TY - Generic T1 - Inter-team coordination in large-scale agile development: A test of organizational discontinuity theory T2 - The Large-Scale Agile Development Workshop, XP Conference Y1 - 2016 A1 - Kevin Crowston A1 - Chudoba, Katherine M. A1 - Mary Beth Watson-Manheim A1 - Pouya Rahmati AB - We draw on Organizational Discontinuity Theory (ODT) to identify factors that increase communication and coordination problems between teams working on large software development projects. ODT posits that faced with a disruption in the expected flow of communication, called a discontinuity, individuals must make sense of the disruption to address the problem. They may be motivated to pay more attention to the situation and consider alternative actions to deal with the discontinuity, leading to the emergence of continuities, which are new behaviors, group practices and expectations. Continuities reduce or eliminate the attention and effort required to understand and manage the situation associated with problematic discontinuities. We propose a mixed-method study based on this model to examine the effects of discontinuities and the development of continuities on inter-team coordination in large-scale agile software development. JF - The Large-Scale Agile Development Workshop, XP Conference ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Perceived Discontinuities and Continuities in Transdisciplinary Scientific Working Groups JF - Science of the Total Environment Y1 - 2015 A1 - Kevin Crowston A1 - Alison Specht A1 - Carol Hoover A1 - Chudoba, Katherine M. A1 - Mary Beth Watson-Manheim VL - 534 ER - TY - CONF T1 - Innovation in academic-industry partnerships: Measuring the challenges to effective performance T2 - Academy of Management Conference, Technology and Innovation Management Division Y1 - 2012 A1 - Mary Beth Watson-Manheim A1 - Chudoba, Katherine M. A1 - Kevin Crowston JF - Academy of Management Conference, Technology and Innovation Management Division CY - Boston, MA ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Perceived discontinuities and constructed continuities in virtual work JF - Information Systems Journal Y1 - 2012 A1 - Mary Beth Watson-Manheim A1 - Chudoba, Katherine M. A1 - Kevin Crowston VL - 22 IS - 1 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Participation in ICT-Enabled Meetings JF - Journal of Organizational and End User Computing Y1 - 2011 A1 - Chudoba, Katherine M. A1 - Mary Beth Watson-Manheim A1 - Kevin Crowston A1 - Lee, Chei Sian KW - Computer-Mediated Communication KW - Information Technology AB - Meetings are a common occurrence in contemporary organizations, and almost everyone shares an understanding of what a meeting is and what participation in a meeting looks like. Yet our exploratory study at Intel, an innovative global technology company, suggests that meetings are evolving beyond this familiar perspective as the pervasive use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) changes work practices associated with meetings. Drawing on data gathered from interviews prompted by entries in the employees' electronic calendar system, we examine the multiple ways in which meetings build and reflect work in the organization and derive propositions to guide future research. Specifically, we identified four aspects of meetings that reflect work in the 21st century: meetings are integral to work in team-centered organizations, tension between group and personal objectives, discontinuities, and ICT support for fragmented work environment. VL - 23 IS - 2 ER - TY - CONF T1 - Distance Matters, Except When It Doesn't: Discontinuities in Virtual Work T2 - Academy of Management Conference Y1 - 2007 A1 - Mary Beth Watson-Manheim A1 - Chudoba, Katherine M. A1 - Kevin Crowston KW - Discontinuity KW - Virtuality AB - Virtual work has become an increasingly common phenomenon in today's organizations. Substantial and continuing changes in organizational processes and IT infrastructure have increased the pace and intensity of working across traditionally impermeable boundaries, enabling diverse forms of collaboration. However, our understanding of the consequences and implications of virtual work still lags and research results have been contradictory. We suggest that some of these inconsistencies have been because the boundaries that characterize virtual work-time, space, culture, organization, and so forth-are objective demarcations that are not uniformly problematic. It is only when those working in virtual settings perceive a boundary to be a discontinuity that it hinders work processes. We develop a model of virtual work that differentiates between boundaries and discontinuities, which helps account for contradictory findings. By examining the process of virtual work in more detail, we can uncover issues that are the underlying cause of problems, rather than deal with the more obvious symptoms that can mask underlying problem. Our model has implications both for research and for those working in virtual environments. JF - Academy of Management Conference CY - Philadelphia, PA ER - TY - CONF T1 - Meet Me in Cyberspace: Meetings in the Distributed Work Environment T2 - Academy of Management Conference, OCIS Division Y1 - 2005 A1 - Chudoba, Katherine M. A1 - Mary Beth Watson-Manheim A1 - Lee, Chei Sian A1 - Kevin Crowston KW - Computer-Mediated Communication KW - Virtuality AB - Meetings have long been a critical activity in contemporary work life. At least since Mintzberg's classic study of managerial behavior, researchers have documented and practitioners have bemoaned the amount of time spent in meetings. Despite these problems, meetings are becoming even more common in organizations. Teams are now found throughout the organization, from the manufacturing floor to senior management. Organizational work increasingly occurs in teams, with participation in meetings becoming a core work activity. How are these meetings conducted? What are the implications of the increased use of ICT in these meetings? As more and more members of organizational teams are distributed and must make extensive use of ICT in order to work together, these questions become even more important. Using the device of genre system, an interrelated set of socially constructed communicative actions, we examine meetings from the perspective of employees at a company in the technology industry. We began with the questions: Are meetings in the 21st century different from Mintzberg's conceptualization? If so, how? Drawing on data gathered from interviews that used entries in the employees' electronic calendar system, we found that employees are attending a large number of meetings (20% reported more than 25 meetings in a week) and spending significant time in meetings (27% reported more than 30 hours in a week in meetings). The majority of meetings included non-collocated participants and extensive use of ICT. We explore the implications of these and other findings for collaboration and ICT support. JF - Academy of Management Conference, OCIS Division CY - Honolulu, HI ER - TY - CONF T1 - The paradox of discontinuities and continuities: Toward a more comprehensive view of virtuality T2 - Academy of Management Conference Y1 - 2004 A1 - Mary Beth Watson-Manheim A1 - Chudoba, Katherine M. A1 - Kevin Crowston KW - Discontinuity KW - Virtuality AB - Understanding the fundamental dynamics in virtual work environments is a challenge for organizational researchers. We propose that virtuality is, paradoxically, generally composed of factors that simultaneously simplify and complicate the work environment. We use the metaphorical construction of continuities and discontinuities to explore this phenomenon, and show that considering boundaries as creating discontinuities in work environments enhances our understanding in two ways. First, the language of discontinuities allows us to employ the device of paradox to explore the underlying dynamics of virtuality. This device makes it easier to examine the more complex reality of virtual work. Second, consideration of discontinuities draws attention to possible problems encountered in virtual work environments and ways that individuals and teams may compensate for the tension and differences implicit in discontinuities; in other words, paying attention to the seemingly logical antithesis of discontinuities, or continuities. By taking a process perspective, one can focus on the behavioral component of work, which in turn, has a subjective component. An example from a field study of a global virtual team is examined to illustrate the usefulness of the discontinuities/continuities framework. JF - Academy of Management Conference CY - New Orleans, LA ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Discontinuities and continuities: A new way to understand virtual work JF - Information, Technology & People Y1 - 2002 A1 - Mary Beth Watson-Manheim A1 - Chudoba, Katherine M. A1 - Kevin Crowston KW - Discontinuity KW - Virtuality AB - "Virtual’’ is a potent buzzword, freely applied to many situations, with many meanings. In this exploratory study, we develop a more precise understanