviews and evaluation forms were also used to provide an in-depthcritique of the course as it developed over the period.

5.2.2 Implementation

The project was implemented to allow each PSP to gain a raft of relevant skillswithin a clear educational framework. Clinical practice and training or profes-sional development were intimately linked to every structure of the trainingimplementation. The most crucial of these arrangements were:

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• Structured training with a progression from isolated procedural skills (usingexisting benchtop models at the St. Mary’s Hospital Skills Centre in London)and clinical training (using the Harvey Cardiovascular Mannequin) to morecomplex issues of diagnosis, clinical judgement and teamwork (using the projectteam’s expertise in simulation technology to create a Virtual Surgical Envi-ronment). This aspect was built on the Virtual Operating Theatre at St. Mary’sand its associated Black Box recording technology and included realistic pre-and post-operative scenarios.

• Ongoing performance monitoring. This aspect used a portfolio approach forcomprehensive simulator and clinical data capture. Objective measures ofclinical competence were combined with personal mentoring and extensive useof feedback. Reflective self-assessment was also incorporated to encourageprofessional growth.

• Portable information and communication technology was integrated to provideready access to clinical information and decision-making support, and to collectand analyse performance data. Handheld computers (PDAs) were deployed toplay a key role in integrating clinical and theoretical medical information.Protocols for common clinical management pathways were also established.

A dynamic interplay between service and educational needs was also imple-mented to ensure that PSPs received continuing support even after initial training.Besides, continuous audit of clinical practice highlighted areas for continuingskills development and these were fed back into the educational framework.

5.3 Information Management

Monitoring clinical activities. It was believed that interviews and written feed-back are extremely valuable but they would only give the training centre inLondon indirect evidence of each participant’s clinical activity being performed inhis or her own hospital. In order to identify possible gaps in training, there was arequirement for a method of remote monitoring and control of the professionalduties performed by the PSPs with the aim of ensuring the adequacy of oppor-tunities to practise the clinical and motor skills they have been taught.

Creating a Portfolio of evidence. Each PSP was encouraged to keep a port-folio of evidence that would act as a ‘map’ of their training. The portfolio wasthought to be fundamental for any future accreditation of PSP training andacceptance of the profession, so it was important that it was built comprehensivelyand accurately. In order to withstand external scrutiny and maximise learning, theportfolio was incorporated to provide detailed evidence of clinical activities,learning competencies, course materials and certificates. The critical aspect of thisportfolio creation was that records of each PSP’s clinical activity were to be madecontemporaneously while fresh in their memory, and a regular backup was meantto be made by each PSP in case of loss or theft.

5.2 Project Outline 93

Written reflections-on-action. It was also realised that learning journals areboth a way to collect evidence of professional activity and an educational tool tohelp make experiences explicit by reflecting upon them. Learning journals help toconsolidate learning and play an important part in the transition from one pro-fessional role to another. Each PSP was therefore encouraged to keep a learningjournal to allow a consolidation of the skills and knowledge learnt during formaltraining with work-based skills acquired in their own hospitals.

Access to learning resources. Each participant was also encouraged to haveaccess to learning resources on the internet by means of a Virtual LearningEnvironment (VLE) such as WebCT� or Blackboard�. Participants would be ableto access material on a standard desktop computer or by using a Personal DigitalAssistant (PDA).

5.3.1 Architecture of Mobile Computing Support

Without doubt, the PSP training project was characterised by distribution andmobility—of the PSPs, of the learning activity, of the PDAs, and of information. Itentailed both local mobility within the hospital and remote mobility to and fromthe training centre in London. For example, a PSP’s typical schedule of a day atwork involved physically joining the surgical team as they made their visits to thesurgical wards to examine patients. Sometimes, these visits could take up morethan half of the total shift period of the PSP. As one of the PSPs reported in ane-mail when I asked about her availability to receive a phone call from me, herresponse was that her ‘‘work is so MOBILE ….’’ In the parlance of Kristoffersenand Ljungberg (2000), these forms of mobility are respectively conceptualised aswandering and visiting (see Fig. 5.1).

The deployment of the PDAs was meant to provide computational support forthese forms of mobility. Particularly, the highly critical issues of monitoring andremote control of the PSPs activities in their hospitals and the development oflearning portfolios were the targets of the computing support.

Activities monitoring and control, and portfolios of evidence of the learningactivities undertaken are requirements whose fulfilments were aimed at satisfyingtwo parties. First, the sponsors of the project, the European Union, had to be fedwith reports and statistics of proceedings of the training project. These reportswould convey the details of the activities that were actually undertaken by thePSPs in their hospitals with the aim of underlining the credibility of the wholetraining exercise and hence of the new professional role. Second, the widercommunity of existing medical professionals had to be satisfied that this newprofessional role was credible. Since professions in the medical field have existedfor centuries, the success of this new profession depended on the acceptance andtrust given by existing medical professionals. Thus, the portfolios were meant toprovide evidence of the depth and breadth of learning activities undertaken by thePSPs in the instance where anyone doubted their relevance.

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It was envisaged that the PDAs would provide learning support to the PSPsthrough the accumulation of relevant learning resources—medical literature, drugcalculators and the British National drug formulary—which could be available tothe PSPs anywhere during their learning manoeuvres. Although access to learningresources was implemented 6 months into the project, it eventually became thekey factor that sustained any hope which the PSPs had in the PDA. Compared withthe scenario in which learners have to make visits to libraries to gain access tolearning resources, or the one in which the learner burdens him- or herself with thetask of carrying paper versions of those resources, the PDA would alleviate suchproblems by saving the time to visit a library and the effort to carry many bookswhile roaming. It was envisioned that when a PDA is inscribed with theoreticalmedical information and used in practical learning environments, the user/learnercould intermittently refer to this information to shape his or her meaning-makingfrom the practical clinical activities.

These are issues whose whole successes depend on timely information capture,storage and transmission, and it was envisioned initially that the PDAs could offercomputational support in these respects.

5.3.2 Mobile Computing: Integration of PDAs

It was realised at the beginning that not all PSPs would have easy access todesktop or laptop computers, therefore handheld computers (PDAs) were acquiredand deployed to support these information management tasks. The iPAQ handheldcomputer is a miniature version of a desktop or laptop computer. For the PSPlearning project, the iPAQ H3970/H5450 model (see Fig. 5.2) was the modeladopted.

Each PSP was provided with a Compaq iPAQ H3970 model PDA whichwas running a Pocket PC 2002 operating system. Each trainee was also givena foldable keyboard to facilitate their input of written reflections onto the PDA.

London:Training Centre

PSP

Portfolios

PSP

PortfoliosPSP

Portfolios

Reports

PSP

Portfolios

Fig. 5.1 Sketchedarchitecture of the mobilecomputing support

5.3 Information Management 95

This PDA model has an inbuilt appointment calendar, address book and limited or‘pocket’ versions of Microsoft� Word� and Excel� and Outlook�.

The adoption and deployment of the PDAs were premised on the followingfunctional and instrumental advantages: A PDA’s functionality affords mobileinteraction and digital information processing, and its portability makes it usablealmost anywhere and anytime. It has a capacity to store digital information, whichequivalent in paper records will amount to several kilograms in weight. It can fitconveniently into an average adult human palm, can be carried around and beslotted easily into anyone’s pocket. It is a lightweight device of about 206 grams,and possesses a range of inbuilt functionalities to support mobile computing. PDAscombine the portability of paper forms with the technological advantages ofpersonal computers. Furthermore, they are increasingly being used in UKhealthcare and are even more common in hospitals in the United States.

The following critical issues also influenced the adoption and deployment of thePDA: In terms of mobility, PDAs can be carried at all times and were thought toprovide guaranteed and continuous computer support for the mobile PSP. In termsof connectivity, GPRS jackets1 could be purchased for each PSP to allow them toconnect their PDAs to the internet from any location and at anytime. In terms ofcontinuous monitoring of training activities, captured data could be transmitted viathe internet to the training centre in London to build up a cumulative database ofthe PSPs’ activities. In terms of security, PDAs have inbuilt biometric fingerprintreaders and strong alphanumeric authentication systems that can be activated toprevent unauthorised access in case of loss or theft; and a backup of data is createdevery time the PDA is synchronised with a PC. In terms of customisation, someprogrammes can be written into PDAs to suit the particular tasks they weredeployed for. In terms of the politics of technology use, since the access to IT

Fig. 5.2 The Compaq/HP iPAQ H5450/H3970 handheld computer and foldable keyboard.a PDA-in-cradle with synchronisation cable; b PDA and folded keyboard; c PDA mounted onopened keyboard

1 General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) enabled networks offer ‘always-on’, higher capacity,Internet-based content and packet-based data services. This enables services such as colourInternet browsing, e-mail on the move, powerful visual communications, multimedia messagesand location-based services. Production of the Compaq iPAQ GPRS Modem Jacket had beendiscontinued.

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facilities vary within each hospital and NHS Trust, the use of PDAs could beindependent of any hospital’s IT infrastructure. And in terms of the accuracy ofcaptured data and rigour of the training process, PDAs could ensure the immediateand contemporaneous entry of information. Relatively, paper based logs have thebenefit of simplicity but are hard to share with others, they may be filled incor-rectly, they become bulky and can be easily lost.

The argument was that desktop computers are confined to specific locations andmay not be readily available within a clinical setting. Laptop computers are moreportable but they are more expensive and too cumbersome to be used in thehospital ward.

These perceived advantages notwithstanding, PDAs are deficient in terms oftheir systemic functionalities. For example their processors and memories are farlower and less powerful. Therefore for most commands issued, they take morethan a few seconds to respond. Under such circumstances, their uses can provevery irritating and disruptive in the activities which they are meant to support.

5.3.3 Data Capture

Activity Logging Database. The Activity Logging database was developed tohold recorded details of patient encounters on the wards. Clinical activities wereselected from a predefined ‘pick list’ through tapping a stylus directly on the PDAscreen. Additional data included details such as the initials of any supervisor andwhether a performed activity was an elective or emergency. The patient’s age andgender were recorded but in accordance with data protection legislation theirnames were not.

Reflective Journal. The learning Reflective Journal consisted of a set oftemplates with headings such as ‘‘thoughts and feelings?’’ and ‘‘what worked andwhat didn’t?’’ These were intentionally open-ended questions that would allow thePSPs to frame the answers as they wished. Answers to these questions were to betyped at the end of each learning day using the foldable keyboard.

The most crucial aspect of the continuous monitoring of PSPs’ clinical activ-ities from the remotely located monitoring centre in London was the daily andcontinuous transmission of clinical activity logs and written reflections via e-mailto the motoring centre. The transmitted data would serve as the input of a com-prehensive database of the PSPs’ learning experiences that would be used togenerate reports at the end of the project period (see Fig. 5.1).

Thus the PDAs were deployed to support this transmission process; and therewere two possibilities. First, it was thought that the PSPs would e-mail their data tothe training centre daily when they synchronised their PDAs with their internet-enabled computers. However, it was realised that not all of the PSPs had PCslet alone internet connections. Therefore the second, but more expensive, option ofacquiring GPRS jackets to ensure the PDAs internet connectivity was thought of.This also could not be implemented because of two reasons: on the one hand, the

5.3 Information Management 97

cost of the jackets would not be financed by the project financiers; and on the otherhand, the phobia among UK medical doctors and hospital administrators ofwirelessly connected mobile devices interfering with medical equipment did notmake the GPRS jackets a worthy option.

Eventually, the issue of connectivity was abandoned altogether. And throughoutthe project, none of the PSPs e-mailed clinical data back to the training centre. Theproject manager was resigned to monitor the PSPs clinical activities through theirindividual Activity Logging databases and Reflective Journals, or their paper-based leaning portfolios. Monitoring was done during the times when the PSPsreturned to the training centre; there, they would be asked to submit their PDAs orportfolios which would then be reviewed by the project leader.

5.4 Implementation and Use

The PDAs were introduced at the very beginning of the project. Generally, therewere three aspects of usage of the PDA: first, there were the generic, standard orpre-packaged applications such as Calendar, Contacts, and Task Scheduler that didnot have direct bearings on the learning task; second, there were the custom-builtapplications—abcDB and HanDBase—that were designed specifically to satisfythe training and learning objectives of the project; and third, there were uploadedor installed clinical resources directly relevant to the task which PSPs were to drawupon during their learning.

The PSPs’ experiences of the use of their PDAs over the project period can becategorised into three stages. The first stage was the period of the project wherePocket Word� and Excel� were the applications used for reflections writing andActivity Logging, respectively. Stage two begins at the point when abcDB—acustom application—was developed for reflections writing and Activity Loggingand ends when the application was officially abandoned. Stage three begins fromthe point when abcDB was officially abandoned and a learning technologistappointed to develop a new application—HanDBase. It ends at the point when thisapplication was also officially abandoned.

5.4.1 Stage One

Each PSP was given his or her package—PDA, foldable keyboard, Microsoft�

ActiveSync� software, users manual, charger and cradle—in the first module.Assisted by the LSE team, they were given a 3-h training and induction session tofamiliarise with the PDA and learn to use its basic functions. Initially, when thecustom applications had not yet been developed, the framework of the ReflectiveJournals and logging sheet were transformed from the pre-designed desktopWord� and Excel� files into a Pocket Word� and Excel� files via synchronisation

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with ActiveSync�. Subsequently, all the PDAs were synchronised as guest clientswith a desktop computer at the training centre to upload the Pocket Word�

Reflective Journal files (see Fig. 5.3).

Fig. 5.3 Selected screen dumps of the pocket excel and word applications

5.4 Implementation and Use 99

The PSPs were unfamiliar with PDAs, except for one of the trainees who owneda Palm Pilot� and required minimal instruction. They were first taken through aninduction session on how to use the standard applications of the PDA—calendar,task scheduler, contacts, notepad, BluetoothTM and infrared. Next, they were takenthrough a short tutorial about the use of the files for Activity Logging andreflections documentation. Each was given a manual with explanations on how touse the clinical activity database. They were also given instructions on how toemail clinical activity data back to the training centre.

The PSPs found the standardised applications very useful. They marvelled andwere fascinated by the usefulness of the standardised applications of the PDA. Interms of these, the PDA was a wonderful technology.

One day I forgot it at home and throughout the day I found myself completely lost—Mary.2

It’s like a lung. I thought I can’t get to work without it, I need it.—Ruth.

I’ve found it very useful. I’ve started using it more and more.—Claudia.

However, the Reflective Journal Word� document and the Activity LoggingExcel� spreadsheet that were more important to the project objectives provedmore difficult to fill in. These applications were problematic from the beginning:the pocket Word� application supported very limited formatting and therefore thematrices and boxes accompanying the desktop versions were removed whenconverted into pocket versions. The matrices, for example, were redesigned intolong pages which extended the reading length of the file. Moreover, the PSPs weresupposed to create copies of the original file each time they wanted to write theirdaily reflections or log their activities. The problem with the pocket Excel� filewas worse. Due to the small screen size of the PDA, the desktop version of the filewhich had all the data on one sheet had to be redesigned into three sheets (seeFig. 5.3). Next, the screen size also ensured that access to extreme columns androws of the spreadsheet had to be achieved through left–right and up–downscrolling of the scroll-bars on each sheet.

Because it was obvious that these problems would render writing reflectionsand logging activities difficult processes, the PSPs were given the option to writepaper-based reflections and activities. They were assured that a better applicationwas being developed by the LSE team to replace these Microsoft-based files. Atthe same time, they were encouraged to use the PDA-based versions as a means ofgetting used to their PDAs. It was therefore not surprising when the PSPs reportedtheir discomfiture with the use of those PDA files for writing reflections andlogging activities. It was almost impossible for them to log activities during historytaking exercises with real patients. It was also nearly impractical to log observedactivities during their rounds in the hospital wards. They further complainedof how irritating it was when they scrolled the Activity Logging spreadsheet

2 All human names are pseudonyms.

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left–right and up–down. They preferred to use the paper-based logging spreadsheetbecause of this problem.

It’s very difficult to see where you are. I mean I have to use the stylus to know where I wasbecause if you go to Sheet 1, right, now that’s not too bad and you can put in the mark. Butas you go down the sheet…I don’t know what that is. To be able to enter that activity, I’vegot to go back to find out what it is. You see what I mean…you’ve got to physicallyvisualise what you’re actually filling in.—Comfort.

They also reported that they felt so tired after each day that for most of the timethey went home to write their reflections instead of writing immediately after eachday’s training. On the occasions when they were able to type their reflectionsbefore going home, they found the Pocket Word� file simple to use. There werenot much problems with their writing of reflections after their daily activities.

During this period, two members of the LSE team had been contracted todevelop a better cu stom application to overcome the problems associated with theWord� and Excel� files. This was supposed to be a Java-based application whichincorporated, mostly, radio boxes, text boxes and dropdown menus to facilitatelogging or ticking and writing. The application had to have the capacity to besynchronised with a desktop version and to clearly depict the daily build-up of thedatabase of reflections and clinical activities.

5.4.2 Stage Two

Two and half months into the project, a new application—abcDB—was developedand introduced by two members of the LSE team (see Fig. 5.4). Unlike applica-tions such as Microsoft� pocket Word� and pocket Excel�, there was no pocketversion of a database application such as Microsoft� Access� at the time.Microsoft had not yet developed a pocket version of its Access� database appli-cation. Therefore, the developers had to do an internet search for a pocket databaseapplication, and hence the discovery of PocketSoft’s abcDB which was eventuallyselected and purchased (see Fig. 5.4).

The aesthetically pleasing abcDB application was installed on each PSP’s PDA,and the PSPs were taken through a 3-h orientation session where a step-by-stepprocess of using the application was demonstrated by the developers. In addition,each of them was given a detailed user-guide as a supplement. The orientationsession proceeded quite smoothly with very few questions from the PSPs. They allseemed to have understood the instructor and could navigate through the pages ofthe application and perform their writing and logging tasks without any perceiveddifficulty.

On their return to their various hospitals, reports of severe problems with theapplication began pouring in.

5.4 Implementation and Use 101

I have been having more than a few problems with my PDA … as this new database is notworkable especially when it is busy. I have tried to use it as much as possible but do notreally trust that my work will be retrievable on paper.

Also each time I have tried to put the added work I have done into my computer, it tellsme that the sync is complete but some of the documents have not been added to thedatabase as the PDA will not let this happen. I also tried to print out some of this database

Fig. 5.4 Selected screen dumps of the abcDB application

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but the format is too wide to do so, even the reflections are not in the same format as theywere before.

There are some other things wrong with this system which I have put in a report I amcompiling for you all to look at. I do not know how the other PSPs are getting on with theirPDAs as the last thing I heard was that they were having trouble with syncing thedatabase.—Comfort.

As you would expect, I am finding the new system even worse than the old…I do not usemy PDA AT ALL!! I rely on paper and to be honest I find it much easier and quicker. Youcan have it back if you would prefer.—Naomi.

It’s not complicated, it’s just too time-consuming. I just can’t use it. If I could use it perpatient, then that would be fine, but per activity, it’s out of question. It’s too time-consuming so I’m just not going to use it. To do each patient, I reckon it would takesomething like half-an-hour to input the data which would be mad. It’s just not feasible todo it like that.—Ruth.

Assuming I have to deal with 5 patients, the slowness of the application’s response impliesthat I have to spend about 10 min with each patient … it’s not realistic in a clinicalsetting—David.

In the end, abcDB was virtually unusable in the mobile clinical learning settingand had become extremely problematic due to the following: First, there was abasic design flaw in which the users had to input one patient’s personal detailsanytime a different action was to be performed by the PSP on a patient. The PSPsviews had not been sought in the design of the application and therefore theirparticular practical needs were not incorporated into its design. The application’sdesign was not reflecting the clinical reality in which the PSPs found themselvesworking and learning daily.

Second, there was a systemic problem with the application which manifested inits slow running. The purposes of the PDA demanded the use of a databaseapplication that would allow an accumulation of PSP clinical activities as they arelogged in daily. While the generic applications such as contacts and calendarresponded very quickly to commands, it took an average of 8 s for a command inthe application to execute on the PDA. Incidentally, this database software ran tooslowly on the PDAs—and this was not detected beforehand. Perhaps the trialversions of other alternatives should have been tested before a choice was made.This also made the use of abcDB very problematic because, again, it was too time-consuming and not practical in the clinical setting to wait for 8 s for everycommand to execute. Quite simply, the use of a slow responding application whichcontained too many pages was a burdensome process which was disrupting theactual learning activities of the PSPs.

Third, PocketSoft at the time constrained developers to only seven dropdownmenus per PDA page of any application developed with its software. Therefore,given the wide range of items which the application had to be developed to cover,the design of abcDB consisted of many pages. There were too many interfaces thatthe user had to navigate when using abcDB to log in their actions and typereflections. There was too much duplication of the key resources such as text boxes

5.4 Implementation and Use 103

and buttons across the numerous pages of the application. Apparently, little carewas taken to ensure that as few as practicable pages were built to simplify its use.

Fourth, the reflections file format was strange and unprintable because theirprint sizes were far greater than an A4 sheet. As such, they could not print dailyreflections from the application for their portfolios. What most of them didtherefore was retype the same reflections on their desktop computers in Word�

format to make them easily printable on A4 sheets.Fifth, there was also a problem with transfer of data from the PDA onto their

computers through synchronisation. After logging clinical activities, synchroni-sation attempts failed to send the PDA recorded activities to their computers.

These problems together made the use of the application very unwieldy andclumsy since its use was not simplified enough to stay as an action alongside theskills learning clinical actions being performed.

The magnitude of problems associated with abcDB was alarming. The devel-opers were informed of these reported problems but they could not fashion out animmediate solution—either because they did not consider the technology-responsetime factor in their design or they could not rigorously test the application beforereleasing it for use. Feedback on the efficacy of the application was expected to besought from the PSPs when they returned to London for the next module; butthe frequency of complains from the PSPs and the strength in their dismissal ofthe application did not make that possible. The project manager was compelled toimmediately employ a learning technologist approximately 3 weeks after theintroduction of abcDB to develop a new and better application to replace abcDB.

5.4.3 Stage Three

When the PSPs returned to London for the next module, abcDB was officiallyabandoned and removed from their PDAs. The learning technologist gathered thefeedback on the PSPs’ experiences with abcDB use as an input into his newdesign. Unlike the developers of abcDB, the learning technologist engaged thePSPs in a 3-h consultation about the critical aspects of their clinical activitieswhich would influence his design decisions. The PSPs contributed significantly inthis regard and presented a picture of the nature of their clinical activities uponwhich a better application would be premised.

In the development of the new application—HanDBase—it was agreed by allmembers of the project that reflections writing would thenceforth be officiallypaper-based. But PSPs were still given the option to type their reflections in theearlier Pocket Word� templates if they found that more convenient. ThusHanDBase was an application to be developed solely for clinical Activity Loggingpurposes (see Fig. 5.5).

The development process took more time than it took to develop abcDB. Thelearning technologist had to design the new application to surmount the problemswhich the abcDB presented. Apart from the lengthy consultation of PSPs for their

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views on how the new application should look, the development of the newapplication also included its beta-testing in the clinical setting by three PSPs. Thefeedback from the testing was encouraging: the application was easier to navigatebecause of its fewer pages, it was many times faster than abcDB, and it reflectedthe nature and structure of their clinical activities. To them, the redesign was muchbetter.

As an accompaniment to HanDBase, the electronic version of the OxfordHandbook of Clinical Medicine and the Archimedes drugs calculator wereacquired by the project manager to be installed on each PSP’s PDA. This hand-book contains rich medical literature and was envisaged to provide learningsupport for the PSPs.

Fig. 5.5 Selected screen dumps of the HandBase application

5.4 Implementation and Use 105

However, during the beta-test, there was still the lurking problem of ActivityLogging on-the-move or during history taking—realistic use in the clinical setting.The testing PSPs reported that they did not have time to enter data contempora-neously. They rather logged their clinical activities at the end of the day in con-travention of the contemporaneous activity logging rule. While one of themindicated that he could potentially enter data contemporaneously in the future, thegeneral impression was that using the application was ‘‘another thing to do’’ inaddition to their usual clinical activities round their hospitals.

The few rough edges of the application identified by the PSPs during the testingperiod were dealt with and the application was ready to be rolled out to all the 12PSPs. The first step was another 3-h orientation session that was notably facilitatedby the three PSPs who had earlier undertaken the testing. Their support, in additionto the PSPs’ improved familiarity with the PDAs, and the fewer pages of the newapplication in totality ensured that the PSPs were more properly trained to use theapplication for Activity Logging. They therefore left the training centre in Londonfor their hospitals with the expectation that they could effectively use the PDA tolog their clinical activities when they were being done.

During the evaluation of the application 6 weeks later, it was agreed by all thePSPs that the new application and the installed software represented a significantimprovement in the use of the PDA compared to the days of abcDB. The appli-cation was many times faster than abcDB, but it was still not usable contempo-raneously with the performance of clinical activities and with history taking. Butthis problem was comparatively minor because the PSPs could log in theiractivities at the end of each one of their activities. The more perilous problemmanifested in losses of logged activities as a result of synchronisation of PDAswith desktop or laptop computers. PSPs started complaining that the synchroni-sation process caused a corruption of the activity file, and as a result the PDAcontinuously lost activity data. Furthermore, the synchronisation problem fre-quently caused the PDA to crash. Here again, this problem represented a kind of amystery to the learning technologist because it was completely unexpected and,worst of all, he had no immediate solution to it. Based on this, it was decided bymutual consent that the PDA be officially abandoned for the second time. And theHanDBase was removed from all the PDAs. From that period, all informationmanagement tasks reverted to the use of pen and paper. Although the PSPs stillhad the option to use the Word� and Excel� files for reflections writing oractivities logging or both, the official output of the portfolio was the huge fileswhich were supposed to be replaced by the PDAs.

5.4.4 Learning Outcomes

In terms of the project outcomes, the evaluation at the end of 12 months revealedthat the training had achieved some significant objectives that could furtherfacilitate the overall aim. It has to be said, however, that the achievement of the

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aim to ‘‘develop a permanent new role’’ could not be assessed at the end of 1 year.Whether the PSP will eventually be established as a permanent medical profes-sional role can only be determined after several years of its development or thelack of it.

The accounts of the PSPs and their surgical team members confirmed that theexpected transformation of the twelve healthcare professionals into functionalPSPs was achieved. Peri-operative care skills, which represented the mostimportant aspect of the project, had been satisfactorily acquired; and for most ofthem, their consultants thought they could confidently rely on PSPs for surgicaltasks that were previously performed by SHOs. In the eyes of their team members,the PSPs had become indispensable to their teams.

It emerged at the evaluation that amid all the positive and negative experienceswhich the PSPs underwent in their hospitals during the project implementation,their role had had positive impacts in terms of the reduction of junior doctors’hours in their hospitals. Most significantly, the PSPs provided effective cover forabsentee junior doctors and sometimes offered doctors the opportunity to attendtheatres and clinics. In most instances, the reduction was estimated to be 12 h perweek.

There were some encouraging revelations in terms of the ultimate acceptance ofthe PSP role among medical professionals: the resistance by and territorial disputeswith members of their surgical teams that dominated the PSPs’ training in theirhospitals had significantly subsided towards the end of the project. The PSPsreported that one of the key positive outcomes was their improved relationshipswith these professionals.

Two of them who trained in the same hospital had conducted a survey amongtheir surgical patients to enquire about their experiences. They reported that thepatients claimed that the PSPs eased the stress of going for surgery; and they weremore confident coming into hospital.

5.5 Summary

Although peri-operative skills acquisition was paramount in the project, it onlyformed a microcosmic portion of the development of the entire professional role.The politics that belie the evolution of new professional roles are not only con-cerned with the end product of a role. In fact, as demonstrated in the developmentof other professions such as Engineering, Town Planning, and Medicine itself, theskills content and the process of acquisition of those skills have proved to becrucial for the survival of professions in the job market. Therefore, merely pro-ducing PSPs equipped with peri-operative skills may not be sufficient in terms ofthe survival requirements of the role; critically required is evidence of the skillscontents, and the process and duration of their acquisition. Furthermore, since thepedagogic framework of learning in this project deviated from traditional

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classroom-based models, the necessity for monitoring and control of the PSPs’learning activities from a distance was also fundamental in the role’s survivalrequirements.

To this end, the management of the information generated by the project, andhence the deployment of PDAs for these purposes, were extremely important. Atthe final evaluation of the entire project, the deployment of the PDA in the projectwas lauded by the PSPs. Although the PDAs failed in terms of the particularpurposes for which they were deployed, most of the PSPs claimed that it wouldhave been a brilliant means of learning support if HanDBase was not blighted bythe data loss and crashing problems. They admitted that, taking a retrospectivelook from the introduction of the PDAs to their abandonment, the technology wasalways getting better by the day. In other words, they held the belief that a betterapplication devoid of the problems which afflicted the PDA’s application wouldhave served the Activity Logging and reflections writing tasks effectively. In viewof these perceptions and facts, important questions which come into mind are: whydid the technology fail? How did the learners perceive the technology? Taking anActivity-theoretical perspective, the key findings of this study will offer us someinsights about this problem.

5.5.1 Problematic Learning Conditions

So far, what has been clarified are the systemic problems associated with thevarious applications which were designed into the PDAs for the project. It is truethat the earlier designs were poor and contributed on their own towards thetechnology failure. However, the accounts of the PSPs also pointed to considerableinterpersonal problems in their hospitals which were directly confrontational as faras their computing actions were concerned.

Each PSP worked and learned in the surgical team of his or her hospital. Thesesurgical teams comprised of a consultant head, junior doctors and nurses of variouslevels in the hierarchy of the profession. In their learning, each PSP was supposedto integrate into their surgical team and develop their pre- and post-operative careskills. According to prior agreements with the project team, the consultants, theleaders of the surgical teams, were supposed to facilitate the integration of thePSPs into their teams and ensure that they achieved optimum learning experiences.However, the PSPs reported of serious encounters of resistance and non-accep-tance by their surgical team members. This was not too surprising given thevolatility and novelty of the new role; it was also not too surprising given thenatural uneasiness on the part of the surgical team members as they comprehendedPSPs who would end up higher in the ranks above most of them.

Resistances manifested in the PSPs over-acting or under-acting in the perfor-mance of their clinical routines in their hospitals. On the one hand, some of thePSPs reported that they could perceive overt and covert tactics of rejection and

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resistance on the part of surgical team members which stifled their participation inpatients care. On the other hand, in instances where their participation were notstifled, they were overloaded with tasks by their team members. For example threePSPs complained bitterly, not once but in three consecutive ‘how things went’sessions, that in much of the time spent with their teams, their roles were reducedto running errands which constituted total aberrations as far as their learningobjectives and actions were concerned.

More implicitly, the nature of workplace learning which this project exempli-fied entails elements of pragmatism which coerce learning participants to con-centrate more on the work. In healthcare, the pragmatic demands of patient careoverrides and overwhelms any other concerns, and therefore it was not surprisingto hear PSPs reporting that the clinical demands of patient care did not makepossible the manipulation of portable computers.

All these forms of conditional problems were attributable to the immediatecontrol exerted on the actions of the PSPs by their team members. While theproject leader instituted some measures to exercise remote control over theiractions, this was significantly supplanted by the immediate control of the surgicalteam. The distant project leader’s aim was the skill development of the PSPs whichcontrasted with the surgical teams’ leaders’ aim of efficient and effective health-care delivery for their patients. Since mobile computing was instituted as part ofthe project leader’s controlling measures, and since the surgical teams were lessconcerned with mobile computing and even largely opposed to it, it was alwaysgoing to be difficult for the PSPs to compute on-the-move during their clinicalduties. The balance of control between the surgical and project teams, therefore,played a dominant role in the inability of the PSPs to use their PDAs as desired bythe project team.

5.5.2 Marginalisation of Technology

According to the accounts of the project leader, the pilot project consisted of threephases—preparation, training and evaluation. The project preparation started1 year before the training or implementation phase. There were so many resourcescommitted to the preparation phase that manifested in the definition of the role,designing the training and consultation and involvement of key stakeholders.Interestingly, the planning of technology integration to assist in continuousmonitoring of distance learning activities and portfolio development was onlyincorporated towards the very end of the preparation phase.

It is very clear from the key learning outcomes of the project (see Sect. 5.5) thattechnology had been neglected. Information management with PDAs was incor-porated into the project to support the process and not the product. Thus, while thepreparation phase began in April 2002, the planning of technology integration onlybegan in February 2003 when the project leader consulted a senior lecturer of the

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IS Department of LSE to be advised on integrating mobile technology into thepilot project. When it was decided that the Pocket PC be adopted for the devel-opment of a custom application, the project leader decided to contract two studentsof the IS Department of LSE to design the application. Incidentally, these studentswere seriously preparing for the final examinations of their master’s degree whichwere scheduled for May 2003. So it was mutually agreed that the development ofthe custom application be postponed till the end of the students’ examinations inJune. This is the reason why at the beginning of the training phase, the PSPs weremade to use pocket Word� and Excel� files to write reflections and log activities.

During the training phase, the time resources that were allocated for the PDAwere relatively insignificant. Only 3 h out of an average modular period of about35 h were used to officially discuss the problems of the technology usage with thePSPs. Given the magnitude of the problems encountered by the PSPs, in additionto the fact that the use of PDAs was an entirely new experience to 11 of the PSPs,one would have expected a greater devotion of resources to the technologyintegration.

At the end of the project, its total evaluation was organised into two parts. Therewas one which was designed along the lines of the ‘How things went’ session ofthe modules and held at St. Mary’s hospital—the participants were the projectauthorities and the PSPs. The second one—held a day after the first one in HiltonLondon Metropole Hotel—was labelled as the ‘‘PSP Sharing Event.’’ This was theultimate meeting of all stakeholders of the project, including the members of eachPSPs surgical team they had worked with. During this function, the entire pilotproject was put into perspective to outlay its achievements, relevance, potentialsand problems: the most significant aspect was the individual PowerPoint� pre-sentations by the surgical teams in which the PSPs had worked. While the firstevaluation covered the PDA’s use over the period, the experiences of use, prob-lems and potentials of the PDA as a learning support tool were conspicuouslyabsent from the entire exchanges of the second evaluation—neither in the projectleader’s speech nor in any of the team’s presentations.

This training project was characterised by a high degree of mobility, andtherefore the attempt to integrate portable technologies such as a PDA for thosepurposes was not a bad idea in itself. The introduction of technology to supportany human activity requires effective planning and monitoring to ensure its suc-cessful use. The trend of technology use in Britain pointed to the likelihood thatsimilar distributed and mobile learning projects would integrate portable tech-nologies in future. Therefore, a comprehensive and in-depth evaluation of the PDAuse as an integral component of the entire PSP project in the presence of all the keystakeholders would have prompted fruitful discussions and useful lessons for thefuture.

From preparation through training to evaluation, the PDA seemed to be aperipheral item in the eyes of the project authorities; and therefore, it remained atthe fringes of the project from the beginning to the end. Although one cannotconclude simplistically that this marginalization of the PDA totally accounts for

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the failure of the technology, one cannot also rule out the positive impact which aproper integration of the technology would have made in the project. Just as it wasemphasised throughout the Sharing Event that the success of the PSP role criticallyrequires essentials such as champions, clear plans, and effective support, so did thesuccessful integration of learning support technology for such a project requirethose essential attributes.

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Chapter 6Mobile Foreign Exchange Tradingand Computing in a Bahrain Bank

This chapter offers details on the MideastBank, and provides contextualperspectives pertaining to its environment in which this case study was under-taken. The context serves as the background for the bank’s adoption of mobileICTs for foreign exchange trading. The information presented in this chapter is anextracted and edited version of Chaps. 5 and 6 of Adel Al-Taitoon’s Doctor ofPhilosophy dissertation (Al-Taitoon 2005). Having obtained permission from himto reproduce aspects of his work in this book, my extraction and editing for myarguments may inadvertently distort his original results. Therefore, I takeresponsibility for the information presented in this Chapter.

This case was motivated by the weak understanding of the interplay betweenvolatility and control brought by mobile ICTs. It is quite different from my moti-vation for working on the ideas in this book. However, there are a lot of theexperiences of the traders in the results of Al-Taitoon study which mimic those ofthe learners in mine. Apart from the use of mobile ICTs, the spatial and temporalcontinuities in organizational and personal use contexts are common to both cases.Likewise, both cases are exemplars of postmodern organization whereby theworker’s human capital used for adaptation is inclusive in the organization. We willalso witness the autonomy of discretionary interaction by mobile ICT users in bothcases even in the face of technological and non-technological control mechanisms.

These similarities between the two cases enhance the transferability of themobile computer usability model beyond the mobile learning case. Given theweakness in the statistical generalizability of case research findings (see Lee andBaskerville 2003), the inclusion of this case is a means to reduce this weakness(however insignficant the reduction may be). The fact that both cases happened indifferent continents yet they possess key similar characteristics around mobilityand mobile ICTs is quite significant for proving that the issues in question do notonly pertain to one case. Other discussions about the theoretical generalization ofthe usability model are presented in the Appendix.

The presentation begins with an overview on the Kingdom of Bahrain as thefinancial centre of the Middle-East region, and its geographical time zone on theglobal financial map. It covers the MideastBank, its organisational structure, itsglobal treasury, and trading sites, leading to information about the volatile nature

G. O. Wiredu, Mobile Computer Usability, Progress in IS,DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-41074-1_6, � Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

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of foreign exchange trading. The volatility is explained as the chief causal agentfor the bank’s adoption of mobile ICTs. The chapter offers insights on differentmobile ICTs that were used in off-premises trading by the bank. Insights on thetraders’ adaptation, and construction of multiple identities in the face of theblurring of the blurring of personal/organizational boundaries that emerged.

6.1 The Kingdom of Bahrain

The empirical fieldwork of this research study has been conducted in the Kingdomof Bahrain, a country in the Middle-East region. This section provides an overviewof the Kingdom of Bahrain as the financial centre of the Middle-East region. It,also, briefly discusses the geographical location, the time zone of Bahrain and thepotential impacts of these temporal, spatial and contextual factors on the gener-alisablity of this research study.

6.1.1 Bahrain as the Middle-East Financial Centre

Despite its small geographical size, Bahrain was considered as the financial huband the banking capital of the Middle-East. Lebanon used to be the banking capitalof the region until the 1970s. According to the Bahrain Monetary Agency (BMA),when Lebanon got mired in its civil war in the 70s, Bahrain stepped into fill thebanking void that befell the Middle-East since then. According to the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF), by adopting strategies for planning its economic diversi-fication, Bahrain took advantage of its position in the Gulf region which was theworld’s main oil supplier to attract the world’s leading banks, insurance compa-nies, and wide range of financial institutions and societies. Hence, Bahrain wasthen known as the interbank money centre for the Middle-East and North Africa(MENA) region. The financial regulatory environment Bahrain made it attractiveto the international banks, global financial institutions and investors. The appeal ofBahrain’s banking sector to the international financial community and globalbanking stemed from the relatively flexible, though firm, regulatory mechanismswhich adhere to international standards, and also its tax-free environment, as wellas the absence of exchange controls on capital movements. Its telecommunicationsinfrastructure had strengthened its capability for providing an environment whereglobal banking institutions could hub their operations and offer wide range offinancial products and services.

The BMA is the country’s central bank and was established in 1973. In 1975,BMA allowed offshore banking units (OBUs) to commence operations and thisdecision underpinned Bahrain’s rise to become the pre-eminent financial centre ofthe MENA region. By the time of this study, there were significant number ofOBU’s, commercial banks, specialised banks, investment banks, representative

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offices, money and foreign exchange brokers and moneychangers operating fromBahrain. Bahrain was also considered to be the global centre of Islamic bankingand finance, hosting a large number Islamic banks and financial institutionsdealing in diversified products including commercial banking, investment banking,offshore banking and funds management.

In the foreign exchange market, Bahrain was considered as one of the emergingmarkets according to the IMF. The survey conducted by the Bank of InternationalSettlement (BIS) shows that the daily turnover of foreign exchange trading inBahrain was 3 billion US dollar representing 0.2 % of the global daily turnover.This share of the global turnover seemed to be low when compared with the largestfinancial centres (i.e. UK 25.6 %, USA 16 % and Tokyo 15.5 %). Nevertheless,this percentage represented the highest share of a country from the Middle-Eastand North Africa (MENA) region confirming the leading position Bahrain has as afinancial centre of the region. The BIS survey, which had also been used by theIMF in their report in January 2004, demonstrated the share of the main interna-tional currencies in Bahrain foreign exchange market. The survey gave an indi-cation of the trading activities, and it shows that the US dollar had 67 % share inBahrain foreign exchange market while 0.9, 1.8 and 0.9 % of the daily turnoverwas on the Euro, Sterling Pound and Yen respectively. It also showed that 28.6 %of the turnover of Bahrain’s foreign exchange trading was in other currencies,which means that the traders in Bahrain dealt in both major and non-major cur-rencies, with counterparties and clients from markets in different geographicallocations.

6.1.2 Bahrain Geographical Time Zone on the GlobalFinancial Map

Following the brief perspective above on Bahrain as the financial centre of theMiddle-East region, it is important for this research study to take into accountcertain factors that can influence the generalizability of the research results. Forinstance, it is crucial to bear in mind the effects of the geographical location ofBahrain on the volumes and organisation of off-premises trading taking intoconsideration the difference in time zones between Bahrain and the largestfinancial centres of the foreign exchange market. The global map (see Fig. 6.1)shows that while Bahrain is 3 h ahead of London and 8 h ahead of New York, it is6 h behind Tokyo.

During the past century, we have witnessed the rise of 24-h market. Somewhere onthe planet, financial centres are open for business, and banks as well as other insti-tutions are trading in different currencies every hour of the day and night. In financialcentres around the world, business hours overlap, and as some centres close, othersopen and begin to trade. Thus, it is commonly argued that the foreign exchangemarket follows the sun around the earth. The Middle-East is geographically in the

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middle of the financial market if we take a global view. Its time zone crosses the timezones of different business regions.

Furthermore, it is important to take into account the effects of contextual fac-tors, social and cultural values, and the political conditions on the nature of workand business in the Middle-East region, particularly, in Bahrain. An example of theeffects of such factors is the change in timing during the holy month of Ramadanwhere financial institutions in this region reduce their regular working hours. Onthe other hand, it is also important to take into accounts the effects of globalizationon the traders’ working conditions. For instance, most of the foreign exchange

Difference in Time-Zones:

Bahrain – London: +3 Hours

Bahrain – New York: +8 Hours

Bahrain – Tokyo: -6 Hours

Figure 6.1: Kingdom of Bahrain

Geographical Location of Bahrain in the Middle East Region on the Global World Map

Fig. 6.1 Bahrain in context

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traders in this region work on Friday despite that Friday-Saturday is the weekendfor business institutions in Bahrain. Friday is also the holy day in Muslemcountries, and thus it is considered to be a non-working day for most governmentand business institutions in this region. Moreover, it is also important to considerthe possible effects of religion on the behaviour of the traders, and the traders’social network and life style on their work, in general, and on off-premises trading,in particular. For instance, the presentation takes into account the effects of socialnetworks on the traders’ daily interaction and the bank’s approach to meeting itsobligation of 24-h trading activities.

Moreover, the Middle-East was a politically turbulent environment whichaffected the organization of work in the MideastBank such as the importance givento having a disaster recovery centre in London for business continuity. Thepolitical turbulence is given consideration when discussing how traders configuretheir mobile devices (e.g. the Reuters pagers and PocketPCs) to provide news andinformation on political and economic developments. One example of the influ-ence of political turbulence of the Middle-East on off-premises trading was the2003 War in Iraq and its effects on the off-premises traders in terms of configuringtheir Reuters pagers and PocketPCs web-based services to provide specific polit-ical information and economic data.

6.2 The MideastBank

The MideastBank (a pseudonym) is the institution in which this case study focusedon. It is a large financial institution which has its head office in the Kingdom ofBahrain. The bank has a network of international branches and units. The Mid-eastBank is predominately a wholesale bank in the global financial market, withsome regional retail banking activities. Services provided by the MideastBankinclude Treasury, Corporate Banking, Islamic Banking, Retail Banking, Invest-ment Banking, and Private Banking. The MideastBank’s strategy of diversifiedgrowth led to the development of its widespread network of branches, represen-tative offices, subsidiaries and affiliates in over thirty countries around the world,including most of the principal international financial centres and major cities suchas London, New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, Frankfurt, Milan, Paris, Madrid,Sao Paulo, Cairo, and Amman.

The MideastBank adopted a matrix organisational structure using a hybridmodel in which administrative hierarchies and functional relations are specified.While each branch and unit had a management hierarchy that reflected the officialadministrative reporting lines and relationships, the matrix structure was meant toaddress the functional reporting relationships between the branches and headoffice. The bank was organised in terms of global groups and divisions. Thisincluded group treasury, corporate banking, structured finance, retail banking,Islamic banking, credit and risk, planning and financial control, and the group

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administration which covered the back office operations, global informationtechnology, corporate human resources, legal department, engineering and pre-mises and corporate communication, etc.

6.2.1 The Bank’s Group Treasury

The treasury department of the MideastBank was a global division and usuallyreferred as ‘‘Group Treasury’’ to reflect its global status and responsibility in termsof trading activities in different markets, and also in terms of functional reportinglines between the branches and the head office. The MideastBank adopted acentralised approach in managing its trading activities in the global market. Themain and largest treasury dealing room of the MideastBank was located in its HeadOffice in Bahrain, while its second dealing room was located in London. Some ofthe other branches had very small teams of traders as Bahrain and London wereregarded as the primary and secondary treasury hubs, respectively.

The treasury of the MideastBank offered a range of treasury products andservices such as Foreign Exchange (FX), Derivatives, Structured Products, Pre-cious Metals, Funds and Investment Management, and Islamic Structured Trea-sury. The FX desk had the responsibility of currency trading and it was a majorparticipant, from the Middle East region, in the Global Spot and Forward marketsquoting around the clock. It offered a variety of currency pairs covering all majorcurrencies against US Dollars, as well as Euros, British Pounds Sterling, JapaneseYen, Swiss Francs, Canadian Dollars, Austrailain Dollars, and New ZealandDollars. The bank was also a market maker in Middle Eastern currencies againstmajor currencies such as the USD and EUR.

While the treasury, that is the front office, department had the responsibility offoreign exchange trading process in terms of trading decisions, profits and loses,there are other departments within the MideastBank that had direct or indirectparticipation in this process. For instance, the operation, i.e. back office, departmenthad the responsibility of monitoring the trading activities, applying internal controltasks, performing reconciliation and settlement of all foreign exchange transac-tions. Another department that worked closely with the foreign exchange traderswas the MideastBank risk and credit management department. The market riskanalysts, from this department, monitored the market and produced daily volatilityand movement reports that they discussed with traders on daily bases. Economists,from this department, met with the traders everyday in what were called as early-bird meetings to give views on the market based on economic indicators andpolitical developments. The group treasury coordinated its trading with the cor-porate banking department through the money market desk in order to identify therequired liquidity of major currencies taking into consideration the loan business ofthe bank. Within the global information technology department, there were staffmembers who were dedicated for supporting the traders in the treasury department.The foreign exchange trading process was audited by an independent internal audit

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department. Considering these roles and responsibilities, research evidence anddata were collected from foreign exchange traders, the MideastBank senior man-agement and also from other professionals who are directly or indirectly involved inthe foreign exchange trading process, as discussed in the methodology chapter.

6.3 The Dawn of Mobile ICT-Enabled Tradingin MideastBank

Following the collapse of the fixed exchange rate systems and the devaluation ofcurrencies in the early 1970s, the financial community witnessed the rise ofelectronic trading system. This section illustrates the effects of volatility of this 24-h market on the use of ICT at the MideastBank for off-premises trading, startingwith the concept of 24-h trading floor to the dawn of mobile ICT-enabled foreignexchange trading.

The primary source of the issue under investigation was the market volatilitywhich produced the need for 24-h trading. Thus, the argument of volatility as acause of technology adoption and use is put forward. The term technology does notonly refer to technological systems, but also to the knowledge and means by whichwe make sense of the world (Weick 1995). The effect of volatility, in terms ofintroducing mobile technology in foreign exchange, is demonstrated as an alter-ation, a renewal and an adjustment process in the MideastBank. The terms alter-ations, renewal and adjustment are used to stress that such a process should not beunderstood as a technology replacement process but rather as an evolutionaryprocess influenced by ecological changes, enactment, selection and retention(Weick 1979).

6.3.1 Evolution of Mobile ICT-Enabled Trading

When it was established in the early 1980s, the MideastBank started to trade in theforeign exchange market from its Head Office in Bahrain. The foreign exchangetraders start working at 8:00 am and leave the dealing room at around 6:00 pmBahrain Time with 2 h lunch break in the middle of the day. Often, the marketvolatility, in terms of exchange rate fluctuations, continues to be high after 6:00 pmconsidering that Bahrain is 3 and 8 h ahead of London and New York respectively.In addition to that, when the bank dealing room opens around 8:00 am, some of theEast Asian markets such as Tokyo would have already been active and movingtowards closure, taking into account that Bahrain is 8 h behind Tokyo. The bankrealised the need to have 24-h trading activities as exchange rates move prior to andafter the working hours of the trading floor in Bahrain. Over the last two decades,the MideastBank adopted four main solutions to address this issue.

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The first approach was to organise 24-h trading floor by having the head officedealing room in Bahrain open and staffed throughout the 24-h. However, thetraders did not like to work in-premises at late shifts. Besides, this solution wasexpensive as the bank had to employ traders for multiple shifts. As stated by thegroup treasurer (TR#1):

we have tried the idea of having our dealing room open and staffed throughout the 24 h ofthe day […]; We’ve been quite successful in handling the market movements. However,we have realised that 24 h dealing rooms are too expensive. I had to hire and recruit moredealers to cover for different dealing shifts.

The second solution was based on organising 24-h remote trading activitieswhich required that traders deal from their houses using fixed line phones andsupported by desktop technologies installed at their houses. Traders, however, felttoo constrained as this arrangement has caused them a burden on their social life.The responses of the traders in regards to this mechanism included:

I cannot leave my house […]; I had to get stuck in front of PC and telephone (Trader,TR#8), this is like having a dealing room workload in your house’’ (Trader, TR#7), themarket fluctuates rapidly, and I had to live the market risk even at my home […]; That isfine but what frustrated me is the restriction of not being able to move and not being ableto live a normal life (the Chief Dealer, TR#3).

The traders also reported that socially it was not feasible for them to be in frontof the desktop technologies for long hours in their houses. That means disconti-nuity in terms of monitoring market movements which generates risk to the bank.

The third approach for 24-h trading was a pilot project that was undertaken bythe bank treasury around twelve years ago. The pilot test entailed the use ofdealing rooms of the MideastBank’s branches in geographical locations of dif-ferent time zones (e.g. Bahrain, London, New York, and Singapore). The approachdepended on passing the ownership of deals between these branches. This pilotproject did not succeed as deals rely on social networks in the market. Some levelof discontinuity also resulted from the span of the total time zones and the com-plexity of coordination between the branches. Furthermore, the ongoing politicalissues between the branches and the head office resulted in power struggles interms of who had the ownership of deals and relationships with certain counter-parties and clients. A senior trader (TR#6) who joined the bank in the earlyfoundation stages reported that:

more than twelve years ago, we have tested the idea of achieving 24 h trading by usingmultiple dealing rooms in our global network of branches […]. As you know we havebranches and small dealing teams in strategic locations such as London New York, Sin-gapore and other countries […]. The idea was to manage our trading positions, transac-tions, exposures, and clients’ profiles by leveraging on our global existence in thesefinancial centres. But, we found this method was problematic for us.

In 1997, the MideastBank formulated a fourth approach based on the use ofmobile ICT in off premises trading. Three mobile computing artefacts that wereused by the foreign exchange traders namely, the mobile phone, trading pagers andPocketPC with web-based trading services. The traders employ mobile

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technologies for both informational and transactional purposes. Using mobilephones, for instance, the traders make deals through communication with count-erparties. The deals are agreed on the telephone and subsequently the traders haveto record the transaction details by calling an office telephone number. The mobilephone is also used for coordination between the traders of the MideastBank, and isemployed by the traders for obtaining market information through interaction. Thetraders receive SMS messages from banking information services and exchangeSMS with other traders.

The traders use an artefact named Reuters SmartWatch which is a trading pagerthat allows them to monitor specific markets and currency exchange rate fluctu-ations throughout the 24 h (see Fig. 6.2). The pager has a database of over fivehundreds instruments and is designed to chart the progress of the selected financialmarkets. The pager provides some technical analysis criteria that can be tailored tothe requirements of each individual trader. It enables the traders to access financialinformation in order to make decisions while on the move. It comes with a widescreen and has charting pages, and traders can create ten customised market trendcharts. The news page of the pager displays the latest financial news headlines. Thepager can be connected to a desktop or a laptop PC for more power features andflexibility. It displays foreign exchange and money market rates, derivatives,capital markets, stocks and indices. It is also customisable for local and regionalinformation. It has a ‘Limit Alerts’ function which allows the trader to createtrading limits and alerts in order to be notified instantly when these limits havebeen breached. The pager can also be set to alert the trader if any of the prices fromthe most recently viewed display screen have changed.

Some of the traders have also started using PocketPC with web-based foreignexchange information services (see Fig. 6.3). The Reuters Middle-East office haschosen the MideastBank for piloting its PocketPC services in the region in order toobtain feedback on the acceptability of this service by the foreign exchangetraders. In addition to providing information, the PocketPC can also be used formobile transactional services but only with specific leading banking institutionsthat have started offering this kind of service for their major counterparties such asthe MideastBank. The PocketPC offers customisable exchange rates pages, newspages and charting pages. The traders use mobile phone to interact with count-erparties, clients and other traders.

Rate Page News page Chart Page

Fig. 6.2 Trading pagers (Reuters SmartWatch)

6.3 The Dawn of Mobile ICT-Enabled Trading in MideastBank 121

The traders used mobile phones and Reuters pagers to trade after the closure ofthe trading floor of the bank’s head office in Bahrain. The trading pagers providedthem with information on the market movements, exchange rates fluctuations,economic data, and political news. The foreign exchange traders took time to adaptto the new approach. As reported by the head of MideastBank’s business appli-cations (IT#5).

it takes time for the dealers to love the new technologies; but once they like it, they getvery emotionally attached to it […]; it then becomes difficult for them to change it.

The traders reported that the use of mobile phone and trading pagers wassuccessful because they started to have social flexibility because this approach hasremoved the social burdens that were produced by the earlier solutions such astrading from home or using dealing shifts. The comments obtained from thetraders included:.

This is indeed a big relief (TR#7); I do not have to get stuck at home anymore’’ (TR#11);We got used to these technologies[..]; it gave us the freedom to move (TR#6); Foreignexchange is highly volatile market; with this pagers I always have the exchange rates inmy hand’’ (TR#9); The counterparties and customers knows that they can call us anytime[…]; I decide when to call counterparties’’ (TR#12).

The four solutions adopted by the MideastBank treasury for the organisations of24-h trading are classified using two dimensions as shown in Fig. 6.4. The spa-tiality dimension determines whether trading is conducted in or off the bank’spremises, while the temporality dimension specifies the degree of continuity interms of engagement with the market. In contrast with multi-branches tradingrooms and home-based trading, the 24-h trading floor and mobile ICT-enabledtrading provided higher level of continuity considering the situated interaction ofthe traders. The influence of social and economic implication of volatility on theacceptability of 24-h trading technologies is quite evident in this case.

Fig. 6.3 Reuters foreign exchange web-services for pocketPC

122 6 Mobile Foreign Exchange Trading and Computing

The emergence of mobile ICT-enabled trading was not a natural evolutionaryprocess but rather an artificial evolutionary selection, taking into account theidiosyncratic desires of the foreign exchange traders in the MideastBank, theirinterpretations and social construction of technologies for off-premises trading.

Economic factors such as the cost of 24-h trading have influenced the Mideast-Bank to search for other alterative solutions. However, it was found that the evo-lution of mobile ICT-enabled off-premises trading is beyond economic rationality,as this artificial evolution was highly related to the social frustration the traders hadwith previous solutions. What matters is the fit between the foreign exchange marketas volatile environment and the need of technology for off-premises trading with lesssocial constrains. That does not mean that mobile technology does not produce othertypes of constraints. What also matters is the fit between the traders’ interest in suchtechnology, the organisational flexibility, and the volatility of the foreign exchangeenvironment. Mobile technology can be seen as a resource and media of handlingmoney employed in the organisation of off-premises trading. It is, however, themeaning assigned to (and social construction of) such technology that gives anexplanation of how mobile ICT-enabled off-premises trading is adopted.

6.4 The Experience of Mobile Computing

6.4.1 Interaction Overload in Mobile ICT-Enabled Trading

In off-premises trading, as reported earlier, mobile phone and trading pagers arethe two main artefacts used by the foreign exchange traders of the MideastBank,

Tem

pora

lity

Hig

her

Con

tinu

ity

24-Hours Trading Floor Mobile ICT-Enabled Trading

Low

erC

onti

nuit

y

Multi-Branches Trading Rooms

Home-Based Trading

In-Premises Off-Premises

Spatiality

-Premises

Fig. 6.4 24-h trading solutions adopted by the mideastBank

6.3 The Dawn of Mobile ICT-Enabled Trading in MideastBank 123

although some of them use PocketPC with web-based trading services. The tradersdo not have the four screens and the large number of informational and transac-tional technologies that they have inside the dealing room. Nevertheless, ourfindings suggest that the issue of overload still exists as one of the fundamentalproblems in off-premises trading. The social settings and work modalities in off-premises trading are different from those settings and modalities that shape thetraders’ life inside the dealing room. Although traders use technologies that pro-vide them with relatively less information and they are supposed to be involved inrelatively less interaction, overloads remain a potential issue because of the con-textual differences between a trading floor life and the traders’ social life outsidethe bank premises.

One trader (TR#8) stated ‘‘I prefer the Reuters SmartWatch over PocketPCbecause I can live with little information […]; In my opinion, PocketPC providesnice-to-have information’’. Another trader (TR#14) pointed out that ‘‘too muchinformation could be confusing when the dealer is expected to make decisionoutside the dealing room’’. He added that in such settings ‘‘the dealer mind issubject to disturbance […]; inside the dealing room, the dealers mind and heartare in the market […]; Of course, this is not always the case’’. The tradersreported that because of the high volatility of foreign exchange market, they aresubject to information and interaction overload 24-h. One trader stated that:

I know many dealers from Tokyo and Singapore, and they call me on my mobile phone;when I am sleeping on my bed, they are in the mode of talking and working […]; when Ivisit them or when they visit us, we exchange jokes on the disturbance we cause to eachother.

The traders have also highlighted that overload is a complex issue as the traderscannot predict how important is any particular incoming mobile call. They cannotswitch off their mobile phone because the bank expects them to have their mobilephone switched on. When they have many positions open, they need to frequentlylook at the trading pagers and/or PocketPC web-based trading services. One trader(TR#7) reported ‘‘when something exceptional happen in the market, I get bom-barded with calls’’. Another trader (TR#12) stated that ‘‘not responding to somecalls is risky […], keeping close eye is risky; and avoiding market information isrisky’’.

6.4.2 From Equivoque to Adaptation

The volatility of the foreign exchange market amplifies equivocality. Volatility is akind of change that produces many possible meanings of trading information andincreases ambiguity, complexity, and obscurity. Foreign exchange traders requirecommunication technologies that enable them to reduce the equivocality ofinformation and assist them in accomplishing their off-premises trading tasks.

124 6 Mobile Foreign Exchange Trading and Computing

For the traders, mobile technologies have become enabling tools for the reductionof equivocality and uncertainty. One trader (TR#12) stated that:

this mobile phone is a conversation tool. We can clear doubts by simply talking to acolleague from our bank or the market in general’’. Another trader (TR#4) suggested that:‘‘this device [he was pointing to Reuters pager] provides me with market information,news, exchange rates […]; when I need more, I exchange views using my networks in themarket.

The reduction of the equivocality produced by market volatility was a keyfactor in the rise and survival of mobile ICT-enabled off-premises trading practice.However, the findings of this research also suggest that there was another source ofequivocality that had to be addressed by the traders. This source is the technologyitself. Every change in terms of new solutions for off-premises trading used in theMideastBank requires traders to adapt to a new practice. One trader (TR#11) stated‘‘I like new technologies but I need time to get used to it’’.

The four solutions illustrated in Fig. 6.4 (i.e. 24-h trading floor, multi-branchestrading, home-based trading, and mobile ICT-enabled trading) exemplifies someoutcomes of the exploration phase. The MideastBank has explored other initiativesthat indirectly influenced the organisation of off-premises trading such as the useof web-based trading services and network technologies to enable the traders toaccess data from core banking systems outside the bank premises. During theexploration, traders socially construct technologies. They struggle with ambiguityand strive to understand the new practices together with the new technologies. Themove from one solution to another involves a stage where flexibility is given to thetraders to choose between the multiple forms of off-premises trading. Weick’s(1990) image of ‘‘technology as equivoque’’ captures the aspects of this process bydrawing attention to the actor’s interpretations and unique ways of appropriatingtechnologies. This is why sensemaking is important in discussing the emergence ofmobile ICT-enabled foreign exchange trading. The treasury IT support analyst(IT#4) highlighted that

piloting technology is definitely important. When we introduced the use of ReutersSmartWatch in off-premises trading, we had arranged intensive training for the dealers[…]; we had to support them in configuring the devices and re-train them wheneverrequired […]; we had to be on-call to provide them with overnight support.

The chief dealer (TR#3) reported that ‘‘we could not switch from home tradingto the pagers immediately’’ as the traders required to understand the new tech-nology. He suggested that the traders had to adapt, taking into consideration therisk of loss that can results from the trader’s inability to use the trading pagers(Fig. 6.5).

The findings of this research suggest some triggers with regards to makingsense of the new mobile technology introduced in foreign exchange trading. Thetriggers were the motivation of the traders to avoid losses and make profits, and thesocial flexibility for movement that mobile ICT-enabled trading offers in contrastwith other approaches. Furthermore, MideastBank officially informed the keycounterparties that they could start contacting the bank’s authorised traders on

6.4 The Experience of Mobile Computing 125

Fig. 6.5 Screen dumps of the reuters 3000Xtracompanion pocketPC

126 6 Mobile Foreign Exchange Trading and Computing

their mobile phones for off-premises deals. This has also triggered the sense-making and affected the process of adapting to the new mode of mobile ICT-enabled off-premises trading. The traders started to have the official obligation torespond to counterparties and act upon their trading positions, taking into accountthe volatility of the foreign exchange market.

6.4.3 Construction of Multiple Identities

The Reuters pagers provide the traders with information on market movements.The information itself does not dictate what actions the traders take. It is, rather,the traders’ interpretation of the information that identifies their real-timeresponses. The social space that the traders operate in when they make off-pre-mises’ deals is different from the social space of the dealing room in which the ad-hoc dialogues between the traders influence their interpretations. In off-premisestrading, the volatility of the foreign exchange market enforces individualisation asthe traders becomes relatively more independent in their interactions and decisionsmaking in contrast with dealing from the trading floor. The chief dealer (TR#3)reported that ‘‘yes, relatively speaking, our dealers have more freedom in off-premises deals’’.

The traders’ interaction in off-premises dealing and their independent responsesto the market volatility and equivocality are sources of identity construction whichfurther enforces the self-concept. This is reflected in the early-birds meeting (i.e.the Mideastbank treasury early morning discussion) in which dealers discuss themarket movements together with treasury management, the MideastBank treasuryeconomist and other representatives from the market risk unit. Those dealers au-thorised for off-premises dealing articulate their views strongly in the meetingwhen their interpretations of the market are different from what the economist and/or the market risk analysts suggest. They justify the off-premises deals they havemade. They get challenged by the participants in the meeting, and often they getsupport on the decisions they made.

One of the issues that forms a challenge for those traders involved in off-premises dealing is the multiple contexts of interaction and the multiple types ofinteraction in certain contexts. Their personal and work domains of interactiongreatly overlap. They have to switch from one identity to another. They have to bedynamic in moving between personal and work related matters. The same personhas to employ different identities in his/her interaction within relatively very shortperiod of time. This issue of overlap between personal life and work was addressedby Hochschild (1997) in her work on the time bind. She argues that when workbecomes home and home becomes work, the result is an anxiety that requirecareful analysis by social and organisation scientists. One trader (TR#9) said‘‘when the market moves against me, and if at the same time I have problem athome, I struggle’’. Another trader (TR#6) reported ‘‘over time, I learned how tohandle the market movements, make my deals, and overcome personal issues

6.4 The Experience of Mobile Computing 127

surrounding me […]; Unless, it is very serious personal crises, I manage tocontinue working’’. A third trader (TR#8) stated that ‘‘we get disturbed by privateissues that arise; you need to respond to these issues, but they should not preventyou from making deals; certainly, you have to learn how to focus’’.

Our results suggest that some of the traders are authorised to make off-premisesdeals considering their age and experience in the market which influence theircapability for retrospective sensemaking and real-time response to the marketfluctuation. Hence, we can argue that individualisation, trust, identity constructionand retrospective sensemaking are all interrelated factors for the organisation ofmobile ICT-enabled off-premises trading.

6.5 Summary of Findings

Subsequent to the above background information about the in-dealing roomtrading systems, this section introduces the off-premises trading of the Mideast-Bank. Prior to the adoption of mobile ICT-enabled trading, the bank employed andexperimented with other approaches including a 24-h dealing room, circulation ofthe deals between the bank’s branches and home-based trading. The rise of mobilecomputing technologies, such as the pagers and mobile phone in the 1990s,encouraged the bank to start adopting mobile ICT-enabled trading. Alongside theadoption was the management of the tension between volatility and control—orbetween mobility and stability. Besides,

6.5.1 Volatility and Control

To provide a requisite clarification regarding the grounds for addressing how off-premises foreign exchange is influenced by volatility and control as the two maindimensions in examining the organisation of mobile ICT-enabled trading. Thereasons behind this choice are related to the initial empirical findings, the chosenconceptual framework, and the examination of relevant literature. From theresearcher’s initial readings on foreign exchange trading, it was evident thatvolatility and control are fundamental issues for the participants in this market.The initial empirical findings revealed that the co-existence of volatility andcontrol as conflicting factors required significant attention in this study. There iswide range of control mechanisms that are adopted by the MideastBank in man-aging the foreign exchange trading inside the dealing room including: recordingtransactions and conversations, back office internal control and monitoring pro-cedures, feedback from analysts, dispute management process, trading limitsmaintenance process, etc. At the same time, volatility forms the basis of uncer-tainties, risk, opportunities and the ambiguity that traders are expected to dealwith.

128 6 Mobile Foreign Exchange Trading and Computing

6.5.2 Expectations-Driven Configurations

Depending on their expectations, the traders configure the mobile technology forthe data they need. Their expectations determine what information they see on thetrading pagers and PocketPC. For the traders, the reconfiguration of the mobiletechnology becomes a norm. The traders differ in terms of how frequently theyreconfigure their trading pagers and PocketPCs, and that depends on the change oftheir needs and expectations. Figure 6.3 illustrates the configuration of tradingpagers and PocketPC web-based trading services as expectation driven process.Expectations act as sensors to what is noticed and acted upon, thereby reinforcingthe self-fulfilling prophecy. Their expectation-driven reconfiguration of mobiletechnology exemplifies how the traders enact their environment through a socialconstruction and interaction process. The change in expectation about the marketbehaviour is directly related to how the traders socially construct the marketvolatility, taking into account the subjectivity of their views on this equivocalenvironment.

6.5 Summary of Findings 129

Chapter 7Distributed Activities and MobileComputing

In accordance with this book’s aim and thesis, the analyses of the empirical casesare undertaken to contribute to an understanding of the mutual shaping betweendistributed activities and mobile computing. In analyzing, the key issues outlinedin the introductory chapter which confronts this research are taken up and eluci-dated in sufficient details. Furthermore, the literature and theoretical discussions inthe previous chapters are applied to the analysis of the empirical cases to unearththe salient interrelationships between components that characterise the mobility ofcomputing from both organizational and personal perspectives. The theory ofactivity is applied as a theoretical framework for the analysis.

Recall that it is a theory of human development which principles combinelearning and tool mediation as inseparable components of any conscious humanactivity and skill development. It is essentially historical and cultural, and so itoffers a cogent set of postulates on an approach to human development based onthe cultural-historical, social psychological and physiological implications ofhuman activities. In this regard, it provides relevant guidelines for analysing toolmediation and skills development, leading to explanations of mobile computerusability. It is, therefore, a suitable framework for developing a theory of mobilecomputer usability.

In the next section, the theory is used to explain the mobile learning case in termsof conditions and contradictions in order to understand the personality of the learnerwho used the mobile computing. Following this, the organizational dimension isisolated in order to allow for the analysis of the dynamics of control and mobilecomputing. This is followed by the analysis of coordination which explains thenecessity for including personal considerations in achieving optimum coordination.

7.1 Conditions and Contradictions in Distributed Activities

The setup of the project in the empirical case reflects a collective human activitysystem (see Fig. 7.1). The PSP was the learning subject who was motivated pri-marily by the transformation of external and intangible pre and post-surgical care

G. O. Wiredu, Mobile Computer Usability, Progress in IS,DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-41074-1_7, � Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

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skills—the object—into internal knowledge. On the one hand, this transformationwas mediated by physical tools such as mobile computers, paper-based learningportfolios, surgical instruments and simulation technologies. On the other, it wasmediated by psychological tools in the form of the surgical cultural-historicalideals—the jargons, concepts, mannerisms, etiquette and procedures that identifythe surgical role. Consistent with every collective human activity, this transfor-mation was undertaken within a community of other PSPs, medical professionalsand the entire network of hospitals and institutions that had a stake in the project.The relationship between the PSP and this community was mediated by thelearning rules—instructive, constructive and experiential learning. These rulesproduced the remote, mobile and distributed conditions within which the actions ofthe activity were performed. Furthermore, the relationship between the communityand the object was mediated by the distribution of the activity’s tasks—division oflabour—among the community members. These relationships defined the activitysystem of a PSP.

The system represents, in Engeström’s (1987) parlance, the central activity ofthe PSPs which is a key unit of analysis in this chapter. The activity is centralbecause it is the system in which the PSP was the subject using a portable com-puter to support the transformation of the object. The outcome of the centralactivity was their transformation into accredited and acceptable new medicalprofessionals equipped with pre and post-surgical care skills to assume juniordoctors’ vacated roles. It is worth noting, however, that the motive behind thistransformation was not necessarily generated by the PSPs. Rather, it was intro-duced by representatives of the cultural underpinning—that is, the project team—as was witnessed in the project proposal. This motive was ‘‘only understandable’’(Leont’ev 1982) from the point of view of the PSPs.

Project team, network of learners,

institutions & hospitals.

Distribution of learningtasks in the project’s

implementation.

Instructive, constructive & experiential learning.

Pre- and post-surgical care

skillsPSP

Skilled PSPs; accreditedand acceptable new

professionals; Jr. Drs’ vacated roles filled.

Portable computers & applications, simulation technologies, surgical

teams, etc.

Fig. 7.1 The central/learning activity system of a PSP

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7.1.1 Distributed Learning and Contradictions

The project team, as subjects of a ‘‘culturally more advanced central activity’’1

(advanced activity hereafter), were motivated by the cognitive transformation ofthe PSPs. The PSPs, in responding to their personal and professional needs,adopted this ‘‘understandable’’ motive at the beginning of the project to share thesame outcome. This adoption illustrates the harmony that characterised the for-mative stages of the project; and it ensured that the central activity of the PSP wasentwined with the advanced activity of the project team. In these formative stages,the outcome appears to satisfy the motives of the two activities. Indeed, it was notmerely the outcome and motives of the advanced activity which were shared oradopted by the PSP; its tools, rules, community, division of labour, and associatedactions were all shared with the central activity at the beginning (see Fig. 6.2).

What were not shared from the outset were their subjects and objects, and thisdifference was not trivial. These activities were significantly different in the sensethat while the central activity had the PSP as its subject and the intangible andexternal peri-surgical skills as its object, the advanced activity had the project teamas its subject with the PSPs themselves as its objects. Given that one activity isdistinguished from another by its object which gives it a ‘‘determined direction’’(Leont’ev 1978), the different objects gave the two activities different directionsand orientations in the consciousness of the PSP (Fig. 7.2).

The designed actions of the advanced activity, conceptualised in anticipation ofthe conditional problems within their execution, incorporated objective meaningsof cultural-historical origin, which reflected the culturally more advanced motive.On this plane, the PSPs’ concern of where they would end up after the project waspredominant, leading to their adoption of the motives of the advanced activity.However, the demands imposed by the pragmatics of the conditions in which theyengaged in the performance of the designed learning actions were overwhelmingand largely unexpected. For example, the resistances and uncooperative attitudesof other surgical team members; the perception of the PSPs by other surgical staffas threats to their roles; the territorial disputes; the mobile nature of the learning

PSPPre- and post-surgical care

skillsPSP

Skilled PSPs; accreditedand acceptable new

professionals; Jr. Drs’ vacated roles filled.

Project team

CENTRAL ACTIVITY ADVANCED ACTIVITY

Fig. 7.2 Interaction between the central and advanced activity

1 According to Engeström, the more advanced motive is induced by representatives of culture bysome means (e.g. rewards), and assumes an encompassing role to subordinate or conflict with thecentral activity.

7.1 Conditions and Contradictions in Distributed Activities 133

process; the life-and-death criticality of dealing with real surgical patients as partof the learning process; and the design properties of the portable technology, wereall daily challenges which conditioned and stimulated their personal evaluations ofthe learning actions.

Their instinctive reaction to these challenges was subjectivisation or person-alisation of the pre-conceptualised, cultural-historical objective goals of theiractions. This manifested in a demonstration of their utility to win over the sceptics,cynics and resisting agents in their surgical teams. Stated differently, the com-plexities intrinsic in these conditions, which underpinned the execution of thelearning actions, led to a metamorphosing of the goals of the actions of the centralactivity, so that they began to contradict those of the advanced activity. In short,beyond the seemingly harmonious inauguration of the project, the practicalitiesand realities of the learning conditions that subsequently confronted the PSPscaused a reshaping of the entire central activity.

Therefore, at a superficial level of analysis, the motive of skills acquisition,common to both activities, makes the parts of the outcome appear mutually sup-portive. However, beyond skills acquisition, the subjective and objective meaningsspawned two supplementary but contradictory motives: respectively, the demon-stration of their personal utility to their surgical teams and hospitals; and nationalaccreditation and countrywide acceptability of the role by, most notably, othermedical professionals. The former, corresponding to the central activity, is areflection of the skilled PSPs as products of use-value, while the latter, whichcorresponds to the advanced activity, reflects the skilled PSPs as commodities ofexchange-value in the wider society. This ‘‘double nature’’ (Engeström 1987) wasa result of a dialectic of perceptions embedded in the consciousness of the PSPsbetween their individualistic subject-production in the central activity on the onehand, and subordination to the advanced activity’s collective object-production onthe other. The personal sense made of the learning conditions, and hence actions,contradicted the objective sense of the advanced activity. The origin of sense-making by the PSPs was therefore directly related to this first contradiction:contradictions between the PSPs’ central and the project team’s advanced motives.

Sense-making by the PSPs was a function of the direct relationship betweentheir learning actions and the conditions or environment within which their actionswere performed. It is the conditions that determine whether a conscious actiondeteriorates into an activity or develops into a subconscious operation. In theproject, the conditions within which the PSPs conducted their actions were con-sequences of other interrelated activities that impacted on the central activity.Engeström calls them ‘‘neighbour activities’’, that is, object-activities, instrument-producing activities, subject-producing activities and rule-producing activities (seeFig. 4.5). Naturally and inevitably, every human activity, which assumes a centralor leading position at any point in time, interrelates with these neighbour activitiesin varying degrees of relational emphases.

The actual and routine surgical practice in the PSPs’ hospitals represents theobject-activity within which the peri-surgical skills—the object of the centralactivity—were embedded. The instrument-producing activities are reflected in the

134 7 Distributed Activities and Mobile Computing

historicity of mobile ICTs which is understood in terms of technologicalinnovation and its socio-economic inducements (see Chap. 2). For example, theundertakings of the ICT industry players vis-a-vis the information revolution,which gave birth to the PDA and its applications, constitute the instrument pro-ducing activities. The subject-producing activities comprise the previous medicaltraining, which had shaped the PSPs into nurses and operating department prac-titioners, and therefore ensured their eligibility to enrol in the project. TheEuropean working time directive, the administrative arrangements of the project,hospital formal and informal regulations, and accreditation requirements are someof the key rule-producing activities that influenced the training of the PSPs.

To be sure, the central activity was in constant interaction with representationand reifications of these neighbour activities. In conjunction with the advancedactivity, they make up the external environment of the central activity; but theiroccurrence was serial rather than parallel. In other words, the primary sense madeof the relationship between the central and advanced activities influences thesecondary sense made of the relationship between the central and each neighbouractivity. Thus, it is the contradiction at the outcome end that effected inner con-tradictions in all the other elements of the PSP’s central activity system (seeFig. 7.3).

These inner contradictions are results of the internalisation efforts of the PSPsthrough continuous sense-making of their actions. Internalisation is a consciousmental reflection of the objective world in which subjective representation of theobjective world are formed in the internal ‘‘plane of consciousness’’ (Leont’ev1978). What was internalised by the PSPs at the institution of the project was animage of the shared outcome—PSP as commodity. However, that was mere‘‘image-consciousness’’ (Ibid.) corresponding to fantasy and hapless flight ofimagination. Later, their ‘‘activity-consciousness’’, which derived from the actuallearning experience, and which generated the motive of the central activity,resulted in the internalisation of a contradictory personal outcome—PSP as

PSPs as commoditiesvs.

PSPs as products

Skills as exchangevs.

Skills as utility

PSP vs.“Guinea Pig”

Surgical team vs. Project & surgical team

Participant in surgical team vs.indispensable member of medical

professions.

Learning rules vs.“Jungle” rules

Tools as tools vs.Tools as imposing &

intrusive objects

Fig. 7.3 Inner contradictions within the central activity

7.1 Conditions and Contradictions in Distributed Activities 135

product. This internalisation process symbolises an inter-psychological facetbetween the central activity and the advanced activities.

Intra-psychologically, however, activity-consciousness resulted in the searchfor an identity: necessarily about how the PSPs perceived themselves against howothers saw them. Indeed, the aims of the project were clearly explained to the PSPsat the beginning; but the fact that accreditation of the role was not promised at thebeginning nor at the final evaluation was sufficient for the PSPs to see themselvesas ‘‘Guinea Pigs’’ of the pilot project rather than new surgical professionals.Therefore as subjects of the central activity, they made sense of their actions amidan inner identity contradiction between PSPs and Guinea Pigs.

They also made sense of the peri-surgical skills as an object of utility or objectof exchange, but this sense-making transcended the object level to the object-activity level. Based on the product-commodity contradiction, the PSP’s sense ofthe object-activity was founded in the contradiction between first, a parochialdiscernment of the peri-surgical skills as objects of utility whose transformationwould lead to the skilled PSP as a product; and, second, a holistic viewpoint ofthose skills as exchange objects whose transformation would result in the skilledPSP as a commodity. As the motive of the central activity dictated, it was the senseof object as utility that pervaded and prevailed.

The actions and operations, which constituted the actual learning experience,were performed with the support of the physical and psychological tools (mobilecomputers and applications, simulation technologies, surgical teams, etc.). How-ever, the utilisation of these tools was subject to the impact of rule-producing andinstrument-producing activities. The relevant outcome of the rule-producingactivities manifested in the instructive, constructive and experiential learningprinciples of the project. These principles further underpinned the development ofthe custom applications of the PDA.

The learning rules dictated the remote mobility and distribution of the PSPs andtheir learning, leading to the critical need for remote monitoring. The direct out-come was the deployment of the PDAs, and to this end, they were expected to besupportive tools whose performance would constitute actions of the centralactivity, at least. However, their actual learning experiences were rather dominatedby informal (‘‘jungle’’) rules and norms of their surgical teams—of the object-activity—which challenged the pre-designed learning rules right from the verybeginning. For example, the jungle rules dictated the local mobility and actions ofthe PSPs that did not allow the desired contemporaneous use of the PDA. Thus,against the background of the contradictions with the advanced activity, the PSPsperceived the PDAs as imposing and intruding objects that were at odds with the‘supportive tools’ notion promulgated by the project team. The empirical case hasshown that, had it not been abandoned, it would have generated another activityaltogether.

Consequently, the learning community of stakeholder hospitals and institutions,which corresponds to the advanced activity, and which represented the embodi-ment within which the PSPs would identify themselves as professional partici-pants, could not manifest. Rather, their surgical teams represented their narrow

136 7 Distributed Activities and Mobile Computing

community within which their actions found their meaning and were directed. As acorollary, the division of labour was also affected: there was a contradictionbetween the planned PSP as an indispensable medical professional and theresultant PSP as a mere participant in his or her surgical team.

7.1.2 Distance and Mobility

On the one hand, the central activity was pervaded and influenced by complexitiesinherent in the political and pragmatic conditional problems such as the resistanceby other surgical team members, the need to satisfy and be accepted by theirsurgical consultants, and the high-degree of wandering—local mobility—aroundthe hospital environment. On the other hand, the advanced activity was influencedby conditions and needs which represented an extension of those of the centralactivity—the remoteness and distribution of the PSPs around the country, theremote mobility between London and the PSPs hospitals, and the need to con-tinuously monitor and scaffold the PSPs learning from London. In short, the wholeactivity was premised on a combination of distance learning, and remote distri-bution and mobility of the PSPs.

The distance between instructors and learners introduces problems of moni-toring and coordination of learners’ activities. Instructors need to ensure thatlearners follow objective instructions to achieve desired learning outcomes, whilelearners need to reciprocate by availing their learning activities and outcomes toinstructors for assessment. Furthermore, instructors have a responsibility to sup-port knowledge construction and cognitive development of learners throughcoordination efforts. Indeed, ‘‘distance matters’’ (Olson and Olson 2000) especiallyin learning because it compounds monitoring and coordination problems betweeninstructors and learners.

When it comes to skills acquisition, especially towards health services deliveryin general and surgery in particular, there is very little allowance for constructivelearning. Specific learning instructions, aimed at addressing the identified problemof a looming skills shortage in the British National Health Service, thereforeconstituted the guidelines for action in the project. Although the immersion of thePSPs in the context—surgical practice—suggests some constructivism and expe-riential learning, the strength of the project manager’s instructions was indicativeof the emphasis on objective content and process (see Pettigrew 1985b, 1987).

In this respect, the distance between the skills contents instructions and theprocess of assimilation becomes crucial. In the project, the issuance of instructionsoccurred in one location under one instructor—the project manager—while theprocess of assimilation occurred under another instructor—the surgical consultant.These instructors had contradictory objects and motives. On the one hand, thePSPs represented tools of the surgical consultant’s object-activity which motivewas a transformation of patients through surgery; in this respect the PSPs wereuseful in the performance of the actions of the object-activity. On the other, the

7.1 Conditions and Contradictions in Distributed Activities 137

project manager was more interested in the cognitive aspect of the PSPs skillsdevelopment. Indeed, the motive of the advanced activity was a mere goal of theobject-activity (see Fig. 7.4).

This project was not only characterized by distance. It was also characterizedby problems relating to the distribution of the learners and their extreme localmobility within hospitals. To the project team, although the practical or contextualaspect of the learning was important, the extreme local mobility which thisentailed, as well as the distance and distribution of the PSPs represented anunstable facet of the project. Besides, the PSPs’ attachment to surgical teamsheaded by consultants implies that they were directly confronted with immediateinstructions other than those of the project manager. In other words, their actionswere subject to instructions of both the project manager and the resident consultantof their training hospitals. Instability in this sense was implicitly bearing on theoutcome of the advanced activity: the outcome was as important as the process but,due to distance and distribution, the project team had very little direct control overthe process from which the outcome would manifest.

The inertia to change within an age-old discipline such as medicine, the life-and-death criticality of dealing with surgical patients, and the threat that existingmedical professionals would feel about a new role, were some other key factorswhich induced caution in the project manager. He could not be assured that thePSPs would survive in these surgical teams without resistances from other medicalprofessionals. Sørensen and Pica (2004) rightly point to this problem in theiranalysis of ‘‘trust and flexibility’’, based on mobile technology-induced mobili-sation of human activities. Flexibility and control are the bipolar parameters withinwhich they placed the management of mobile work. To address the problem ofmistrust and instability, the project manager instituted control measures includingthe 1 week modules, the PDAs, the learning portfolios, and support from theconsultants—the leaders of the surgical teams—to stabilise the process.

The distribution of the PSPs necessitated the institution of coordination andmonitoring measures to ensure that the distributed learners went through similar, ifnot the same, learning experiences. These measures manifested in the one-weekLondon modules during which the PSPs converged to share their experiences afterevery 6 weeks were spent in their hospitals. These modules were critical means oflevelling up the learning field for the PSPs because they attended classroom-based

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tutorials sometimes with simulated technology aids. Thus if there were any sig-nificant disparities between the learning experiences of the PSPs in their varioushospitals, the weekly modules always addressed the differences to ensure someconsiderable degrees of uniformity in the process. In terms of monitoring theircognitive development, given the failure of the PDA to provide continuousinformation about the PSPs learning activities, the weekly modules served assurrogates: their activities were monitored through their paper-based activity logsand written reflections in their learning portfolios.

This implies that the distribution of the learners was a key factor in the designof the London modules, which introduced remote mobility or ‘‘travelling’’(Kristoffersen and Ljungberg 2000) into the project structure. In other words,travelling was a critical necessity as a leveller, a stabilising measure, a controllingstrategy, and a ‘‘coordination mechanism’’ (Schmidt and Simone 1996) to tacklethe discrepancies in the distributed learning experiences of the PSPs.

All these conditions and contradictions shaped the personality of the PSP.Recall that a man’s personality lies in his systems of activities, and it is producedand reproduced by his social relationships in his activities. Therefore, the meta-contradictions, engendered by the inner contradictions and distance, are significantaspects of the PSP’s personality. His social relationships that underpin his per-sonality suggest that the metacontradictions can be managed if he was understoodby the project authorities as an organizational personality. The oversight of thisunderstanding left the project in an unbalanced state because an aspect of thepostmodern form of the organization (metacontradictions) was mismatched by amodern form of personality.

7.1.3 Learning Conditions and Mobile Computing

The trial of three different information management applications designed spe-cifically for the project PDAs all failed—from the perspective of the project team.The PDAs turned out to be unusable in the clinical setting when the PSPs would bebusy with their clinical actions. On the surface, it appears the technology failurewas caused by human–computer interaction factors such as design flaws in thesystem, slow running applications, and the systemic deficiencies of the PDAs thatreflect in their low processing power, low storage capacity and low memory.However, the accounts of the PSPs also point to considerable interpersonalproblems in their hospitals that were directly confrontational as far as theirinteractions with the PDAs were concerned.

Each PSP worked and learned in their local surgical team. These surgical teamscomprised of a medical consultant head, junior doctors and nurses of various levelsin the professional hierarchy. In their learning, each PSP was supposed to integrateinto their surgical team and develop their pre- and post-operative care skills.According to prior agreements with the project team, the consultants as leaders ofthe surgical teams, were supposed to facilitate the integration of the PSPs into their

7.1 Conditions and Contradictions in Distributed Activities 139

teams and ensure that they achieved optimum learning experiences. However, thePSPs reported serious encounters of resistance and non-acceptance by their sur-gical team members. There were also reports of perceived lack of cooperativewillingness by other surgical team members. There were indications of surgicalstaff perceiving the PSPs as a threat to their roles. The highly mobile nature of thelearning process also hindered the use of the PDA. This is particularly pertinentwhen considering the criticality of dealing with surgical patients as part of theexperiential learning process.

All of these circumstances constituted daily challenges that conditioned andstimulated their personal evaluations of the learning actions. The perceivedresponses of the established professions were not a surprise to the project man-agement team given the volatility and novelty of the new role, and given thenatural uneasiness on the part of the surgical team members, as they compre-hended PSPs who would end up higher in the ranks above some of them. Indeed, inthe initial stages of the project, the project leader specifically pushed for an entiremobile architecture as opposed to a hybrid architecture combining mobile clientsand stationary workstations in order to render the PSPs independent from thenormal hospital IT infrastructure in order for access to this infrastructure notbecoming a point of contention. He wanted the PSPs to be IT self-sufficient.

The perceived resistance from the environment manifested itself in the PSPsover-acting or under-acting in the performance of their clinical routines in theirhospitals. Some of them reported that perceived overt and covert tactics ofrejection and resistance on the part of surgical team members. This stifled theirparticipation in patients care. However, in instances where participation was notstifled, learners were overloaded with tasks by their team members. For examplethree PSPs complained bitterly that in much of the time spent with their teams theirroles were reduced to running errands that constituted total aberrations as far astheir learning objectives and actions were concerned. More implicitly, this specificnature of work-integrated learning entails elements of pragmatism that coerceparticipants to concentrate more on the work. In healthcare, the pragmaticdemands of patient care overrides and overwhelms any other concerns, andtherefore it was not surprising to hear PSPs reporting that the clinical demands ofpatient care did not make possible the manipulation of mobile computers.

These forms of conditional problems are attributable to the immediate controlexerted on the actions of the PSPs by their team members. While the projectleader, based in London, instituted some measures to exercise remote control overtheir actions, this was significantly supplanted by the immediate control of thesurgical team. The distant project leader’s motive was the skill development(transformation) of the PSPs contrasting the surgical teams’ leaders’ motive ofefficient and effective healthcare delivery for their patients. Since mobile com-puting was instituted as part of the project leader’s controlling measures, and sincethe surgical teams were less concerned with mobile computing and even largelyopposed to it, it was always going to be difficult for the PSPs to compute on-the-move during their clinical actions.

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This, in many ways, mirrors the continuously changing role of mobile com-puters when used by operational police officers (Sørensen 2002); and one inter-pretation of the PSPs being dissuaded by surgical team members to use PDAswhilst interacting with patients is that the patient must be in focus, not the PDA.The balance of control between the surgical and project teams, therefore, played adominant role in the inability of the PSPs to use their PDAs as desired by theproject team.

This background, and the idea that the dynamics of organizational control bearsignificantly on mobile computer usability, suggest that it is important to analysethese findings further. Recall that the central thesis of this book hinges on the unityof organizational and personal applications in mobile computers as well as thecontinuity of the user’s organizational and personal contexts. To this end, a furtheranalysis of this balance of control in the two empirical cases is essential forunderstanding the organizational dimension of this thesis. But first, the organi-zational dimensions of both the use context and computer applications are isolatedfrom the personal dimension, in order to explain its essence and impact on mobilecomputer usability. This initial analysis will tease out the antecedents and con-sequences of organizational control that conditioned and shaped the use (andindeed inadequate use) of the mobile computer. In particular, it will elucidate howdistributed organizing, which is an epitome of postmodernism, shapes mobilecomputer usability. The subsequent analysis (Chap. 8) will incorporate the per-sonal dimension to explain how the satisfaction of personal needs is also a criticalaspect of mobile computer usability.

7.2 Organizational Control and Mobile Computing

The dynamics of organizational control is a very important aspect of this analysisbecause the co-evolution of organization and personality is a determinant ofmobile computer usability. Therefore, the next section presents analysis of therelationship between contradictory motives and control on the one hand, and theimplications for mobile computing in distributed activities on the other.

7.2.1 Control and Technology Use

Control is one of the key aspects of work and its organisation. This pervasivephenomenon manifests itself within organisations overtly or covertly, concealed orrevealed, strong or weak, and, in terms of distributed work, remote or local.Numerous researchers have defined and redefined control as an organising functioninto various forms. Ouchi and Maguire (1975), for example, adopt behaviour andoutput as the two broad independent strands of control. Ouchi (1979) views controlin terms of transaction costs as a contingency matrix of market, bureaucracy and

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clan mechanisms interacting with social and informational prerequisites. Etzioni’s(1965) interpretations of control point to an inseparability of control and power.Nidumolu and Subramani (2003) provide a comprehensive conceptualisation ofcontrol drawing upon both Ouchi and Maguire’s behaviour and output controlmodel, classified it as a process approach, and combined it with their own structureapproach—standardisation of methods and decentralisation of authority. Thisresults in a matrix of control (see Fig. 7.5).

The combination of actions control and standardisation, for example, results inthe standardisation of methods that workers must follow in the execution of theirtasks. Alternatively, the combination of outcome control and standardisation leadsto the standardisation of performance criteria. Technologies signify representationof standardisations as is luridly conceptualised by Latour’s (1991) maxim ‘‘tech-nology is society made durable’’. The expositions of sociologists of technology (e.g.Wartofsky 1979a; Zuboff 1988; Winner 1993; Bijker and Law 1992; Kallinikos2005) clearly confirm the crystallisation, reification and standardisation of organ-ising functions (e.g. control) into technology artefacts. Thus, actions and outcomecontrolling intentions of organisational authorities can be inscribed into technology(Hanseth and Monteiro 1997; Kallinikos 2005, 2004) and, hence, the perceptionof technological artefacts is not merely a function of their static or structuralrepresentation; on the contrary perception includes their information services(Mathiassen and Sørensen 2008) or functional representation (Wartofsky 1973).

Actions control is typically achieved through the construction of coordinationmechanisms (Schmidt and Simone 1996; Carstensen and Sørensen 1996). In thisregard, the technology assigned for behaviour control essentially and effectivelybecomes a computational coordination mechanism that consists of the raw artefactand inscribed protocols. For example, workers’ actions can be controlled bycoercing them to document, process and transmit certain volumes of informationpertaining to their non-computational tasks with technology. It is then possible towitness a scenario in which computing actions, imbued with the teleology ofaction control, are themselves forms of action which are subject to action control.

Alternatively, organisational authorities can achieve outcome control throughthese same processes by reorienting the computational coordination protocols. In

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Fig. 7.5 Matrix of control. source Adapted from (Nidumolu and Subramani 2003)

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this instance, the outcome of workers’ actions can be controlled by setting thatvolume of information documented, processed and transmitted with the technologyas performance criteria. We therefore understand technology in general and mobiletechnology in particular as potential controlling devices or computational coor-dination mechanisms that can be applied by organisational authorities to controlaction. Where distributed and mobile work is mediated by mobile technologies,and where remote control and coordination by central authorities are inevitable wecan expect particular interesting interrelations between control, mobile work, andthe use of mobile technology.

7.2.2 Control, Distributed Organization, and MobileComputing

The actions of people in a distributed activity are likely to be conducted undermultiple sources of control and the degrees of control attributable to the centraland/or advanced activity requirements are variable. Note that although sources ofcontrol may be multiple, they can be divided into immediate and remote from thepoint of view of the location of the individual worker or learner. The actions ofpeople in a distributed activity may differ from one location to another due to thedifferent contexts associated with each location. At any one location at any timeboth immediate and distant authorities may control individuals’ actions.

These forms of control—remote and immediate—may or may not be influencedby contradictory motives. If there are contradictory motives, the nature of controlwill depend on the degree of contradictions between the motives of the advancedand central activities. Therefore, control of actions by authorities is a variantresiding within a continuum from weak to strong. At any one location, the indi-vidual’s actions will be subjected to two sources of control—the instructions andalignment demands of the immediate local motives on the one hand, and to themotives of the distant authority on the other. However, the most critical facet ofthis alignment dilemma is the degrees of co-presence of both authorities in relationto the location of the individual subject.

The strength of control over individuals’ immediate actions is directly related tothe relative co-presence of the distant authority. The distant authority’s co-pres-ence can, just as the contradictions, be characterised as continuum from weak tostrong. His or her strongest co-presence is demonstrated by their personal prox-imity to the actions of individuals. However, this form of co-presenting, is almostan impossible or inefficient task for distant authorities. Realistically, co-presentingcan be achieved by frequent visits to monitor individuals’ actions; however, thiswill in most cases demand more resources than are available. With modern ICTs,co-presenting can be achieved through ‘‘inscription’’ of authorities’ instructionsand control measures into computer applications.

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The scenario is inscribed into the system. The inscription includes programmes of actionfor users, and it defines roles to be played by users and the system. (…) When a pro-gramme of action is inscribed into a piece of technology, the technology becomes an actorimposing it’s inscribed programme of action on its users (Monteiro 2000, p.77).

Furthermore, modern technology advancements have introduced miniatureversions of desktop computers which portability ensures that controlling inscrip-tions can be carried from one location to another. We clearly witnessed theinscription of control measures of the project leader into PDAs with the aim ofestablishing a mediated form of co-presence from a distance. However, accordingto Daft and Lengel’s (1984, 1986) media-richness argument, Short et.al. (1976)notion of social presence, and Nørretranders’ (1998) physiological argument of therole of unconsciousness, the strongest inscriptions of an authority’s instructionscan never be equated to his or her physical co-presence. Furthermore, as argued byNgwenyama and Lee (1997), the richness of the communication is significantlydependent upon the context of interaction and of the actors evoking the sharedunderstanding of their relevance.

Inscriptions can also be weak, and this has significant implications for thecontrol of actions. Altogether, the balance of actions control is a function of thestrengths of co-presence and contradictory motives between the local and distantactivities (see Fig. 6.6).

These four categories of control characterise the possible analytical configu-rations of remote and local authorities in relation to their central and advancedmotives. However, we still need to address how the balance of control shapes theuse of mobile technology in a distributed activity. In the domain of a computer-supported distributed activity, computing actions are conducted alongside twofundamental sets of actions: First, the actions of the activity aimed at the trans-formation of the object of activity; and second, purposeful human mobility assignificant actions of a distributed activity. We must be mindful of the fact thatthese sets of actions represent a mere analytical categorisation; in reality they areintrinsically intertwined and interdependent (Fig. 7.6).

Mobile computing in Disputed Territories. A strong co-presence of a distantauthority is achieved through the inscription of strong control measures into thetechnology. An even stronger co-presence is accomplished when such inscriptionsare designed into mobile technology such as PDAs and laptop computers. Theportability of these computers ensures their mobility, but this does not necessarilyensure their manipulation on the move. When such strong inscriptions are broughtinto a strong contradictory context, the ensuing territorial dispute between localand distant instructions directly shapes the individual’s ability to use the tech-nology flexibly. In a disputed control territory, the use of mobile technologysanctioned by a distant authority, stands to be stifled by the immediate authority.Here, even if the rules of the activity binds the immediate authority to conform, theauthority, being in strong opposition to the motive of the advanced activity, maystifle the use of the technology by increasing the load of central actions or byincreasing the level of local mobility of individuals or both. This scenario appearsto be possible only in activities which actions do not necessarily require specific

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technological support for goals to be achieved. In this sense, mobile computingactions may be deemed as irrelevant or unwanted by the immediate authority. Thisauthority’s sense of aversion to the use of mobile technology actions may even becompounded when he or she perceives mobile technology actions as a means bywhich distant authorities want to wield control over individual’s immediateactions. Therefore, by increasing the load of these central actions, the con-sciousness demanded by such actions consumes the conscious resources of theindividual that would be used in the use of the technology. Here, the strongcontradictions guarantee that the use of mobile technology does not contributedirectly to the achievement of the motives of the immediate authority. Therefore,from his or her perspective, central actions can proceed towards the achievementof the objective motive at the neglect of the use of the mobile technology. In effect,the adoption of such politics of technology use can be as effective as the poorapplication or software design in stifling computing in a distributed activity.

Mobile computing in Locally Controlled Environments. Within the context ofstrong contradictions, the use of mobile technology in a locally controlled envi-ronment may be even more inflexible compared with technology use under ter-ritorial dispute. In the latter environment, the co-presence or inscribed instructionsof distant authorities are not as strong as they are in the former. Weak inscriptionsensure relatively less ‘‘structure overload’’ (Mathiassen and Sørensen 2008) in thesense that the users are less likely to experience that the technology unnecessarilyconstrains their actions. In a locally controlled environment, immediate authoritiescan usurp the advantage of the weak co-presence of the distant authority to assumecontrol of individuals’ actions, including those related to the use of mobile tech-nology. Strong contradictions will guarantee the manifestation of this scenario.Furthermore, it is easier for the immediate authority to pronounce his or heropposition to the motive of the advanced activity by pushing mobile technologyactions to the periphery of the actions of the central activity. Therefore, in thisenvironment, unless external influences such as a strong rule or a shift in the

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Fig. 7.6 Control categoriesas factors of the strength ofcontradictions and co-presence of distant authority

7.2 Organizational Control and Mobile Computing 145

motive of the object activity occurs to moderate the strong contradiction, mobiletechnology actions will remain subject to the total or near-total control ofimmediate authorities. Hence, computing will remain inflexible and peripheral.Therefore, for computing to be flexible in this environment, mobile computingactions have to be central to the achievement of the motives of the activity.Alternatively, measures such as consultation of the immediate authority in theprocess of application and software development have to be implemented toreduce the strength of contradictions between the motives of the object andadvanced activities.

Mobile computing in Remotely Controlled Environments. From the point ofview of the distant authority, this category appears to be the most ideal as far as theachievement of the motives of the distributed activity is concerned. Remotecontrol via strong inscriptions of control mechanisms is most likely to manifestitself in an environment acknowledging the need for proper engagement with theseinscriptions. In this respect, it is likely that the weak contradictions underlying thiscategory will ensure corroboration by the immediate authority of the distantauthority’s control. Thereby, allowing individuals relatively ample time to flexiblyengage with the mobile technology. Besides, local authorities will most likelyregulate the purposeful mobility of individuals and their actions to accommodatemobile technology actions. The use of mobile technology in this environmentremains susceptible to external forces of influences that may render technologyactions less flexible in the activity. The most likely force is the strengthening ofcontradictions between the central and advanced motives. Against the backgroundthat stability of motives or contradictions is not a guarantee, attitudes of immediateauthorities must be placed under close scrutiny to ensure that they are alwaysaligned with the advanced activity.

Mobile computing in an Environment of Shared Control. Computer applicationusers may welcome weak inscriptions; but most importantly, their utilisation ofthese applications necessarily have to occur in environments of shared controlbetween central and advanced motives to ensure flexible computing. This necessityprovides the assurance that immediate authorities will not undermine the efforts ofdistant authorities to control local actions of individuals. Compared with computingunder territorial dispute, there is a greater likelihood that individuals will experi-ence more flexible mobile computing in this environment because of the underlyingweaknesses in contradictions and inscriptions. The off-premises mobile foreignexchange trading exemplifies this category of mobile computing when the tradersare deemed to be their own local authorities. In view of the volatility of the trading,the remote authorities were coerced to cede some of their control to the traders andallow them to exercise discretion within some broad limits.

The analysis in this section suggests that understanding the contradictorymotives between those who wield authority in such activities is a matter of criticalnecessity for the successful implementation of technology in such domains. Theproblem of mobile computing in a distributed activity is complex and very sus-ceptible to immediate control. We witnessed, for example, the impact of interlo-cational contradictions between the object and advanced motives as a crucial

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determinant of local control and hence of flexible computing. Therefore, it isreasonable to conjecture that however sophisticated the physical and systemicdesign of technologies we deploy to mediate distributed activities, they cannot besuccessfully implemented unless the proper measures are instituted to moderateadverse control effects that result from motivational contradictions and technologyinscriptions. Control dynamics and how they determine mobile computing incontemporary distributed activities must be taken more seriously.

The implication for research is that the analyst must first identify the particularmotives behind the central, advanced and object activities in order to establish thedegrees of contradictions existing or likely to exist within these motives. Moreimportantly, how the contradictions between the motives of the authorities incharge of the object and advanced activities translate into the balance of controlbetween them have to be examined. Furthermore, this examination has to beintegrated with the strength of inscriptions in designed computer applications orrepresentation of the control measures of the distant authority. This integration willprovide an insight into which kind of environment the individual user is operating;and how the particular form of local control associated with that environment isbeing wielded to enhance or debilitate mobile computing actions.

7.3 Coordination and Mobile Computing

Recall that the transition from modernism to postmodernism engenders an orga-nizational personality which is more continuous with organization; and yet thischaracter reflects strong tensions between the personal and organizational. Thetensions are such that the organization must accommodate the satisfaction ofpersonal motives. This accommodation is almost inevitable because postmodernorganization is characterized by light and fast-moving non-human capital as wellas mobilized human capital which induce appropriation. Therefore, while theorganizational requirements for mobile computing have been analyzed in theprevious section, the following analysis now incorporates the personal approach inorder to understand the organizational-personal issue in mobile computer usability.At the outset, the issue is understood in terms of coordination because it is one ofthe most affected organizational parameters when activities are distributed.

Coordination is the management of interdependencies between activities(Malone and Crowston 1994), and it is an issue that is shaped by the form oforganizing, which in turn is shaped by task structure and the technology utilized(Perrow 1967). Existing conceptualizations of organizational task structure suggesttwo main characteristics: variability and analyzability (Perrow 1967; Van de Venand Delbecq 1974; Daft and MacIntosh 1981). Task variability refers to theamount and frequency of exceptional events, while task analyzability refers to theamount of exceptional actions and time required to deal with these. Perrow (1967)and Daft and MacIntosh (1981) match variability against analyzability to formu-late more holistic descriptions of tasks and their technological requirements. Thus,

7.2 Organizational Control and Mobile Computing 147

at one end tasks are characterized by both high variability and low analyzability(e.g. R&D work) that require non-routine processes. At the other end are taskscharacterized by low variability and high analyzability (e.g. assembly line work)requiring routine mechanisms.

Complex organizations employ various proportions of coordination processesand mechanisms to manage interdependencies between activities around tasks.However, the level of coordination analysis preoccupying organizationalresearchers at any time has largely been shaped by the co-evolution of organiza-tion and IT. IT affords efficient information processing required to manageuncertainties. Therefore, its innovation enhances coordination and induces newforms of organizing. Conversely, organization evolves to address emerging chal-lenges from its environment, thereby inducing the production of IT as more effi-cient means of coordination.

7.3.1 Individualization of Coordination

The mobile learning and foreign exchange trading cases are typical examples ofmobile work that is organized from remotely distributed locations. In both cases,concerns about how the workers would work efficiently and effectively as theymoved around induced the respective authorities to make arrangements for orga-nizational and technological support. Thus, the authorities of the mobile learningproject made arrangements for the PSPs’ travelling as well as surgical team andmobile technology support. Similarly, the authorities of the mobile trading projectmade arrangements for the bankers’ connectivity as well as mobile technologysupport. These support arrangements show that portability, mobility and connec-tivity facilities of mobile computers induce and enhance new forms of distributedwork. All these arrangements also show the central concern about how the individualworker’s interdependent relations with both their authorities and remote collabo-rators can be managed. Compared with previous settings where the groups are thecentral foci of coordination, these arrangements indicate a perspective on coordi-nation that is more individual. It is individual because the focus is on the rational-ization of the individual’s work processes and optimization of his or herperformance. In previous settings, the focus is on the rationalization of group efforts.

Individualization of coordination is also witnessed in mobile workers or con-tracted professionals whose interdependent relations with both an organization andits clients must be managed. These workers are typical targets of professionalservices automation software designed to assist them with their project and resourcemanagement, project accounting, and timesheet and expenses management (Wangand Swanson 2007). Their operations, conducted remotely and individually, havealso become the foci of coordination because technological and organizationalarrangements made by their authorities are directed at them as individuals. All theseforms of mobile work are exemplified by terms such as ‘‘mobile professionals’’

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(Kakihara and Sørensen 2004; Laurier 2001), and ‘‘e-lancing’’ (Malone andLaubacher 1998).

In short, mobile work involves the inclusion of the worker’s person in theorganization, thereby adding personal-organizational contradictions to existinginterdependence problems. As the worker’s person is increasingly being includedin mobile work, there is a great propensity for the emergence of the notoriouscontradictions between personal and organizational motives (Leont’ev 1981;Engeström 1987). The inclusive terms of the worker’s person is approaching theorganizational form called ‘total institutions’ (Goffman 1961) whereby prisonersand psychiatry patients are included in their respective organizations. Wiredu(2007), for example, argues that the use of handheld technologies for mobile workcan lead to their appropriation because of these contradictions. Therefore, inter-dependencies in distributed work are more associated with contradictions engen-dered by the individual’s inclusion in the organization. By contrast,interdependencies in collocated and distributed work are characterized by the non-inclusive coupling of the worker’s person and the organization because of theseparation of the role from the person (Kallinikos 2004). Thus, the unit of analysisof coordination in distributed work is more individual when it comes to managingmobile workers interdependent relations.

7.3.2 Duality of Flexibility

Mobile working implies the explicit inclusion of the worker’s person in theorganization as the person forms a natural unit for the organization to articulatework performance. From, in principle, being a substitutable member of a team, themobile worker enters the work arrangement as a whole person with all his geo-graphical movements. Remote and mobile performances raise the issue of both thenecessity for and legitimacy of flexible arrangements of where and when theindividual engages in what activities. Put simply, when the technological affor-dances offer the possibilities for the individual in principle to work anywhere andanytime with anyone, then in reality it becomes an organizational concern exactlywhere, when and with whom the mobile worker works.

Coordination can be realized by workers’ flexibility to combine personal andorganizational motives as the case of the foreign exchange trading illustrates. Afternormal trading hours the worker is trading entirely on his own accord with all theconsequences this has for the necessary careful negotiation of personal and pro-fessional concerns. Coordination can be realised by abolition of routines thatconstrain workers to actions at specific times and places. This was witnessed in thePSPs’ inclination to record their activities and the allowance given to mobiletraders to submit deal reports the following day. This eased the contradictionsbetween their personal and organizational motives.

Through flexible routines, workers satisfy their needs pertaining to both theirpersonal and organizational roles. They can be afforded the freedom to work

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anytime, anywhere, which of course imply complex individual translations ofsometime, somewhere because he will engage in continual assessments of theappropriate time for appropriate tasks and coordination. As in the case of mobileforeign exchange trading, this challenges home/work boundaries with workpenetrating homelife, but for some workers it simultaneously affords the use ofnormal working hours for personal needs. This flexibility to arrange working lifearound family life was articulated by several London Black Cab taxi drivers(Elaluf-Calderwood and Sørensen 2008). Thus, through flexible routines, mobileworkers can freely span personal–organizational boundaries without compromis-ing organizational requirements. Boundary spanning by key workers of an orga-nization strongly correlates with flexible structuring (Leifer and Huber 1977;Williams 2002) that epitomizes mobile work.

Interestingly, coordination through flexible structuring in distributed work canalso be the subject of extensive automation and remote stipulation of mobileactivities. This is argued by Kietzman (2008) in the case of a security guard beingdirected step-by-step on his route by central SMS messages sent to his mobilephone each time he swipes one of the Radio Frequency Identity (RFID) tagsembedded in the walls along the route. However, whether the coordination ofdistributed activities is the subject of highly controlled or highly flexiblearrangements, it directly involves the centrality of the individuals as the units ofconcern.

7.4 Chapter Summary

The PSP mobile learning project was both an individual and a collective activitysystem at the same time. The individual PSP performed his central activity whilethe project authorities performed its culturally more advanced activity. Becausethe objects of these two activities are different, they engendered contradictions inthe motives driving them. The contradictions (described as inner) were experi-enced by the PSPs. The surgical team contained the learning object of the PSP, andso it performed an object activity. Because its object (the patient) was differentfrom the object of the advanced activity (the PSP), the difference also engenderedcontradictory motives.

These contradictions combined to result in metacontradictions which is aquality of postmodern organization, and of the organizational personality. How-ever, the PSP was not understood by the project authorities as an organizationalpersonality. Therefore, there was an imbalance in the personality of the PSPwhereby he experienced metacontradictions which is a postmodern quality, andyet was deemed by the project authorities as a modern personality. The imbalancealso combined with problematic learning conditions in the PSP’s hospitals toundermine flexible mobile computing.

The organizational dimension is isolated for analysis of the relationshipbetween control dynamics and mobile computing. Following a brief overview of

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control theory and technology use, the analysis leads to the formulation of fourcontrol categories. These categories are factors of the strength of contradictionsbetween advanced and object activities on the one hand, and the strength of controlof the distant authority. The categories are used to explain the possible mobilecomputing scenarios which included that of the PSPs.

The relationship between coordination and mobile computing in the mobilelearning and mobile foreign exchange trading cases is analyzed. The analysisshows that the personal dimension is necessary for successful coordination withmobile computers. Therefore, explanations of both the individualization of coor-dination and duality of flexibility affirm that the inclusion of the worker’s person inthe organization is necessary for flexible mobile computer usability. Individuali-zation of coordination refers to the focus on the individual person in the man-agement of interdependent relations in distributed work. Duality of flexibilityrefers to the dependence on successful coordination on workers’ combination oftheir personal and organizational motives, so that spatial and temporal routines andconstraints are minimized.

7.4 Chapter Summary 151

Chapter 8The Organizational PersonalityPerspective on Mobile Computer Usability

The empirical cases in Chaps. 5 and 6 plus their organizational analysis in Chap. 7suggest that the personal dimension cannot be overlooked when flexible mobilecomputing is desired. In the analysis of organizational control and coordination,we realized that these traditional mechanisms of bureaucracy were seriouslychallenged forces of ICT innovation, personality and postmodern organization.The disregard of these forces undermined mobile computer usability in the peri-operative learning case. However, when they were given some regard in the for-eign exchange trading case, usability was enhanced.

A man’s ontogenesis and phylogenesis speaks of his development which in turnhas a lot to do with learning to satisfy his needs. According to the theory ofActivity, these needs and their corresponding motives are given in social cir-cumstances. According to the ideas drawn from the Activity structure in Chap. 3,learning and skills development occur when conscious actions collapse into sub-conscious operations. By this, the individual increases his mental capacity not onlyto perform more operations, but also to undertake more actions. That is to say,learning occurs in the individual’s broadening range of actions.

According to the structure, as we move from the level of activity/motive to thelevels of action/goal and operation/condition, we encounter the subjectivization orpersonalization of goals. This reflects personal sense-making of goal-orientedactions which usually correspond to the personal motives of the individual. Forthis reason, the same action he is performing may be serving both the personalmotive and the societal or organizational motive. Inclusive in this personalizationis the appropriation of conversion tools by the individual to serve his personalmotives. For instance, in the PSP case, we are going to witness tendencies by theparticipants to appropriate their mobile computers for personal purposes. Indeed, itwas the personal satisfaction derived from the computers that sustained their usesfor long time in the project.

In this chapter, the personal dimension exemplified in personalization andappropriation, which was quite kept in the background in the previous chapter, isnow brought into the foreground alongside the organizational dimension. Thisforegrounding is necessary for an explanation that will show that the personal

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perspective is an integral aspect of the understanding of mobile computer usability.These explanations complement the organizational perspective analyzed in theprevious chapter.

8.1 The Need for Unity and Continuity in Appropriationand Perception of Mobile Computers

It is interesting to note that alongside the PSP’s perception that the PDA was afailure, they also reported that the PDA was becoming an excellent personalorganizer which many of them deemed as ‘‘wonderful’’ tool which they could not‘‘live without.’’ Living without was expressed in varieties of personal uses. Somehad experienced success with the calendar, some with the address book, some withthe task scheduler and some with Nevo�, the TV remote controlling application onthe PDA, and some went to the extent of downloading applications such as pocketdictionaries and e-reader. The learners were ambivalent towards the PDAs. Thus,although the case clearly shows that mobile computing was inflexible and a failurein the sanctioned learning activity, it is noteworthy that the learners’ final evalu-ation and perception of the PDA as a ‘‘wonderful’’ tool was indicative of itssatisfaction of their personal motives.

Against this backdrop, the following questions are intriguing for analysis ofhow their perceptions shaped appropriation of their mobile computers: What arethe dynamic motivations and conditions which engender the user’s success-and-failure perception of a mobile computer? What are the implications of this per-ception for user appropriation of mobile computers? I will unveil the dynamicsunderlying the success-and-failure perception of the artifact through an analysis ofthe appropriation of the artifact based on the conditions of its use, on its use toserve organizational or personal motives, and on its design properties.

8.1.1 Motives and Mobile Conditions

The training project was extremely volatile and ambitious, and its implementationwould undoubtedly be characterized by crucial challenges in terms of mobilecomputing. It was work-integrated, activity-based, conducted in distributed loca-tions, function under the direct control of surgical staff and hence out of immediatecontrol of the project team, highly locally mobile, confrontational, and unstable.Since it was a mobile and distance learning exercise, it was imperative for theproject team to institute measures to control—to scaffold, monitor and coordi-nate—the trainees’ distant actions. Upon this, the PDA was deemed an efficientcontrolling and stabilizing tool through the trainees’ use for actions logging andreflections writing.

154 8 The Organizational Personality Perspective on Mobile Computer Usability

Mobile computing was therefore envisioned to serve the motive of the sanc-tioned learning activity (organizational motive); and it was to serve as a tool. Note,however, that as a tool, it would confirm that conditions of the mobile activity haveensured its status as a tool; and its use would represent a subconscious operation.As a tool, it would figuratively represent a transparent screen through which thesubject could see the learning object and transform it. In adverse conditions,however, the technology would be an object to compete with the learning activityfor the learner’s consciousness or attention. As an object, it would represent anopaque device standing in-between the subject and object: its use would representanother action with a potential to displace the learning activity; and, undoubtedly,the learner would maintain the learning activity at the expense of using the object,that is, of the mobile computing ‘‘activity’’.

This means that the trajectory of the PDA’s use (between success-and-failure)was situated within the learners’ mutating perception of the technology as a tool orobject depending on the conditions of the activity it was mediating and the motivebehind the activity. Evidence from the project suggests that, in terms of thelearning activity, the device represented an object, an opaque piece of equipment,which interfered with the learners’ clinical routines and contravened its initial tool-functionality. Extreme local mobility of the trainees and their training thatembodied safety–critical clinical actions were one set of conditions that partlymade the PDA appear as an object which manipulation the trainee had to forgo dueto the pre-eminence of the motive behind the learning activity.

Thus, in terms of the motive driving the learning activity, the PDA was deemedas a failure because it was more an object than a tool; and its use (mobile com-puting) would have constituted another competing activity. As the empiricalexample shows, the technology was only deemed as a success (as a tool) by thetrainee when he or she was using it to serve a personal motive. This was becausethe achievement of a personal motive—such as personal organization with thecalendar and task scheduler—occurred in more favorable conditions. Such con-ditions entailed less human mobility and were more conducive for mobile com-puting. As I have indicated, however, the use conditions and motives were not theonly factors that determined success-and-failure of the artifact; its design prop-erties, both standard and custom, inscribed by both manufacturer and the projectmanager were also determinants.

8.1.2 Flexibility of Mobile computing

The failure of the technology under the custom applications and its success underthe standard applications suggest that the learning conditions were as accountablefor anti-programming and de-scripting as the design properties. Indeed, thetrainees’ interpretation of the applications built into the PDA, leading to a mix ofsuccess-and-failure perceptions, was premised on the flexibility of mobile

8.1 The Need for Unity and Continuity in Appropriation and Perception 155

computing. Flexible computing is a function of the motive being supported, of thecondition underlying use, and of the technology’s design properties.

High flexible computing in terms of any activity context reflects a scenario inwhich technology use is enabled by ideal design properties and conditions tosupport the motive driving the activity. In this scenario, the technology will beperceived as a tool. Conversely, in a low flexible computing scenario, the tech-nology will be perceived as an object. Thus in low flexible computing, the PDAwas perceived as an object by the trainees. As an object, if it ever satisfied a need,the trainee’s motive to transform it (the need) was implicit in his or her appro-priating the PDA into a tool; and its tool perception could only manifest in lessmobile, non-organizational and less imposing conditions—after work, on the wayhome, and at home, as they reported.

When technology use is not the motive itself but a support for the motive, theuser will desire and strive continuously for high flexible computing becausetechnology-as-tool is easier to use than technology-as-object. Over the course ofthe learning project, this striving for high flexible computing on the part of thelearners was obvious; and circumstances of low flexible computing, symbolisingfailure, were being substituted for higher flexible computing circumstances.

The perception of the project-use of the PDA as a failure and its personal-use asa success is attributable to two views which are being critiqued by this book. Onthe one hand is the view that the personal and organizational applications aredisunited, on the one hand; on the other is the view that the personal and orga-nizational contexts of use are discrete. It is obvious that both the project team andtrainees were influenced by these views within such a postmodern organization.These views, viewed with the context of postmodern organization, represent animbalance especially if the co-evolution of organization, technology and person-ality are taken into account. They represent a state of disequilibrium between thereality of mobile computing and context.

However, taking a united view of the personal and organizational applications,and a continuous view of the personal and organizational contexts of use, thetrainees’ appropriation of the mobile computer can be better understood. Theseviews underpin the organizational personality perspective being espoused in thisbook, and they require us to look at the personal and organizational applicationsand use contexts within a continuum in the next two sub-sections.

8.1.3 Design Properties and Inscriptions

Success-and-failure was also rooted in and embodied by the strength of inscrip-tions (Akrich 1992) of the project manager. The framework for learning actionsand reflections that underpinned the design of the three different applications wasgrounded on pedagogical principles to surrogate the project manager’s monitoringand instructions from the training center in London. Given the motive of surgicalcare skills acquisition cum the assumption of junior doctors’ functions cum the

156 8 The Organizational Personality Perspective on Mobile Computer Usability

satisfaction of accreditation and acceptability requirements, the pedagogical rulesunderlying the clinical actions and reflections framework were instructive andobjectivist-oriented. Hence, the custom applications designed into the PDAs werecharacterized by strong inscriptions of the project manager’s desired patterns ofexpected use by the learners. These attributes of instructive learning—such ascontrol, monitoring, scaffolding, and facilitation—were all inscribed into the PDAsbased on implicit and explicit assumptions about the technology’s capacities forproviding mobile computing services.

The reality was that instead of logging clinical actions after the completion ofevery act, the learners, on realizing the impracticality of such computing actions,used paper-based logging sheets and later transferred these into the PDA whenthey returned home. Instead of writing reflections-on-action at the end of everyday’s learning, most of them wrote them weekly; worse still, they wrote on paperbefore typing into their PDAs. Worst of all, many of them even found it moreconvenient to perform these computing actions on their desktop computers andsubsequently synchronize them into the PDA. Conceptually, we can say that thetrainees followed an anti-program (Latour 1991). These counter-actions wereperformed to alleviate the imposition and intrusion associated with the customapplications; that is, they de-scripted (Akrich 1992) the inscribed remote-con-trolling measures of the project manager—not rebelliously, but in their instinctiveorientation towards flexible computing (Fig. 8.1).

The PDA was appropriated by being perceived and used as a tool; but a tool forserving personal motives of the trainees contrary to the originally purported toolfor the training activity. In short, mobile computing services could not be sourcedfrom the PDA to serve the learning motive as intended. In reality, the learnersfollowed an anti-programme, they de-scripted the strong inscriptions, and theydrifted from the control structures designed into the technology. Anti-program-ming, de-scripting and drifting are concepts that denote scenarios in which actualtechnology use patterns deviate from the designer’s intended use patterns. By thereasoning in this analysis, the process of appropriation of the mobile computer bythe trainees can be understood as their means to equilibrate the reality and theirpersonal circumstances.

Personal-Use

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Low flexible computingCustom applicationsStrong inscriptionsObject (opaque)High controlFailure

High flexible computingGeneric applications

Weak inscriptionsTool (transparent)

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Fig. 8.1 Appropriation of the PDA

8.1 The Need for Unity and Continuity in Appropriation and Perception 157

8.1.4 The Role of Representation and Perception

The ideal PDA, at the beginning of the project, was a simple extrapolation of theideal functionalities of desktop computers. The designer’s conception and theuser’s expectation of the functionalities of the PDA reflect a portable prototype ofa desktop computer inputted with miniature versions of desktop computer appli-cations. In the project, these potential functionalities or abstract representationwere reflexive of such historical modes of action as control, monitoring, coordi-nation, personal organization, learning support, mobile computing, and supportfrom portable artifacts. However, evidence from technology failures suggests thatsuch abstract representation or ideals undergo filtration during their use in certaincontexts (e.g. Ciborra 2000). Filtration is the process of perception in which someor all imagined functionalities of an artifact manifest as functional representation.Filtration results in the actual functional representation seen from the user’s ownperspective in actual praxes. But what were the filters?

The sociological or organizational approach to this question will lead to anidentification of the external factors that filtered the PSPs computational actions.These factors were their goal-oriented clinical actions that further dictated thevarious modes of the PSPs’ mobility—micro, local and remote (Luff and Heath1998). The clinical actions of examining patients and taking their histories, bloodtaking, putting up intravenous infusions, and venipuncturing all dictated the PSP’sbodily movements that exemplify micro-mobility. Then the ward-to-ward move-ments as part of the surgical team’s duties in conformity with the requirements ofthe training, as well as other administrative tasks dictated their local mobility orwandering around their hospitals. Lastly, their movements between London andtheir hospitals depicted their traveling or remote mobility. Since all these modes oftheir mobility were inherently conscious and purposeful, they translated intoconditioning social variables of the concomitant mobile computing actions, butthese actions also required the PSPs’ consciousness and perception.

The sociological answer to the question, therefore, is that their work andmovements were the filters that transformed the designer’s abstract representationinto the user’s functional representation. However, this answer does not explainthe PSPs’ personal acceptance of the technology, nor does it give any indication asto whether or not the technology would have been accepted officially if it had notcut across the surgical workflow (Xiao et al. 2008). The social-psychologicalapproach being proposed in this book widens the scope of filters to include theinternal factor—perception. This factor explains personalization-based user needsbetter. It further indicates the propensity for official acceptance or rejection ofcomputers even if they are not cutting across the workflow. But how did thesefactors filter the abstract representation into functional representation?

By the sociological approach, the clinical setting was dominated by their tasksas well as mobility that did not enable the PSPs to perform mobile computingactions. Their micro-mobility—bodily movements during times with patients—would not allow them to log actions into the PDA. In their wandering around

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hospital yards as part of surgical teams, they would not dare pull out their PDAsfrom their pockets to log in their actions because that was not considered by theirimmediate surgical authorities to be part of the ‘true’ clinical actions. It was onlyduring their traveling or remote mobility that they were able to perform computingactions with the PDA. However, remote mobility was not constitutive of theclinical actions that the project manager was motivated to control, monitor, andscaffold. Therefore, by the sociological approach, there were no functional rep-resentation of the technology because none of the abstract representation werefiltered. The PDA was just ‘‘unusable in the clinical setting.’’ It is true that thetechnology could be used for personal organization and learning support, but theywere not perceived as functional representation for the project otherwise theywould have sustained the official use of the technology (Fig. 8.2).

However, by the social-psychological approach, the abstract representation aresubjected to the users’ personal perceptions of the technology. By the PSPs’personal perceptions acting as filters, they looked for uses of the technology thatwould satisfy their personal needs and then embrace them. As they found personalorganization and learning support to be satisfying, they were motivated to per-sonally accept the technology in spite of its official abandonment. The PDA wasrejected officially but accepted personally, signifying a partial rejection oracceptance by the users. This means that functional representation, which mediatethe user’s perception of a mobile computer, are not merely organizational orsociological, but also personal or psychological. The usability of a mobile com-puter is, therefore, understood in terms of this duality—as a personal and orga-nizational technology at the same time. By this understanding, the filtration ofabstract representation can be explained in terms of the users means of existence,as in their personal fulfillment and self-mastery to be derived from mobilecomputers.

Personal fulfillment reflects historical modes of human action witnessed in ourphylogenesis and ontogenesis. Historically, humans have desired personal orga-nization and learning support, and these were represented adequately in the PDAs.The personal dimension of functional representation should be understood asintegral in judging the usability of mobile computers. Together, the representation-,work- and movement-based explanations provide a more holistic understanding ofmobile usability. Without the representation-based explanation, the personal

Micro-mobilityLocal mobility

Mobile clinical actionsPerception

ControlMonitoringCoordinationScaffoldingPersonal organizationLearning supportMobile computing

Personal organizationLearning support

Abstract Representations Functional RepresentationsFiltration

Fig. 8.2 Filtration of the PDA’s abstract representation

8.1 The Need for Unity and Continuity in Appropriation and Perception 159

dimensions of functional representation will not be well understood, and usabilityjudgments will preclude the user’s perceptions of personal fulfillment and self-mastery.

This understanding therefore underlines historical perception as an epistemol-ogy of mobile computer usability. Usability is being seen in this historical para-digm not as a constant attribute of artifacts but as a variable whose variability istied in with the variations of functional representation that mediate user percep-tions within mobile computing actions. The continuous variation of perception isseen in its shaping by functional representation as demanded by the user’s work,movement and self-fulfillment. Herein also lays the continuous appropriation ofartifacts as their representation are conditioned by work, by particular modes ofhuman mobility, and by self mastery and fulfillment.

Since ‘‘the specific feature of perception as a mode of action is that it ismediated by representation’’ (Wartofsky 1979b), the PSP’s perception of the PDA,based on an analysis of its representation and their filtration, is explained. To beginwith, the designer’s praxis is ‘‘off-line’’ because he or she relies on imagination toproduce tertiary artifacts that communicate abstract representation. Such is thecharacterization of the PDA because its production relies largely on models andsimulations of actual social–historical praxes.

The adoption of the artifact through exchange signifies that the designer’spromise and the user’s expectation have coincided. But, at the point of exchange,the artifact is only promissory in its utility to the consumer (see Fig. 8.3). In thisstate, the user perceives it as a primary artifact that is mediated by structuralrepresentation. These representation are the properties that are externalized by thedesigner as real objects and internalized (perceived) as sense-data by the user.Examples of these sense-data are the size of the PDA (through visual and tactilesenses), and graphical user interface items (through visual and aural senses).

Designer(Imaginative Praxes)

User(Actual Praxes)

Abstract Representations

Functional Representations

Primary Artefact (Mobile Computer)

Structural representations

Tertiary Artefact

Secondary Artefact

Filtration

PERCEIVER REPRESENTATIONS PERCEPTION

Real/Dynamic

USABILITY

Imaginary

Appropriation

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Fig. 8.3 Representation, perception, and usability

160 8 The Organizational Personality Perspective on Mobile Computer Usability

From this exchange point, there is a separation in the modes of representation ofthe artifact. From the user’s perspective, the mode of representation can differ fromthe abstraction that characterizes the tertiary artifact of the designer’s viewpoint.The structural representation of the artifact before its deployment are mere imagesthat are internalized as sense-data through, mostly, vision, sound and feel. Thisform of imaging is genetic in the sense that it conforms with essentialist theories ofperception where it is understood to rely on biological and physiological sensory-motor apparatuses. Leont’ev (1978) labels the same idea as ‘‘image-conscious-ness’’ that refers to direct sensory-imaging of static or passive objects, in contrastwith ‘‘activity-consciousness’’ that refers to one’s interaction with those images.

Activity-consciousness relies on the goal-oriented interactions between theperceiver and the artifact. It translates into the reflexive mode of representation thatis functional and reflects historical human praxes. In this mode, the erstwhileimages are more than mere structures; they are functional. They represent his-torical human praxes such as control, monitoring, coordination, learning support,personal organization and scaffolding which were expected in the PSP case.Perception therefore becomes historical rather than biological. Therefore, theuser’s perception of the PDA must be understood from this historical and hencefunctional perspective.

Besides, since the notion of functional representation implicitly connotes anactive interaction (activity-consciousness) between the user and the mobile com-puter, mobile usability must be understood additionally as non-static and non-passive, but as active and dynamic.

The analyses of perception and appropriation and how they lead to mobilecomputer usability are illustrated in Fig. 8.3. The illustration shows clear gapsbetween imagination and reality; and the analyses have shown that the gaps areattributable to the neglect or exclusion of personal needs satisfaction in theorganization of the project. The strength of the requirement for personal needssatisfaction is shown in how mobile computer usability manifested only when theusers obtained satisfaction of their personal needs from them. We have alreadydiscussed the fact that mobility and mobile ICT innovation incorporate a histo-ricity whereby they are constituted and manifested by personal and organizationalneeds satisfaction.

Against this backdrop, the perioperative mobile learning case shows an over-sight of the personal dimension of this historicity. Only the organizationaldimension was seen, leading to the design of the project as a mutilated postmodernorganization right from the beginning. The mutilation is exemplified in the projectauthorities’ focus only on pragmatism and ubiquity dimensions of mobile com-puting at the neglect of the representation dimension. The neglect follows logicallyfrom the neglect of historical perception as a critical action (in tandem with workand movement) pertaining to the users’ personal needs satisfaction.

8.1 The Need for Unity and Continuity in Appropriation and Perception 161

8.2 Conceptualizing Mobile Computer Usability

The organizational personality perspective both explains and predicts mobilecomputer usability. The perspective’s explanatory value lies in how it conceptu-alizes mobile computer usability by relating its organizational, technological andpersonal dimensions in terms of their historicity. These relations are exemplified inthe analyses of the empirical cases in this and the previous chapter. The analyseshave reflected how the historicity of mobility and mobile ICTs reflects in mobilelearning, trading and computing. These mobile activities have also shown how theco-evolution of organization, technology and personality demand the inclusion ofthe satisfaction of personal needs to achieve high levels of mobile computerusability. The demand is acute in the light of the unity of personal and organi-zational applications in the participants’ devices; as well as the continuity of thepersonal and organizational use contexts.

Against this backdrop, the central theme of this book—mobile computerusability is understood in terms of the correlation between unity of personal andorganizational applications, and continuity of personal and organizational usecontexts—is illustrated by Fig. 8.4. Named as the organizational personality per-spective, it constitutes an alternative model which explains the increasing seam-lessness and mutual shaping between the user’s personal and organisationalcontexts of mobile work and computing. The personal dimension deals more withthe psychological circumstances of the individual, while the organizationaldimension deals with the sociological circumstances. Therefore, the organizationalpersonality perspective on mobile computer usability espouses a social-psycho-logical explanation that emphasises this correlation.

According to this perspective, optimal usability is achieved when there isharmony or alignment between the following main parameters: unity of mobileICT applications, continuity of mobile use context, postmodern organization,

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PERSONAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL USE CONTEXTS

Mobile Computer Usability

DesktopComputer Usability

Fig. 8.4 Unity and continuity in mobile computer usability

162 8 The Organizational Personality Perspective on Mobile Computer Usability

postmodern personality, and distributed work all framed in their historicity. Theiralignment is depicted in the top–right area of Fig. 8.4. The contrasting scenariothat explains desktop computer usability is depicted in the bottom-left area of thefigure. In this scenario, optimal usability is achieved through alignment of thefollowing contrasting parameters: disunity of desktop ICT applications, disconti-nuity of stable use context, modern organization, modern personality, and collo-cated work. The top–left and bottom–right areas of the figure representmisalignment or weak correlation between the parameters in each scenario.

This alternative perspective is argued further with discussions of how its con-structs of appropriation and perception relate with previous perspectives. Thus, thefollowing section presents arguments from user appropriation that show the dis-tinctiveness of the construct of appropriation as compared with similar ones whichhave been espoused in the literature. Likewise, the construct of perception is alsodiscussed to show its distinctiveness after the following section.

8.2.1 Arguments from User Appropriation

The main reason why organizations deploy mobile computers to support mobileand distributed activities is to facilitate information management on-the-move.This means that optimization of a deployed mobile computer lies in its use inmobile activities at specific times and places (Cousins and Robey 2005b) and forparticular purposes. Because optimization is an intrinsic aspect of the achievementof the motive driving the mobile activity, the conditions underlying use will shapethe optimization. Thus, conditions such as modes of mobility [micro or local orremote (Luff and Heath 1998)] and the nature of mobile work [e.g. Policing(Sørensen and Pica 2005)] do not only shape mobile computing; they can, at thesame time, undermine the process. This is why the use of a mobile computer inconditions outside those of the mobile activity nullifies its usefulness by virtue ofthe motives driving that activity. Therefore, the use condition or context is adeterminant of appropriation because of requirements for use at specific times andplaces and for particular purposes.

The interesting aspect about appropriation is that the same mobile computerthat is deemed appropriable in non-organizational conditions (personal context)may be deemed useless by the same user in organizational conditions; and viceversa. It is also noteworthy that the diversity of executable applications in thetechnology suggests that some will be more supportive of personal motives andothers more supportive of organizational motives. This means that mobile tech-nology design properties also determine appropriation. In sum, it can be said thatthe (absolute) appropriation of a portable technology lies in the user’s drift from ascenario of adverse conditions and suboptimal technology properties in an orga-nizational context to a scenario of favorable conditions and optimal technology ina personal context. This drift, at the same time, makes the technology change fromnon-appropriable in terms of the organizational motive to appropriable in terms of

8.2 Conceptualizing Mobile Computer Usability 163

the personal motive. The opposite argument (from personal to organizationalcontext) is true. It is true because, although the notion of appropriation signifiesmaking something one’s own, appropriating a portable technology to supportorganizational motives can manifest when the user’s personal motive coincideswith the organizational motive, conditions and design properties permitting.

The notion of absolute appropriation subsumes a zero-appropriation which isthe ideal scenario in which the portable computing is appropriable in both personaland organizational contexts. In this scenario, arrangements are such that applica-tions, conditions and motives support both personal and organizational motivesfully. In this scenario, there would be no drift from one state of appropriation toanother, no co-existing success-and-failure perceptions, and mobile computingwill be highly flexible in both personal and organizational contexts. This impliesthat organizations that adopt and deploy mobile computers to support mobileactivities must strive towards this ideal to achieve absolute user acceptance ofthose technologies.

These discussions that evince the crucial role of motives and conditions inunderstanding mobile computer usability underline the importance of the activityperspective. Appropriation of mobile computers and mobile computing flexibility,which are essential constructs of the activity perspective, resonate with the mostprominent models of technology use—social construction of technology (Bijkeret al. 1987; Bijker 2001), and with the structurational model of technology use(Orlikowski 2000; DeSanctis and Poole 1994). This resonance lies in the idea thatall of them talk about use of technology that deviates from inscribed structures dueto factors within the context of use. At the same time, appropriation, which rep-resents a more elaborate empirical analysis of the processes in individual usage ofmobile computers, differs from existing models because in such models, theexegesis of use is confined to objective (or organizationally-sanctioned) settings;and the implications of differences between personal and organizational motivesare overlooked. Such confinement and oversight leave unexplained the impact ofpersonal contexts on user acceptance of technology.

My rendition of the appropriation of portable technology does not precludesocial construction of technology. In other words, portable technology can also besocially constructed. In fact, an essential aspect of appropriation is that it can be anantecedent or consequence of social construction. As a consequence, it wouldrepresent a deviation from an erstwhile social construction by different people indifferent contexts, reflecting an ideal (Ilyenkov 1977). Ideals engender beliefs andsuch beliefs about the promise of portable technologies are common amongorganizations which activities are mobile. But when such technology is deployedin a mobile activity and the mobile user’s judgment of its functional essencehappens to be anything apart from the ideal, appropriation would result. On thecontrary (as an antecedent), since appropriation is a conceptualization based on anindividual’s judgment of a mobile computer’s functional essence (according to themotive it is serving), it is possible for the judgments of several individuals whoform a group to coincide or for judgments of a majority of them to coincide. Ifthese individuals interact to communicate their judgments, their individual

164 8 The Organizational Personality Perspective on Mobile Computer Usability

judgements can be transformed into a social construction (Berger and Luckmann1967; Searle 1995).

I am arguing, however, that appropriation as a concept is individual-user-based,and that the concept is most applicable to mobile individuals’ use of portablecomputers in mobile activities. We are talking about the same portable technologybeing used by the same user, but which can engender contrasting perceptions; andthe question is, how and why are these perceptions engendered? Social con-structionism tells us that, surely, technology will be perceived differently from itspreconception. However, it does not tell us, first, about how and why portabletechnology will be perceived differently from its preconception; second, about howand why individual users do this; and, third, in which contexts such different usepatterns will even engender these perceptions. Appropriation, as I have explained,overcomes these limitations.

In the case of the structurational model of technology, constructs such asembedded structures (DeSanctis and Poole 1994), enacted structures, intentionsand situated use (Orlikowski 2000, p. 407) reflect, respectively, design properties,appropriation, motives, and conditions in my conceptualization. The model hasbeen very useful in improving our understanding of ongoing changes in ICTs andtheir uses. However, while it talks about the role of intentions and conditions inshaping technology judgments, it does not differentiate between personal andorganizational motives, nor does it explain the implications of such differences ontechnology use. Besides, its explanations of different conditions largely border ontechnological and organizational dimensions, rendering them insufficient foranalyzing mobile computer usability conditions that lie outside the organizationalspace.

This alternative conceptualization also resonates with Sørensen and Pica’s(2005) own in the context of police work. They argue that the mobility of policework is constituted by a cyclical interplay between virtual work (mobile com-puting) and physical work (actual policing without mobile computing); and thisinterplay generates police workers’ ‘‘rhythms of interaction’’ with their mobilecomputers. Thus, mobile computer usability is a reflection of situational aspectsand the institutional context of work. Likewise, this conceptualization relates withSarker and Wells’ (2003) discussion of the factors that determine mobile computerusability and adoption in mobile commerce. Among a host of factors, they also talkabout modalities of mobility and socio-economic context as determinants ofadoption and use. However, both of these explanations differ from my perspectivein the sense that they preclude use in personal situations, and how personalizationaffects the mobile worker’s perception of the mobile computer. That is to say, theirconceptualizations, just like others’ of generic ICT usability, are centered exclu-sively on objective or organizational circumstances of mobility.

The research by Sheepers and associates (2006) on how personal contextsinfluence user satisfaction with mobile computing seems to overcome the pre-clusion of personal contexts that characterize Sørensen and Pica’s and Sarker andWells’ works, thus aligning closest with my own in this book. My conceptuali-zation is in harmony with Scheepers and associates (2006, p. 266) in terms of their

8.2 Conceptualizing Mobile Computer Usability 165

argument that ‘‘specific consideration should be given to all the relevant individualuse contexts that are pertinent to mobile technology. This is because the physicalmobility of the technology and the new contexts of individual use, by way ofmobility, demand a more dynamic conceptualization.’’ However, we differ in thesense that Scheepers and his associates did not elaborate theoretically (as myconceptualization in this book does) on how and why individual use contexts shapeuser satisfaction. My conceptualization details the collective roles of motiveswhich mobile computing serves, of dynamic use conditions such as postmodern-ism, and of design properties which shape user acceptance and satisfaction.

The appropriation of mobile computers is, essentially, an epistemology ofindividual user behavior (mobile computing) anytime anywhere (Kleinrock 1996).The conceptualization resonates with Weick’s (1979) insistence that our theorizingof behavior must transcend ‘‘organizational’’ settings to include behavior outsidesuch settings because ‘‘sensitivities of the worker inside are continuous withsensitivities of the worker outside’’ (p. 31). Expressing his uneasiness about thephrase ‘‘organizational behavior,’’ he points out that ‘‘behavior is behavior;’’ andthus,

rather than searching for unique behaviors that occur within an organization and thenbuilding a theory about this uniqueness, it seems more useful to build theories about theparticular ways that enduring individual dispositions are expressed in an organizationalsetting, and to build theories about the effects of this expression (p. 32, emphasis inoriginal).

Weick’s point is mostly true in the theorization of mobile computing in mobileactivities because users’ mobile computing in organizational contexts is veryintertwined and continuous with the same behavior outside organizational con-texts. My conceptualization of how mobile computer users’ dispositions in per-sonal and organizational contexts affect their satisfaction with the technologyconfirms his point.

8.2.2 Arguments from Perception

The application of historical perception to buttress the organizational perspectivedraws attention to two interrelated issues that should change extant understandingof the mobile computer usability. They both affirm the importance of under-standing mobile computing in social-psychological terms by extending extantsociological explanations.

Firstly, the historical epistemology of perception urges us to reconsider thetotality of actions that are enacted in mobile computing. The analysis of the PSPcase shows clearly that perception as an action is enacted by users alongsidemovement and work. Enactments of movement and work, in tandem, constitute theframework used in existing explanations of mobile computing. Thus, existingdeliberations based on mobility lead merely to estimations of fitness between

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location and technology (Wiberg and Ljungberg 2001), between time and tech-nology (Urry 2002; Wiberg 2001) and/or between movement and technology(Kristoffersen and Ljungberg 2000). Likewise, deliberations based on work leadmainly to estimations of task-technology fitness (Cousins and Robey 2005a;Sørensen and Pica 2005). But, the idea of perception-as-action enacted in mobilecomputing and analyzed in this book suggests the inclusion of a history-technol-ogy fit in evaluating usability. Evaluating by history-technology fitness meansasking the question, ‘do its representation reflect historical modes of action whichalign with the user’s and/or organization’s motives? Thus, the degree of reflectionof organizational motives can be compared with explanations derived from anal-ysis of task-technology fitness , while the degree of reflection of the user’s personalneeds is a reliable indicator of the degree of personalization and self satisfaction.

Secondly, perception-as-action as a distinctive contribution of the historicalepistemology of perception enjoins us to redefine the usability of mobile com-puters. This redefinition is necessary in view of the principle of representationwhich this book is proposing. Existing definitions of usability are hinged on thetwo principles of pragmatism and ubiquity, in respect of task accomplishment andcomputing on-the-move. The pragmatic principle is derived from a here-and-nowusefulness of mobile computers for supporting an envisioned task. Pragmatism, asin the PSP case, can also be understood from how a non-use or abandonment of amobile computer augments or mediates task accomplishment. Connected to this isthe ubiquity principle of usability. This is derived from the user’s ability to use amobile computer to overcome space and time contextual barriers; that is, anytimeanywhere (Kleinrock 1996). This research, however, shows that the principles ofpragmatism and ubiquity are limited because of the oversight of the perceptualview of usability. The perceptual view spells a principle of representation whichhas been used to analyze personal usability of the PDA. Significant aspects offunctional representation are how historical actions that satisfy personal user needsare reflected in it. These personality-based signs which a mobile computer’sproperties signify or represent are the means by which the user masters himselfbecause they are internally oriented (Vygotsky 1978).

The greater the number of self-mastering signs signified or represented inmobile computers, the more functional it will be deemed by the user. The his-torical epistemology of perception therefore espouses representation as a principlealongside pragmatism and ubiquity to make explanations of mobile usability moreholistic (see Table 8.1).

The principle of representation is as important as its interrelations with theprinciples of pragmatism and ubiquity. The analysis, for instance, shows thatubiquity has an inverse relationship with pragmatism, as in the PSPs’ inability tocompute on-the-move in their hospitals due to the urgency and demands of theirclinical actions. This relationship is corroborated by the findings of Barnard andcolleagues (2005), Sørensen and Pica (2005) and Cousins and Robey (2005a). Theanalysis also shows that functional representation is inversely related to pragma-tism and to ubiquity. The inverse relationship is witnessed in how the demands ofclinical actions (pragmatism) and of local movements within hospital wards

8.2 Conceptualizing Mobile Computer Usability 167

(ubiquity) filtered the abstract representation leaving only personal organizationand learning support as the functional representation. But these inverse relation-ships are to be expected because their corresponding enacted actions (work,perception, movement) all demand the user’s consciousness at the same time.These relationships subsume the idea that, at any time of mobile computing, thepredominance of any enacted action is likely to diminish the other enactments.

8.2.3 Implications for Design and Implementation

The arguments from perception suggest two main steps to the implementation ofmobile computational projects in organizations. Firstly, implementers shouldidentify users’ personal motivations that represent their historical modes of sur-vival, development, and self-fulfillment. Users will be concerned about theirsurvival in terms of health hazards associated with continuous mobile computing,of job security to be derived from specific mobile computing skills, and of safety tobe enjoyed through receipts of timely notifications about dangerous circumstances.Users will be concerned about their development in terms of personal informationmanagement with mobile computing, of more efficient task performance, and oflearning support to be obtained from mobile computing. Users will also beconcerned about self-fulfillment in terms of socialization through continuousnetworking with other people through mobile computers, of reputations to beobtained from operating mobile computers, and of flexibility of movement andwork to be enjoyed through mobile computing. These motives can be identifiedusing methods such as surveys, interviews, e-mail discussions, and observations.Survival, development and self-fulfillment motives should be included in theorganization’s computational goals that it pursues.

Secondly, implementers should track continuously the variations in time, spaceand tasks that will affect the users’ survival, development and self-fulfillmentmotives. Users’ ages, physiologies, jobs, and tastes will change with time, and thechanges will reflect in periodical changes in their survival, development and self-fulfillment motives. Their movements from one place to another can imply an

Table 8.1 Representation, ubiquity and pragmatism as principles of the usability of mobilecomputers

Epistemology Enactedaction

Principles of mobile computer usability

Augmentation/mediation

Work Pragmatism—use should augment or mediate particular tasksaccording to their space and time dynamics

Mobility Move Ubiquity—use should overcome space and time barriers accordingto task dynamics

Historicalperception

Perceive Representation—use should reflect historical modes of survival,development, self-fulfillment and self-mastery, as well asvariations in them over space and time

168 8 The Organizational Personality Perspective on Mobile Computer Usability

increase in the importance of some motives and a decrease in that of others.Likewise the user’s perception of survival, development and self-fulfillment whileworking on one task may be different from his or her perception while working onanother task. Therefore, tracking these variations is important in view of theireffects on the functional representation that users will perceive during their mobilecomputing. These two steps can be represented as an implementation matrix inwhich the users’ motives representing their historical perceptions are related to thefactors that will affect those motives.

By these steps, the theory and practice of human implementation that is centralto a popular strategy like ETHICS1 (Mumford 1980, 1995) can be re-examined. Atthe heart of ETHICS is a strong advocacy for users to benefit from organizationaltechnologies by balancing technology efficiency and social objectives from con-ception through design to implementation. However, its human implementationdimension is understood in terms of their job satisfaction and not their self sat-isfaction per se. By this book’s arguments, therefore, the theory of humanimplementation of ETHICS should incorporate historical modes of users’ personalneeds. Through this, implementers can overcome resistance to new mobile com-puting project implementation efforts. Personal and organizational usability ofmobile computing can complement each other, and the one can be depended uponto achieve the other sequentially or concurrently. Therefore, implementers canseek to satisfy users according to personal usability before seeking the organiza-tional component. Indeed, they can aim for a balance or imbalance between theprinciples of representation, pragmatism and ubiquity depending on their prefer-ence for any of them at any time or place. For example, they can customizeapplications in mobile computers to make any of the principles predominate at theexpense of the others while maintaining a capability to modify their interrelationsat any time. This option of the ability to seek incipient personal usability is veryimportant for avoiding mobile technology failure because it can counter some ofthe incipient causes of organizational resistance. Therefore, it is a most sensibleapproach to smooth implementation where there is a history of high organizationalresistance to earlier introductions of desktop technologies.

Furthermore, these steps imply important incipient requirements in designbecause implementation runs from conception through maintenance of computa-tion projects (Avgerou and Cornford 1998). For example, historical perception hasimportant implications for how Participatory Design (PD) can be understood andpracticed in the design of mobile computers. PD largely satisfies the principle ofpragmatism because user satisfaction is understood in terms of how the user’sparticipation in design decisions can facilitate his ultimate use to accomplishorganizational tasks (see, for example, Bjerknes and Bratteteig 1987; Kraft andBansler 1992). Thus, the user’s self-fulfillment may only be an implicit and notexplicit teleology. Otherwise, self-fulfillment may be linked intrinsically with easeof use for task accomplishment. But the principle of representation explicates the

1 Effective Technical and Human Implementation of Computer-based Systems.

8.2 Conceptualizing Mobile Computer Usability 169

user’s self-fulfillment as a teleology of his or her participation. It provides lessonson how PD can be planned in such a manner that models reflecting historicalmodes of their self-fulfillment and self-mastery will be incorporated.

The appropriation of mobile computers suggests the continual design ofapplications that are conform with the organizational personality because thegreatest strength of the appropriation construct lies in its capacity to help improveuser acceptance of portable technology. Ciborra (2002, pp. 109–110) talks aboutICT as an ambiguous stranger that needs ‘‘hospitality’’ by the user, suggesting thatuser adaptation and appropriation are important components of technologyusability. This idea buttresses the point that that user’s appropriation to servepersonal motives is a useful starting point for his or her acceptance of the tech-nology. The user’s ‘‘hospitality’’ towards portable technology can be enhancedthrough the support it provides him in his or her personal (non-organizational)circumstances. Appropriation in both organizational and personal domains of usepoints to the idea that design of mobile computer applications oriented at users’personal motives can be a catalyst for their acceptance of the technology fororganizational motives. Since personalization is an essential aspect of portabletechnology use and hence of user acceptance, it is almost imperative for mobilecomputer champions in organizations to advocate for the inclusion of applicationswhich users can customize to serve their personal motives.

8.2.4 Implications for Research

Understanding the usability of mobile computers in terms of historical perceptionhas implications for how mobile computational projects can be analyzed. Thepreceding arguments shape up into relationships between the various factors whichhave dominated the analysis—human mobility, motives, conditions, technologydesign properties, appropriation and flexibility of mobile computing. FollowingOrlikowski’s (1992) and Davis and colleagues’ (1989) call, it is important for thispaper to contribute to a better understanding of portable technology use that willhelp in predicting and improving user acceptance in IS research and practice.Thus, I condense these relationships into a conceptual model which suggests aframework for analyzing mobile computing in mobile activities and for ascer-taining the flexibility of mobile computing (see Fig. 8.3). My analysis and dis-cussion suggest that mobile computers and mobile activities must be analyzedtogether as a conjoined unit to appreciate how motivations, conditions and designproperties affect users’ judgment of the technology’s functional essence; that is tosay, how they determine the degree of appropriation (Fig. 8.5).

Appropriation can be a continuous back-and-forth variable because flexibility ofmobile computing is a continuous concept. In reality appropriation can manifestalso in terms of the user’s drift from low flexible mobile computing in personalcircumstances to higher flexible mobile computing in organizational circumstances.

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This explains why conditions, motives and design properties must be isolated forconsideration in analysis.

Although the role and impact of motivations, conditions and design propertiesin shaping portable technology use must be considered in tandem, analysis willnecessitate their individual considerations to understand which factor is moredetermining, and so on. In analysis, efforts must be made to appreciate theparticular conditions that underlie the use of the technology. Therefore, it isimportant, for example, for the analyst to bear in mind that because of human-and-technology mobility, use conditions will vary to and fro between organizational(mobile work) contexts to non-organizational (personal) contexts. It is alsoimportant for the analyst to appreciate the extent to which the technology’ssystemic, physical and interface design properties are affecting its use. Finally, it isimportant to know what motive is being or not being served in which particularconditions, and this is the crux of appropriation because motivation is an importantaspect of users’ judgment of the functional essence of portable technology.

The model is an important analytical tool because, through an understanding ofhow and why appropriation of portable technology occurs in any context, one canalso understand how and why appropriation of the same technology could notmanifest in the other context. This understanding is likely to reveal a deficiency inconditions or design properties or both, and can be used to explain technologyfailure. The deficiency can also be used to revise organizational motives andconditions, as well as designed applications in practice.

The principle of representation provides an additional criterion to complementthe criteria of pragmatism and ubiquity for analysis. Representation helps toexplain why users of mobile computers can exhibit high levels of personal andorganizational usability in the early days of use and lower levels in later days; andvice versa. It can be used, for instance, to judge that a high level of organizationalusability (Sørensen and Al-Taitoon 2008) in early days will not last long becausethe historical modes of survival, development, and self-fulfillment are not reflectedin such a personal technology. It helps us to understand that, even if they arereflected at all, they are subject to variations driven by time, space, and tasks.These factors change phenomena that are deemed as fashionable or self-satisfy-ing. The principle also implies that evaluation of mobile computing has to beundertaken in the contexts of personal and organizational usability, thereby

Mobile Acti vities(motives, modalities and use

conditions)

Mobile Computer(design properties)

User Appropriation(functional essence)

Mobile Computer UsabilityFig. 8.5 Conceptualframework for analyzingmobile computing

8.2 Conceptualizing Mobile Computer Usability 171

increasing its scope. An exclusive use of any one of these contexts will limit thescope of analysis. Functional representation and user satisfaction levels are likelyto be dynamic than static. Therefore, an understanding of these dynamics calls foranalyzing mobile computer usability with research which is more longitudinal andbroader in scope.

8.3 Chapter Summary

The need for considerations of unity and continuity in mobile computer usabilityare analyzed from the angles of appropriation and perception. The motives drivingthe mobile learning activity are juxtaposed with the conditions of use to show thatthe mobile computer was deemed as an object instead of a tool by the users.Therefore from the organizational angle, computing was a conscious action whichcompeted with other sanctioned actions. However, from the personal angle,computing was subconscious and satisfying. This induced the appropriation of themobile computer for personal uses.

Representation and perception played a significant role in user appropriation.The sociological explanation of the organizational failure of the mobile computeris devoid of these constructs. The social-psychological explanation of its success atthe personal level suggests that abstract representation and historical perception ofthe technology which pertaining to personal satisfaction were equally important.The analysis reveals that personal fulfillment, reflected in historical modes ofhuman action in ontogenesis and phylogenesis, are intrinsic to mobile computers.

Mobile computer usability is conceptualized with Fig. 8.4, and buttressed witharguments from the distinctiveness of the construct of appropriation and percep-tion. The arguments relate these constructs to previous ones to clearly demonstratehow the organizational perspective being espoused in this book overcomes thelimitations of the previous perspectives. The section concludes with implicationsfor implementation, design and research.

8.4 Book Summary

This book

• combines the personal and organizational contexts of use into a unified epis-temology of mobile usability

• informs the epistemology of mobile usability by the historicity of humanactivity and perception

• theorises mobile usability as a function of interdependencies between the user’sinternal and external processes

172 8 The Organizational Personality Perspective on Mobile Computer Usability

• complements the existing mobile usability principles of ubiquity and pragma-tism with the principle of representation

• analyses the mobility of personal and organisational needs, and the continuitybetween them

• discusses the roles of personality, consciousness, and personalisation in userappropriation of mobile technologies

• illustrates the arguments with an empirical examples mobile computing inmobile learning and mobile foreign exchange trading.

The book’s contribution constitutes a more holistic epistemology of mobilecomputer usability, with implications for future research in terms of particularwork domains, diverse historical perceptions, diverse trajectories of humanontogenesis and phylogenesis, diverse motivations driving personal and organi-sational activities. Thus, researchers can draw upon the epistemology of mobileusability to analyse diverse mobile usability scenarios. They can also draw uponthe historical rendition to analyse user satisfaction in terms of the dynamicinterdependencies between their internal and external processes.

Practically, implementers of mobile information systems in organisations canadopt all three principles—pragmatism, ubiquity, and representation—to deploymobile computers successfully. Furthermore, systems analysts can depend on thepersonal and organisational needs analysis to determine holistic user satisfactionrequirements in the development of mobile information systems.

8.4 Book Summary 173

AppendixMethodology and Other Notes

Presenting a detailed methodology of a piece of research is crucial in terms ofinternal and external validity of its outcomes. In particular, when the research isone that has very few preceding examples, the methodological choices madebecome crucial in validating its findings. Therefore, these notes are aimed atdisclosing the methodological decisions made and the justifications underpinningthose choices in the study. A methodology is a viewpoint, a perspective thatevinces the researcher’s outlook of the world in general and the phenomenon underinvestigation in particular.

A.1 Philosophy of Research Approach

The term ‘philosophy’ is an expression that is used to represent human attributessuch as belief, viewpoint, attitude, value and way of life. The way of life of aresearcher is directly associated with his or her perception of reality (ontology) andits relation to knowledge (epistemology). The purpose of science is to build anunderstanding of the world based on a transition from perception towardsknowledge—an inquisition which relies on evidence towards the advancement ofknowledge and the establishment of scientific truth. This transition is expressed insimple terms as I perceive and therefore I know. In research terms, philosophy ofapproach is therefore understood as the way in which research is conducted—fromthe researcher’s initial thoughts, through operationalisation of those thoughts, tothe explanation of research results. Stated differently, philosophy of approach toany research endeavour is very crucial as it underpins all other decisions andchoices made in the operationalisation of the research.

In western scientific thought, interpretivism and positivism are two majorphilosophies of approach that have dominated scientific inquiry. Over the years,interpretive and positive research have largely been perceived as polar, andtherefore interpretivists, for example, are usually labelled as antipositivists incertain disciplines (Galliers 1991). Recently, critical research has emerged as athird philosophy. While it has its quite outstanding attributes, it is usually seen as aquasi-interpretive philosophy because critical researchers also share an interpretiveviewpoint of the world. The study was founded on the interpretive philosophy of

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information systems (IS) research; that is, an interpretive epistemology andontology were adopted to understand the nature of the phenomena under study

A.1.1 Justification for Choice of the Interpretive Philosophy

Interpretations in themselves are part of the scientific knowledge beinginvestigated and are scientifically validated through scientific induction.Scientific induction, according to Dewey (1910) refers to ‘‘all the processes bywhich the observing and amassing of data are regulated with a view to facilitatingthe formation of explanatory conceptions and theories.’’ (p. 86). In other words, itis a process in which the researcher proceeds from fragmentary and incoherentempirical details through a gradual insertion of universal facts and their propertiestowards the discovery of a coherent idea.

Interpretive research is embraced more in fields which that concern themselveswith humans beings. These fields represent the areas where interpretivism haslargely achieved its success. As Schutz indicates, ‘‘the human beings living, actingand thinking therein’’ within the field of observation of the social scientist cannotbe overlooked. In fact, they constitute the most important aspect of all thephenomena under investigation by the social scientist. This is why many ISresearchers (e.g. Hirschheim 1985) have questioned the suitability of positivism inIS research endeavours. IS, which is loosely defined as the study of the teleologicalinteraction between people and ICTs, is, without doubt, a social science discipline.To analyse, design and manage this interaction, the IS researcher must understandthose humans who act on technology by adopting an interpretive philosophy.

It is true that we all interpret the world and construct realities from oursubjective interpretations. According to Klein and Myers (1999), research can bedeemed interpretive ‘‘if it is assumed that our knowledge of reality is gained onlythrough social constructions such as language, consciousness, shared meanings,documents and artefacts’’. In a study of mobile computing in a distributed andwork-integrated learning environment, sociological, social psychological andcontextual principles become inevitable foundations. It is well known, at least inthe European context, that IS is an applied science—a ‘‘combination of twoprimary fields: computer science and management, with a host of supportingdisciplines e.g. psychology, sociology, statistics, political science, economics,philosophy and mathematics’’ (Boland and Hirschheim 1985). In IS, we are notonly concerned with the design and development of technological systems, we arealso concerned with other aspects such as planning, management, implementation,evaluation and maintenance of these systems.

Taking a closer look at these attributes, the human factor is as intrinsic as it ispervading. IS research, by implication, is social science research that relies onunderstanding based on social reality. The human perspective of understandingtechnology use therefore has to be necessarily premised on Weber’s (1897)‘‘subjective interpretation’’. In this regard, I am inspired by Alfred Shutz:

176 Appendix: Methodology and Other Notes

The primary goal of the social sciences is to obtain organised knowledge of social reality.By the term ‘social reality’, I wish to be understood the sum total of objects and occur-rences within the social cultural world as experienced by the common-sense thinking ofmen living their daily lives among their fellow-men, connected with them in manifoldrelations of interaction (Shutz 1954, p. 261).

He further deciphered Weber’s subjective interpretation

… as the experiential form of common-sense knowledge of human affairs, as an episte-mological problem, and as a method peculiar to the social sciences (ibid., p. 265).

The high degree of subjectivity inherent in human cognition, people’s culturalorientation which gives meaning to their perceptions, and the contextual andsituated interpretations of actions and activities in practice are revelations thatpoint to the inter-subjectivity of understandings immanent in this study. The aim tounderstand work-integrated learning within the context of mobility through themeanings professionals assign to their activities and information processingactions requires the adoption of interpretive assumptions and methods.Furthermore, the aspiration to gain an insight into the way these professionallearners construe, conceptualise and understand their computing with mobile ICTswithin their activities make the examination of their social reality and interpretivemeanings important (Bredo and Freinberg 1982). Drawing on the work ofWalsham and Waema (1994), interpretive assumptions in IS research are aimed atproducing an understanding of the context of the information system, and theprocess whereby the system influences and is influenced by the context.

The aim of the study rejects positivist and critical research approaches. Thenature of this task does not favour a positivist philosophy of testing hypothesesthrough controlled experiments and statistical analysis (Kaplan and Duchon 1988).Nor does the tenet of critical research philosophy (e.g. Chua 1986) fall within thecriteria required for unpacking the desired understanding.

Together, the ontological and epistemological foundations of the interpretivistphilosophy provided the basis of understanding of the key issues and for theorydevelopment in this study. In conducting the study, I was careful not to base myunderstanding of technology use by the medical professionals on existingformulations and conceptualisations; rather, the data collected were understoodwithin their context of emergence. That is, weight was placed on how theirperceptions shaped their understanding, motives, goals within the conditions inwhich they performed computing actions.

A.2 Research Design

Based on the aims of this research, vis-à-vis the interpretive philosophical standstaken and explained above, it was imperative to adopt an investigative strategy thatwould enable sufficient and rich insight into the empirical phenomena. Initially, Iwas oriented towards studying a particular case of mobile technology use in-depth

Appendix: Methodology and Other Notes 177

to unearth the complexities involved. In the case study, I was aiming at theexamination of the problem in its real-life context. According to Yin (1981, 1984),studying a phenomenon in its real-life context is most appropriate when theboundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident. In the senseof my research, mobile ICTs and the distribution of activities are contemporaryphenomena in which research and theory in both areas are in their formativestages. Roethlisberger (1977) recommends that researchers adopt case studystrategies for such contemporary phenomena. From another angle, Bonoma (1985)proposes case studying phenomena that involve sticky practice-based issues wherethe experiences of the actors and the context of action are critical. The problem ofthis study exhibited all of these features—real-life, contemporary, formativestaged paradigms, and practice-based.

A.2.1 Research Strategy

Subsequently, however, the research strategy used was Action Research (AR). ARis only different from a case study on the grounds that in AR, the researcher is notjust an outsider who investigates through, most notably, interviews andobservation, rather he or she becomes an integral part of the phenomenon beinginvestigated. He or she is integrated through a mutual agreement between theresearcher and the practitioner. The practitioner seeks the intellectual knowledgeof the researcher to assist him or her to solve a particular problem related to theresearcher’s domain of study, while the researcher takes advantage of the problemsolving contribution to gain a richer insight into the phenomenon more than he orshe would gain in a case study. In this study, I was invited by the authorities of thePSP project to assist in the orientation, adoption and use of the PDAs since most ofthe PSPs were not familiar with this novel technology. Thus, the pre-planned casestudy strategy was transformed into an AR strategy.

An action researcher is like a ‘‘clinician’’ (Schein 1987), that is ‘‘he is alsofocused … on the client’s initial problem statement, the reasons given for why theclinician was invited into the organisation in the first place’’ (ibid., p. 40). AR is apractical problem solving exercise that aims at an increased understanding of animmediate and specific situation, with particular focus on the complex andmultivariate nature of the situation (Hult and Lennung 1980). In AR, the twoprocesses of research and action are integrated. It involves the researcherimmersing himself or herself in a human problem situation—gaining from theimmediacy of the involvement in the action process—with the aim of seekinglearning out of the achievement of practical ends (Foster 1972). It has to be saidthat being invited by the practitioner into the immediacy of the context of thephenomenon is gratifying from the point of view of the researcher. In this sense,the clinician stands in a stronger position to get access to critical data than even anethnographer. Schein, for example, claims that

178 Appendix: Methodology and Other Notes

the clinician often has access to data that the ethnographer will never get because the clientis not motivated to reveal it, and the clinician often has access to levels of the organisationthat the ethnographer finds difficult to penetrate (1995, p. 43).

With the aim of gaining a holistic understanding of the underlying culture,context and complex social change processes associated with the technology use, Iwas directly involved in the initial planning of the integration of the mobile ICTs inthe project. More specifically, I played the role of a participatory action researcherthrough active collaboration with the PSPs and the authorities of the project. Inaddition, I participated as a direct observer in many of the London-based modulesand led the training of the PSPs on how to use the PDAs. Furthermore, I assumedthe role of a 24 h ‘helpdesk’ support to them—they could call me on the phoneanytime for help when they encountered any problems with the use of the PDAsduring their training. My role therefore oriented towards a facilitator and activeparticipant. I have to emphasise that I was strictly an action researcher not aconsultant: I accepted the invitation to participate in the project not to gainmonetary rewards from the project but to use the opportunity as a means to obtain asmuch in-depth information as possible. In terms of each of Baskerville’s (1999) fivekey parameters for distinguishing between an action researcher and a consultant—motivation, commitment, approach, foundation for recommendations, and essenceof organisational understanding—I was an action researcher. That is, my activitywas motivated by scientific interests and prospects for scientific knowledgedevelopment in accordance with the requirements of IS research.

My collaboration with the practitioners in solving their problems was immenselybeneficial on several counts. The most significant was the induction of trust andconfidence in me from the beginning. Offering myself as a facilitator for theadoption of technology and implementation of technology decisions in the projectwas welcoming to the practitioner not only in monetary terms; it was alsowelcoming to him on the grounds of my abilities to resolve most of the emergingproblems I was assigned with. In so doing, I did not only win the trust and confidenceof the project authorities; most crucially, I also won the trust and confidence of thePSPs who were using the PDAs. This achievement was very significant because iteased my access to information and facilitated my process of data collection at alllevels of the project set-up from the outset to its conclusion. The long list of personale-mails, our numerous extensive informal conversations in the corridors of St.Mary’s Hospital and their frank responses to my interviews all testify to the intimacythat resulted from my collaboration and facilitation in the project.

In my quest to emerge with research results that exhibit internal and externalvalidity, I endured and prevailed in this role until its official completion aftertwelve months. To quote Baskerville, ‘‘[AR] produces highly relevant researchresults because it is grounded in practical action aimed at solving an immediateproblem situation while carefully informing theory’’ (Baskerville 1999). Myinvolvement, and hence understanding, have considerably shaped my findings andhave eventually enhanced my goal of contributing original scientific knowledge tothe Information Systems discipline.

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A.2.2 Qualitative Evidence

Given the aim to understand phenomena-in-context through PSPs’ intersubjectivejudgements of their use of technology, the study relied heavily on qualitative data.Qualitative data are continuous and analogue, compared with the discrete nature ofquantitative data. In addition, given the small number of trainees in the project—twelve—I was presented with an opportunity to avoid sampling the population ofPDA users, and to cover their individual experiences in-depth. Some unavoidableeffects of AR are the adoption of an idiographic viewpoint of research inquiry, andthe acceptance of qualitative data and analysis (Baskerville op. cit). I applied datacollection techniques that revealed qualitative evidence on issues like social andsituated reality, consciousness, shared understandings, and identity perception andformation, which are central to the research problem. Qualitative evidencegrounded the understanding of the professionals’ use of mobile computers in theirsocial and cultural contexts within which they learn. According to Kaplan andMaxwell (1994), the goal of understanding a phenomenon from the point of viewof the participants and its particular social and institutional context is largely lostwith the quantification of textual data.

The study focused on the activities of individual PSPs as the units of analysis.Given that organisation culture bears directly on the practices in which the theyengaged, my investigation of these PSPs, who all have worked under the NHSbefore, optimised my interpretation and understanding of their mobile WIL.Organisational actors’ cultural orientation give meaning to their perceptions andhence their practices. Besides, the aim to study WIL learning as a process ofhuman development and performance is with reference to professionals’ sharedmeanings towards the development of their innovative capacities. My ‘how’question seeks to understand the nature of the uncertainty and complexity ofmobile information processing and generation involved in experiential learning;and justifies my focus on the PSPs.

A.2.3 Sources of Evidence

Multiple data collection methods were employed in the process to obtain thequalitative data. The goal was to obtain a rich set of data surrounding the researchaim and questions, as well as to capture its contextual complexity (Benbasat et al.1987). The following data collection methods were used:

Observations: Although my involvement in the project was participatory, Iemployed direct observation instead of participant observation, and that onlyproceeded as far as their London-based actions were concerned. It would be fairfor one to think that an investigation of mobile computing should entail asignificant dosage of direct observation within the context of use. However, thisform of observation could not be performed because of official restrictions

180 Appendix: Methodology and Other Notes

associated with medical ethics. To perform observations of PSPs’ mobilecomputing within their hospitals, I needed permission from the EthicsCommittee of the General Medical Council. Now, the processes andrequirements for granting this permission are extremely complicated. At thebackground of these complications is the fact that the researcher or observer willbe observing, in addition, all sorts of extreme scenes of sick patients’ conditions inthe hospitals. In truth, all the signs were pointing to the fact that I would not beallowed to observe the PSPs’ mobile computing in their hospitals. One significantreason was that, as far as the hospitals and the PSPs’ surgical teams wereconcerned, mobile computing was not deemed a very important aspect of thetraining project. By implication, my research efforts were not integral either.Therefore, I could not observe their mobile computing-in-action as desired,unfortunately. My only observations of their computing with the PDAs werein situations of their immobility—during my interviews, in the sessions of theLondon-based modules, and at lunch. Therefore, data on their mobile computing-in-action experiences were obtained from the conversations, sessions andinterviews I had with them over the 12-month period.

Conversations, Interviews and Sessions: Open-ended interviewing wasadopted in collecting data. PSPs were asked questions leading to discussions oftheir mobile computing-in-action, and on how they think the PDAs are shapingand being shaped by their learning. The objective was to induce and entice them toelaborate because when they do so, their languages and social cues revealattitudes, morals, beliefs, and opinions and feelings (Kendall and Kendall 1993).Furthermore, open-ended interviews are most suitable for gathering information onquestions of ‘how’ because they are explorative in nature. I took advantage of myparticipatory role and established relationships with the PSPs to obtain furtherinformation through informal conversations.

Formal interviews were conducted face-to-face during my visits to the hospitalsof the PSPs; and on telephone. Both the face-to-face and telephone interviewswere tape-recorded during the process; but, admittedly, not all the telephoneinterviews could be recorded. I have to say, in addition, that the face-to-faceformal interviews were largely interspersed with informal interviews orconversations as part of my problem-solving role in the project. In a typicalscenario, information about the PDA’s use would be immediately forthcomingfrom a PSP at the time I make a request on telephone to pay him or her a visit.Then as I arrive at the hospital later on, the very first words of exchange would beeither banters or serious remarks about his or her experiences with the use of thePDA. This conversation continues along the corridors and staircases until wefinally settle down in the canteen or in his or her office in the hospital for me to pullout my tape-recorder to commence the formal interview. Other instances ofinformal conversations occurred when they had returned to London for theirmodules: beside the tea-table, in the classroom before a session, in the canteen, andduring the official 3 h ‘‘PDA session’’ of every module.

The official ‘‘PDA session’’ was designed to allow myself and the applicationdesigners to interact with the PSPs and solicit their problems and concerns about

Appendix: Methodology and Other Notes 181

the PDAs use in their learning activities. These sessions always presented me theopportunity to ask collective questions and to organise workshops with the PSPs.They also presented an environment where their personal experiences were sharedamong themselves, revealing critical information that could not be discussed in aformal interview. Furthermore, these sessions revealed both collective andidiosyncratic experiences. To ensure the fluency and fluidity of the processes,and to reduce distractions to the minimum, it was not my aim to carry my tape-recorder hand-in-hand with my PDA as I demonstrated solutions to some of theirproblems and concerns. I therefore tape-recorded these sessions from a fixedlocation of the recorder, and took notes at the same time because the distributionand local mobility that characterised these sessions ensured that not everythingsaid could be recorded.

There was another 3 h session of every module named as ‘‘How things went.’’This session was always the first of every module; it was designed to solicitfeedback and experiences from the PSPs in relation to their learning experiences ofthe previous six weeks spent in their individual hospitals. ‘‘How things went’’ werealways very emotional and presented the PSPs with the official opportunity to pourout their feelings. In the early sessions when nearly all of them were facingresistances from their surgical teams, for instance, it was both interesting anddepressing to behold one of them crying at how she had been treated in herhospital; some of them complaining of how they have been turned into errand boysand girls; and some of them not even allowed to follow the surgical teams on theirhospital rounds. It was also interesting to witness one of the sessions drift fromsharing of learning experiences into one of PDA complaints at the time when oneof the applications had proved to be completely unusable. Although it was theproject leader himself who moderated the ‘‘How things went’’ sessions, I waspresent as an observer in all of them and took notes of the proceedings.

In the end, I attended the final evaluation session organised among the keystakeholders of the project—the PSPs, the project authorities, each PSPs surgicalteam, and other senior NHS officials. Dubbed a ‘‘Sharing Event’’, it was a platformfor each PSP’s surgical team to make a presentation of their assessment of theproject in general, based on the assessment of their PSP’s performance in the team.The chosen venue of this event—the Hilton London Metropole Hotel—wasindicative of its importance as far as its justification and the future of the not-yet-accredited PSPs were concerned. These presentations were highly illuminating,and it offered me the opportunity to listen to the views of the surgical teams,particularly the consultants who led these teams.

E-mails and Documents: Over the period, I also exchanged several e-mailswith all members of the project. However, most of these e-mails consisted ofexchanges with the PSPs on the experiences with technology use. E-mailing wasan option I provided them to reach me if I was not available to receive a phonecall. It was very helpful in my data collection because it was a medium throughwhich the PSPs were more expressive of their feelings. Besides, the a-contextualnature of e-mail text, its associated asynchronous interaction, and its unobtrusivenature ensured that interaction was convenient for myself and the PSP at any time.

182 Appendix: Methodology and Other Notes

Some of their e-mails were additions and confirmations of problems that had beendiscussed beforehand, serving as a double-check of the data received.

Efforts were made to obtain written materials from sources including formalreports, memoranda, Internet publications and newspaper stories. These secondarysources complemented the other data sources to build some unifying and holisticevidence. More importantly, documented information from such secondarysources were studied to inform the design of some open-ended interviewquestions. I also sought archival records to complement these documents. Theseinclude organisation charts, plans and strategies, and reports.

Meetings: I held several meetings with the project authorities from thebeginning to the end. Although, these meetings were far fewer in numbercompared, for example, with my interviews, they were a reliable and rich source ofinformation about the grand scheme of the project. The first ones focused onplanning the integration of technology into the project and the assessment of thepossible applications that could be designed into the PDAs. Some subsequent onesfocused on the computing problems that had been reported by the PSPs and theirpossible solutions. Others looked into my assessment of their technology use frommy interviews and observations. The final ones concerned the decision to formallyabandon the technology as an official part of the training and assessment of thePSPs. It is worth noting that, in addition to these formal meetings, I also hadseveral informal conversations and interviews with the project leader and theapplication developers. In fact, as part of my facilitative functions, I assistedthe application developers in thinking through the possible learning scenarios andthe PSPs’ corresponding actions as a means of modelling their actions towards thedevelopment of the applications. Through this, a great deal of insight was gainedinto the design of the application and the perceptions of the application developer.Moreover, this insight was immensely helpful in my diagnosis of the PSPs’reported problems and consequent suggestions.

In all several tens of hours were spent—formally and informally, directly andindirectly—in collecting verbal data from the PSPs. I cannot be very precise aboutthe total number of hours spent, but from the accounts I have provided above, andthe fact that the project was studied over a period of 12 months; a substantialamount of time was spent in the investigation.

A.2.4 Data Analysis

The data that were collected from both primary and secondary sources werecharacterised by texts, and signs and symbols including voice recordings,transcripts, notes and pictures. To satisfy the central aim of this study, datacollection and interpretation were predominantly informed by PhilosophicalHermeneutics—a philosophical theory of interpretation developed in the works ofGadamer (1975, 1976); and Social Semiotics—a variant of structural semiotics

Appendix: Methodology and Other Notes 183

that concerns social meaning of signs rather than their structural meanings (e.g.Hodge and Kress 1988; Thibault 1997; Jensen 1995).

Hermeneutics is a branch of philosophy concerned with the interpretation ofwritten texts and human understanding. In hermeneutics, texts are perceived as themedia that transmit experience, beliefs and judgements from the author to theinterpreting subject. Hence hermeneutics rejects scientific analytical philosophywhich seeks meaning from the external referents of texts. According to Taylor(1976),

Interpretation, in the sense relevant to hermeneutics, is an attempt to make clear, to makesense of an object of study. This object must, therefore, be a text, or a text-analogue, whichin some way is confused, incomplete, cloudy, and seemingly contradictory—in one way oranother, unclear. The interpretation aims to bring to light an underlying coherence or sense(p. 153).

According to the tenets of philosophical hermeneutics, the productive grounds ofunderstanding are embedded in the knowledge and experience of the interpreter.Knowledge and experience amount to the effective history required in theassimilation of new experiences. This historicity constitutes the interpreter’sprejudices, derived from his or her tradition and language, which are brought to bearin understanding and interpreting phenomena. It is noteworthy that ‘‘prejudices’’ donot denote negative forms of bias but as ‘‘pre-learning’’ (Scott 2002).

The analysis and interpretation of such texts were tasks partly conducted duringthe collection process, and partly outside the spatial and temporal context of whenothers and myself authored them. In what is both spoken and written, ‘‘themeaning of what is spoken exists purely for itself, completely detached from allemotional elements of expression and communication’’ (Gadamer 1975, p. 392).I therefore adopted hermeneutical reflections during my data collection andinterpretation processes. The two contexts—my own knowledge and experience ofIS and technology use, and that of others explicated in the verbal information andtexts—represents what Gadamer calls horizons that require fusion to derive anunderstanding of the complexity of the process.

Semiotics—pioneered by Ferdinand de Saussure and Charles Sanders Peirce—is the study of ‘how’ meanings are made from signs: as such, being concerned notonly with communication but also with the construction and maintenance ofreality. It embraces the traditional strands of linguisics—semantics, syntactics andpragmatics. Sausurean and Peircean semiotics have been influenced bystructuralism and has acquired the epithet ‘‘Structural Semiotics’’. Whilestructural semiotics concerns itself with the ‘‘deep structures’’ underlying the‘‘surface features’’ of phenomena (Chandler 1995), contemporary social semioticsoffers a comprehensive approach to understanding the ways in which human socialmeaning is constituted in specific social situations. Meaning-making practicesinclude linguistic, actional, pictorial and somatic modalities which characterisesocial discourses (Ibid.). The philosophical assumption of social semioticssuggests that no semiotic form, material entity or event, text, or action hasmeaning in and of itself. Rather, any given community has regular and repeatable

184 Appendix: Methodology and Other Notes

patterns of meaning-making which define and distinguish the community fromothers (Thibault op. cit.). Social semiotics therefore represents an invaluableanalytical tool that was applied in understanding the qualitative data, particularlythe meaning-making practices involved in mobile computing by mobileprofessionals.

A.3 Limitations

The first limitation pertains to strategy adopted for the inquiry, namely ActionResearch. This strategy implies conducting idiographic research, which is theempirical study of one single event in a complex world of multiple and interrelatedevents. The multiplicity and interrelatedness of empirical events suggest thatemphasising certain features of an event and overlooking or neglecting others inidiographic research is inevitable. Although idiographic research is generally morecomprehensive and in-depth than its nomothetic equivalent, it lacks the advantagesof repetition and wider coverage of multiple events which are the norms innomothetic research. Thus, generalisations from nomothetic research are perceivedas more valid than those which emerge from idiographic research; and verificationis seen to be unproblematic.

However, idiographic research has the advantages of depth and thoroughness ofinquiry that are lacking in nomothetic research. And within social scienceresearch, which this study epitomises, the need for in-depth and comprehensiveresearch of a phenomenon in its context is a necessary requirement. The widercoverage of nomothetic research disregards context, but context is the utmoststrength of idiographic research. This strength notwithstanding, I acknowledge thelimits of the action research strategy upon which the findings of this study werefounded. I also accept that the unique contextual characteristics of every event orphenomenon may undermine the testing and verification of my generalsubmissions.

The data collection process was also devoid of observations of mobilecomputing by the PSPs. In such a study, direct evidence of the users’comfortability or frustration with mobile computing in the activity should havebeen the ideal. I consider the absence of an ideal situation as a problem; andtherefore this problem was a significant limitation of the study. The legal andethical implications surrounding the study of health workers in hospitals made itvirtually impossible to conduct these direct observations.

Secondly, in tackling the problem of mobile computing in an activity, anotherideal scenario would have been an analysis of the impact of mobile computing inthe achievement of learning outcomes. Furthermore, one may argue that thisimpact would have served in better describing the problem of mobile computing inworkplace learning. As it stands, this study only concentrated on the learningprocesses and not the outcomes. The outcome of the PSP project was to bedetermined only in the long-term future and not within the time frame of this

Appendix: Methodology and Other Notes 185

study. Given its nature, the outcome would be measured against the criteria such asacceptability by medical professionals, successful assumption of junior doctors’roles and successful delivery of peri-surgical patient care. These criteria are longterm yardsticks and not short term. Thus the cognitive aspect of skills acquisitionwas only a first step towards the achievement of the long-term outcomes. And asfar as the long-term was concerned, the time frame of the empirical aspect of thisresearch was some distance away. We are talking here of outcomes which can beappropriately measured at least five years from now, perhaps; and obviously, thisstudy, although a longitudinal one, could not be stretched to cover this period. Thisimplies that the role of the PDAs in the PSPs construction of professionalidentities, for example, could not be included in the analysis. And in this light, thetemporal remoteness of the learning outcomes was a significant limitation in thisstudy.

All these limitations present further challenges for future research endeavoursinto mobile computer usability in distributed and mobile settings.

Although the limitations and future research pointers above leave manyproblems unaddressed, I have spent time to detail and stress my main points whichrepresent the achievements of the objectives which I set at the beginning of thisthesis. I could not study the whole world, but I fully admit the unavoidableshortcomings of this study, and I also accept that my arguments and submissionsare no more than the first steps in a new direction of understanding technology usein a distributed activity. Yet, I believe that in unearthing the problems inherent inthe mutual shaping between distribution of activities and technology use as acentral issue in contemporary work and learning, I have made a significantcontribution to progress in this area. In spite of this, I am not beyond reproach: Ileave my ideas in this thesis to the unqualified scrutiny of all readers and critics.However, while I may be reproached about any arguments made in this thesis, I donot dread any reproach, because my confidence is grounded on objectiveinterpretations and scientific analyses of my findings.

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Author Index

AAakhus, M., 2Adams, D. A., 3, 4Akrich, M., 156, 157Al-Taitoon, A., 4, 15, 34, 113, 171Allport, G. W., 63Amoroso, D. L., 4Avgerou, C., 12, 13, 169

BBaber, C., 1Bacon, F., 20, 54Bagozzi, R. P., 3, 4Bannon, L. J., 58Bansler, J., 169Barley, S. R., 21, 76Barnard, L., 2, 167Bartelsen, O. W., 58Bartolini Bussi, G., 58Baskerville, R. L., 179Bauman, Z., 10, 34, 65, 76, 79Baumeler, C., 10, 29, 79Beale, R., 22Beck, U., 28, 79Bell, G., 7, 27, 32Bellotti, V., 22Benbasat, I., 180Beniger, J., 13, 28, 71Benveniste, J., 10Berger, P. L., 165Bergquist, J., 22Bernhard, J., 58Best, S., 29Bielli, P., 12Bijker, W. E., 4, 5, 12, 13, 164Bjerknes, G., 169Blom, J. O., 1, 61

Bly, S., 22Bødker, S, 58Boland, R. J., Jr., 176Boltanski, L., 10Bonoma, T. V., 178Boudreau, M.-C., 4Brain, M., 72Bratteteig, T., 169Bredo, E., 177Bristow, H. W., 1Brown, J. S., 33, 67Bruner, J., 54Brynjolfsson, E., 77Burrell, G, 79

CCairncross, F, 79Carmel, E., 33, 79Carstensen, P, 142Castells, M., 17, 20, 28, 71Cerf, V. C., 74Chandler, D., 184Checkland, P., 40Cheney, P. H., 4Chesbrough, H., 8, 75Chiapello, E., 9, 10, 78Child, J., 11Christiansen, E., 58Chua, W. F., 177Ciborra, C. U., 158, 170Clegg, S., 10, 29, 79Cook, S. D. N., 33Cooper, R., 79Cornford, T., 169Cotte, J., 22Coursaris, C. K., 1Cousins, K. C., 1, 3

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Crawford, K., 39Cross, J., 1

DDaft, R. L., 144Dahlberg, P., 20Dahlbom, B., 20Davenport, T. H., 76Davies, N., 2, 19Davis, F. D., 3, 4, 170Deleuze, G., 20DeSanctis, G., 4, 5, 164, 165DiMaggio, P. J., 10, 65Dix, A., 2, 19, 22Dourish, P., 7, 8, 27, 32Du Gay, P., 8, 65Duchon, D., 177Duguid, P., 67Dunford, R., 10

EEdström, A., 18, 19, 29Ellul, J., 5, 12, 70, 71Engels, F., 10, 20, 43, 44, 66Engeström, Y., 6, 20, 38, 43, 47, 51, 53, 58,

67, 132, 134, 149Enkel, E., 35Escalante, V., 58Etzioni, A., 142

FFagrell, H., 20Feldman, L. P., 22Feldman, M., 23Felstead, A., 10, 33, 61, 84, 86Foster, M., 178Freinberg, W., 177Friday, A., 2, 19

GGadamer, H.-G., 11, 183, 184Galbraith, J. R., 18, 19, 29Galliers, R. D., 175Gaver, W., 33Gefen, D., 3Geisler, C., 6, 8Gellner, E., 78Gibson, J. J., 33Giddens, A., 11, 28, 71, 79

Glückler, J., 2Gnyawali, D. R., 75Goffman, E., 78, 149Goldin, I., G., 28Goldstein, D. K., 180Goldthorpe, J. H., 34Good, J., 2Goodhue, D. L., 3, 4Goodwin, C., 58Goodwin, M. H., 58Goodwin, N. C., 1, 3, 4Gouldner, A. W., 65Granovetter, M. S., 18, 23, 28, 29Grønbæk, K., 58Guattari, F., 20

HHall, E. T., 22Ham, D.-H, 1, 2Hamill, L., 2Hanharan, H., 74Hanseth, O., 142Hatch, M. J., 28Haythornthwaite, C., 23Heath, C., 18, 22, 84, 158, 163Heo, J., 1, 2Hinds, P. J., 76Hirschheim, R. A., 176Hitt, L. M., 77Hochschild, A. R,, 10, 127Hodge, R., 184Hofstede, G., 27Hope, K., 34Hornik, J., 22Hughes, T., 4, 5, 13, 164Hult, M., 178

IIl’enkov, E. V., 46, 49, 68

JJacko, J. A., 2, 167Jensen, K. B., 184Jewson, N., 10, 33, 61, 84, 86

KKahn, R. E., 74Kakihara, M., 19, 20, 22Kallinikos, J., 23, 34, 85, 149

202 Author Index

Kaplan, B., 180Kaptelinin, V., 53Katz, J. E., 2Kaufman, C. F., 22Kellner, D., 29Kendall, J. E., 181Kendall, K. E., 181Kiesler, S., 76Kim, D. J., 1, 2Klein, H. K., 176Kleinrock, L., 1, 17, 19, 32, 166, 167Kling, R., 3, 4Knight, J. F., 1Kolb, D. A., 81Kopomaa, T., 17Kraft, P., 169Kress, G., 184Kristoffersen, S., 18, 94, 139, 167Kumar, K., 12Kuutti, K., 39, 41, 44, 53

LLacity, M. C., 77Lalji, Z., 2Lamb, R., 3, 4Lasen, A., 2Latour, B., 12, 142, 157Law, J., 142Lawrence, P. R., 65, 66, 79Lee, A. S., 113, 144Lengel, R. H., 144Lennung, S., 178Leont’ev, A. N., 56, 57, 62– 64, 66– 68, 70,

132, 133, 135, 149, 161Lettl, C., 35Levy, M., 75Lewin, K., 49Ling, R., 2Linton, R., 63Liu, K. K., 2Ljungberg, F., 18– 20, 23, 26, 32, 94, 139, 167Lorsch, W., 65, 67, 79Luckmann, T., 165Luff, P., 18, 22, 158, 163Lyotard, J.-F., 13, 29Lyytinen, K., 2, 4, 32

MMacKenzie, D., 5Madon, S., 12

Maguire, M. A., 141, 142Makimoto, T., 20Mann, R. I., 4Manners, D., 20Marx, K., 10, 20, 39, 44, 49, 51, 68Maschietto, M., 27Maslow, A. H., 180Mathiassen, L., 24– 26, 142, 145Matsuyama, K., 27Maxwell, J. A., 180Mckenzie, I. S., 2Mead, M., 180Mintzberg, H., 24, 25Monk, A. F., 1, 61Monteiro, E., 142, 144Mumford, E., 169Mumford, L., 71Myers, M. D., 176

NNelson, R. R., 3, 4Ngwenyama, O. K., 144Nidumolu, S. R., 142Norman, D. A., 33Nørretranders, T., 144

OOlson, G. M., 76, 79, 137Olson. J. S., 76, 137Ong, W. J., 13Orlikowski, W. J., 3– 5, 21, 29, 77, 164,

165, 170Ortega y Gasset, J., 25, 33Ouchi, W. G., 141, 142

PPalen, L., 1, 2Palfreyman, K., 2, 19Palmer, I., 10Park B.-J., 75Park, S., 1Paternò, F., 2Pendharkar, P. A., 2Petersen, M. G., 58Pettigrew, A. M., 137Pfeffer, J., 179Piaget, J., 39, 49Pica, D., 2, 4, 9, 138, 163, 167Picard, R. W., 2

Author Index 203

Pinch, T. J., 12, 13Poole, M. S., 4, 5, 164, 165Powell, W. W., 11, 65Putnam, R., 28, 29

RRatneshwar, S., 22Rheingold, H., 2Rice, R. E., 4Richet, X., 10Robey, D., 1, 3, 4, 163, 167Rodden, T., 2, 19Roethlisberger, F. J., 178Rogers, E. M., 4, 5Ruet, J., 10

SSabel, C. F., 5Sahay, S., 79Salancik, G. R., 79Salzman, S., 1, 2Santoro, C., 2Sarker, S., 4, 165Saussure, F. D., 55, 184Scheepers, H., 2, 165, 166Scheepers, R., 2, 165, 166Schein, E. H., 178Scheller, M., 28Schmidt, K., 139, 142Schneider, S., 26Schrott, G., 2Schultz, T. W., 77, 78Schumacher, E. F., 28Scott, S. V., 184Scott, W. R., 11Searle, J., 6, 46, 165Sears, A., 2, 167Sheller, M., 10Short, J. E., 76Shutz, A., 176Simone, C., 139, 142Song, C., 1, 2Sørensen, C., 2, 4, 9, 17, 19– 26, 34, 76, 85,

138, 141, 142, 145, 149, 150, 163, 165,167, 171

Soukoreff, R. W., 2Sproull, L., 23Star, S. L., 83, 84Stewart, T. A., 76Straub, D. W., 3

Subramani, M. R., 142Suchman, L. A., 22, 23Swan, J., 76Szulanski, G., 66

TTaylor, B. C., 29Taylor, C., 184Thibault, P. J., 184, 185Thompson, R. L., 3, 4Thomsen, T. U., 28Tilson, D., 7, 13, 73– 75Tjia, P., 33Todd, P. A., 3, 4Trevor, J., 2, 19

UUrry, J., 10, 19, 20, 28, 30, 167

VVan Dissel, H. G., 12Vygotsky, L. S., 6, 14, 20, 37– 39, 43, 45, 46,

48– 50, 54, 56, 57, 64, 167

WWaema, T., 177Wajcman, J., 5Walker, T. H., 84Walsham, G., 177Walter, C., 72Walters, S., 0Warshaw, P. R., 3, 4, 170Wartofsky, M. W., 11– 14, 37, 55– 57,

142, 160Weber, M., 8, 61, 65, 176, 177Weick, K. E., 119, 125, 166Weilenmann, A., 2Weiner, N., 34, 71Weiser, M., 1Wells, J. D., 4, 165Wenger, E., 83Wiberg, M., 19, 20, 22, 24, 32, 167Willcocks, L. P.Williamson, J. G., 28Winner, L., 4, 142Wiredu, G. O., 10, 29, 76– 78, 149Wolley, S. I., 1, 2Woolgar, S., 4, 5

204 Author Index

XXiao, Y., 158

YYang, H., 8Yates, J., 21Yi, J. S., 2, 167Yin, R. K., 178Yoffie, D. B., 75

Yoo, Y., 4, 8, 32Yoon, W. C., 1, 2York, J., 2

ZZaff, B., 33Zinchenko, P. I., 43Zuboff, S., 77, 142

Author Index 205

Subject Index

AAbstract representation, 59, 158–160, 168Action research, 89, 178, 180, 185Actions, 5, 11, 22, 24–27, 31, 37, 40–42,

44–47, 49–51, 55–59, 68, 82, 103, 104,108, 109, 133, 136, 142, 143, 149, 158, 160

Activity, 3, 6, 11, 14, 15, 18–21, 24, 37–59,62, 64, 67, 86, 89, 90, 92–94, 97, 99, 101,103, 106, 110, 131, 134, 135, 137, 139,144, 146, 153, 156, 164

Activity-consciousness, 50, 135, 136, 161Adaptation, 10, 44, 78, 84, 85, 113, 170Adaptive service, 24, 25Advanced activity, 67, 69, 81–83, 131,

133–135, 137, 138, 143, 145, 150Anti-program, 157Application, 8, 15, 19, 31, 61, 72, 73, 75, 85,

91, 98, 99, 101, 103, 104, 106, 108, 110,139, 141, 145, 146, 154, 156, 157, 162,163, 166, 170

Appropriation, 3, 5, 6, 8–10, 14, 16, 37, 66, 78,147, 149, 153, 154, 156, 157, 161,163–166, 170

BBahrain, 15, 113–115, 117, 118, 120, 122Biological inducements, 26–27, 36Bureaucracy, 9, 65, 66, 70, 77, 79, 86, 141, 153

CCamera, 7, 74Capitalism, 9, 29, 35, 78Case study, 113, 117, 178Central activity, 52, 68, 69, 80–82, 132,

133–137, 145Clinician, 178Cloud computing, 73Cognitive needs, 1–3, 133

Collaborative service, 24Collocated activity, 66, 82, 86Community, 11, 40, 43–45, 47, 48, 52, 58, 83,

94, 114, 132, 133Complexity, 24–26, 42, 62, 120, 124Computational boundaries, 7, 35Computational service, 25Conditions, 3–6, 11, 14, 15, 19, 24, 37, 39–42,

45, 46, 49, 55, 57, 58, 68, 81, 116, 131,133, 134, 139, 150, 155, 163–165, 170, 171

Consciousness, 37, 39, 41, 42, 45, 46, 48–53,55, 58, 59, 82, 134, 145, 158, 173

Consumption, 20, 27, 34, 36, 43, 44, 58, 68,76, 78, 79, 85, 87

Contextual boundaries, 7, 23, 29, 30, 35Contextual complexity, 180Contextual mobility, 23–24, 85Contingency theory, 66Continuity, 1, 3, 7, 9, 10, 13–15, 16, 61, 87,

91, 117, 122, 141, 162, 172, 173Contradictions, 45, 51–53, 59, 69, 80–82, 87,

131, 136, 139, 143, 145, 146, 149, 150Control, 13, 16, 22, 31, 32, 42, 65, 67, 76, 77,

79, 82, 86, 93, 94, 108, 109, 113, 117, 118,128, 138, 140–144, 144, 146, 153, 154

Controlled experiments, 177Convergence, 7, 32, 74, 75, 87Conversations, 128, 179, 181, 183Coordination mechanisms, 142Co-presence, 28, 143–145

DDesign properties, 5, 6, 43, 134, 155, 156,

163–166, 170, 171Desktop, 7, 25, 31, 94, 95, 96, 98, 99, 101,

104, 106, 121, 157, 169Device convergence, 7, 32Digital innovation, 7, 9, 10, 13, 61, 72, 73,

75, 87

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Digitization, 73, 75, 87Digitizing, 73–75Disembodied human capital, 76Distributed activity, 80–82, 86, 143, 144, 146Distributed organization, 67, 76, 77, 79, 83, 87Distribution, 20, 44, 58, 68, 73, 75, 79–81, 86,

89, 94, 136, 138, 139Division of labour, 40, 43–52, 58, 133, 137Downward flexibility, 74Duality, 131, 151, 159

EEffective history, 184Embedded structures, 165Enacted structures, 165Enlightenment, 29, 70Environment, 1, 11, 15, 19, 33, 34, 45–47, 49,

50, 52, 55, 57, 62, 63, 65, 78, 79, 87, 113,114, 117, 123, 129, 140, 145, 146, 148

Episteme, 31Epistemology, 5, 10, 15, 16, 55–58, 61, 160,

166, 173Ethics, 169, 182Ethnographer, 178Exchange, 15, 20, 21, 34, 44, 47, 52, 57, 58,

66, 68, 83, 114, 119, 121, 122, 134, 136,146, 160

Externalization, 45, 58

FFiltration, 158–160Flexibility, 5, 9, 10, 12, 23, 26, 71, 73, 75, 77,

90, 121, 123, 125, 131, 138, 149–151, 155Flexible computing, 146, 156, 157Functional convergence, 74, 87Functional diversity, 24Functional essence, 5, 6, 164, 170, 171Functionality, 1, 4, 7, 13, 65, 96, 155Functional perspective, 14, 20, 35, 161Functional representation, 14, 56, 142, 158,

159, 161, 167, 169

GGenetic mode, 55Globalization, 28, 30, 36, 71, 116Goals, 31, 40, 42, 46, 47, 51, 58, 145, 168

HHard disk drive, 72Heavy capital, 67, 76, 77

Historical epistemology, 3, 13, 14, 37, 57, 166,167

Historicity, 3, 10–14, 17, 26, 30, 36, 55, 62,135, 161, 163, 172

Hospitality, 170Human capital, 34, 76–78, 85, 87, 113

IICT innovation, 7, 8, 12, 15, 28, 30, 31, 35, 36,

62, 71, 73, 76, 78, 87Ideal, 39, 46, 49, 156, 158, 164Idiographic, 89, 180, 186Image-consciousness, 50, 135, 161Imaginative praxis, 56Implementation, 5, 12, 16, 89, 92, 107, 109,

146, 154, 168, 169, 172Individualism, 33, 78Induction, 98, 99, 176, 179Industrial organization, 65Industrial revolution, 27, 71Industry convergence, 74, 75Information management, 1, 15, 34, 35, 61, 85,

89, 95, 106, 139, 163, 168Information processing, 17, 24, 25, 32,

96, 148Information revolution, 28, 34, 61, 71, 77, 87,

135Information service, 21, 22, 24, 74,

121, 142Information systems, 1, 3, 12, 13, 16, 30, 33,

76, 173Inner contradictions, 67, 69, 82, 135, 139Institutional theory, 65Instrument-producing activity, 134, 136Interactional perspective, 14, 18, 35Interaction overload, 123, 124Interaction service, 21, 23, 24Interlocational contradictions, 86, 146Internalization, 58Internet technologies, 33Inter-organizational

transactions, 32Interpretive research, 176Interpretive temporality, 22Interpretivism, 175, 176Inter-psychological, 136Interviews, 15, 90, 92, 93, 168IP telephony, 73Iron cage, 65, 70, 77, 85

KKryder’s Law, 72

208 Subject Index

LLeaky knowledge, 79Light capital, 76–79, 84Linguistics, 184Liquid modernity, 79Local mobility, 18, 35, 94, 136–138, 144, 155,

158London, 15, 91–94, 96, 97, 104, 106, 110, 117,

118, 120, 137, 138

MMainframe computers, 7Maslow’s needs, 27Mediation, 20, 38, 42–45, 53, 54, 58, 59, 131Meetings, 118Metacontradictions, 83, 86, 131, 139, 150Methodology, 71, 119Micro-mobility, 18, 35, 158Microprocessor chip, 34, 71, 72, 87Middle east, 15, 113–118, 121Migration, 28, 34, 36Miniaturization, 31, 71, 72Mobile computers, 1, 6–10, 15, 16, 28, 34–36,

49, 58, 61, 71, 72, 85, 89, 96, 109, 120,131, 132, 140, 141, 148, 151, 153–155,163–171

Mobile computing, 1, 2, 8, 9, 16, 23–25, 61,94, 95, 109, 120, 123, 139, 141, 144–147,151, 155–157, 164, 166, 168, 170, 171,176, 181, 185, 186

Mobile learning, 89, 110, 148, 162, 172Mobile services, 7–10, 25, 26, 34Mobile trading, 148Mobilized capital, 78, 147Mobilized labour, 78Modern personality, 64, 86, 131, 150, 163Monochronic, 22Moore’s law, 72Motive, 6, 19, 21, 24, 38–44, 46, 50–52, 58,

67, 133, 134, 137, 145, 155, 156, 171Move, 2, 7, 8, 17, 18, 25–28, 35, 84, 91, 96,

106, 109, 125, 140, 153Movements, 18, 29, 30, 84, 114, 120, 122, 127,

149, 158, 168Multiple identities, 86, 114

NNeighbour activities, 45, 52, 82, 134, 135Network convergence, 7, 74, 75Networking service, 75Nomadic behaviour, 17Nomothetic, 185

OObject, 1, 19, 21, 28, 34, 38, 39, 41, 43–54, 58,

71, 83, 131, 132, 134, 136, 144, 146, 147,150, 155, 156, 172

Object-activity, 51, 134, 136, 137Objectivisation, 51Object-orientation, 45, 47, 58Observations, 3, 15, 51, 83, 168Occupational mobility, 65Ontogenesis, 2, 11, 26, 39, 47, 50, 62, 153,

159, 172Ontology, 12, 13, 38Open innovation, 35Open source, 35, 76Operations, 9, 25, 29, 38, 40–42, 47, 50, 54,

56–58, 84, 114, 136, 148, 153Organizational, 1, 3, 4, 6–10, 13, 29, 31, 32,

35, 37, 61, 65, 66, 69, 70, 75, 76, 84, 113,131, 141, 147–150, 156, 158, 161, 162,164–166, 169–171

Organizational motive, 14, 66, 70, 149, 153,163–165, 170

Outcome, 3, 38, 43, 45, 49, 51, 52, 58, 68, 91,132, 142

PPerceive, 27, 108, 169Perception, 2–4, 11, 13–16, 25, 33, 37–39, 46,

50, 52, 55–59, 65, 81, 142, 154, 156, 158,160, 161, 165, 166, 168

Perception-as-action, 167Personal, 1, 3, 6–10, 14–16, 25, 30, 31, 34, 35,

40, 48, 50, 51, 54, 61, 70, 78, 84, 85, 103,113, 127, 131, 134, 141, 143, 147,149–151, 153, 154, 156–159, 161, 164,165, 169, 170, 172, 179, 182

Personal computers, 31, 96Personal development, 68, 78Personal digital assistant, 19, 24, 94Personality, 1, 3, 9–11, 13, 14, 34, 58, 61–64,

69, 71, 85, 86, 131, 139, 147, 153, 162,167, 173

Personalization, 1, 6, 8–10, 29, 58, 153, 158,165, 167, 170

Personal motive, 6, 8, 9, 66, 70, 78, 84, 85, 87,147, 153, 155, 164, 170

Personal organization, 155, 158, 159,161, 168

Phenomena-in-context, 180Philosophical hermeneutics, 11Philosophy, 11, 29, 66, 113Phylogenesis, 2, 11, 26, 39, 62, 153, 159, 172,

173

Subject Index 209

Polychronic, 22Portable, 1, 22, 33, 93, 96, 110, 134, 158,

163–165, 170, 171Portable computers, 14, 25, 57, 76, 109, 132,

165Positivism, 175, 176Post-industrial society, 28Postmodern organization, 10, 15, 33, 34,

36, 76, 78, 85, 87, 113, 131, 150, 156,161

Postmodern personality, 15, 62, 85, 163Postmodern professional, 87Pragmatics, 2, 16, 109, 133, 140, 161, 167,

169, 171, 173Pragmatism, 2, 16, 109, 140, 161, 167–169,

171, 173Primary artefact, 56Primary contradictions, 82, 86Production, 7, 8, 10, 20, 43, 44, 47, 50, 51,

56–58, 66, 68, 76, 79, 81, 83, 86, 90, 134,148, 160

Prosthesis, 45, 59Psychological frame, 1, 131Psychological tools, 6, 38, 39, 42, 43, 53–58,

132

QQualitative data, 180, 185Quantitative data, 180

RReflexive mode, 56, 161Remote mobility, 16, 18, 26, 35, 49, 55–57,

59, 68, 80, 94, 135–137, 139, 142, 147,159–161, 167, 171–173

Representation, 14, 16, 26, 48, 55–57, 59, 63,68, 80, 135, 142, 147, 158–161, 167–169,171, 172

Rhythms of interaction, 2, 165Rules, 12, 24, 42–44, 45, 52, 56, 58, 70, 132,

133, 136, 144, 157

SSecondary artefact, 56, 57Self mastery, 160Semantics, 184Semiconductor chip, 71Sense-data, 160, 161Sense-making, 15, 27, 46, 51, 69, 81, 86,

134–136, 153Service divergence, 75

Simple contradictions, 70Situated actions, 23Situated reality, 180Slow-moving capital, 70, 86, 87Smartphones, 7, 17, 73, 74Social construction, 4–6, 27, 31, 123, 129, 164,

165Social constructionism, 165Social flexibility, 122, 125Social impact, 2, 17Social meaning, 51, 53Social mobility, 34Social reality, 63, 116, 117, 122Social semiotics, 51Social shaping, 17Social-psychological, 3, 158, 159, 162, 166,

172Socio-cultural inducements, 14, 26, 30, 33, 36Socio-economic inducements, 135Sociological, 10, 12, 14, 24, 158, 159, 162,

166, 172Socio-technical divergence, 75, 87Spatial mobility, 21, 30Statistical analysis, 177Sticky knowledge, 66Strong inscriptions, 144, 146, 157Structural meaning, 51, 53, 184Structural representation, 56, 142, 161Structural semiotics, 160Structural temporality, 22Structurational model, 4, 5, 164, 165Subjectivity, 129Subjectivization, 153Syntactics, 184

TTablet computers, 7, 17Task-technology, 167Task-technology fit, 167Techne, 31Technology acceptance, 4, 164, 170Technology applications, 3, 15Technology-as-object, 156Technology determinism, 4Teleology, 56, 142, 169Telephone, 7, 21, 74, 120, 121Television, 7, 72, 73, 75Temporal mobility, 22, 23Tertiary artefact, 56, 57, 59Tool , 9, 10, 38, 40, 41, 43, 45, 47, 51, 53–55,

58, 59, 66, 69, 81, 83, 94, 110, 155–157,172

Travelling, 19, 29, 33, 35, 139, 148

210 Subject Index

UUbiquity, 2, 25, 73, 74, 161, 167, 169, 171,

173Uncertainty, 24, 25, 65, 79, 84, 125United Kingdom, 15Unity, 1, 3, 7–10, 13–16, 35, 36, 58, 61, 66, 81,

141, 162, 172Upward flexibility, 74Urbanization, 28, 36Usability, 1–6, 9–11, 13–17, 37, 58, 64, 85,

113, 131, 141, 151, 153, 159, 161, 162,165, 167, 170, 172, 173

User acceptance, 3, 4, 6, 164, 166, 170User satisfaction, 3, 165, 166, 169,

172, 173

VVisiting, 18, 19, 35, 94Volatility, 16, 34, 108, 113, 114, 118, 119,

122–125, 127, 128, 140, 146

WWandering, 18, 19, 35, 94, 137, 158Weak inscriptions, 145, 146Wireless systems, 72Work, 1–3, 7, 9, 15, 18, 22, 25, 26, 28, 29,

32–34, 36, 40, 41, 43, 45, 48, 54, 58, 90,94, 99, 102, 109

Workplace learning, 68, 81, 89, 109World Wide Web (WWW), 17, 28, 71, 72, 87

Subject Index 211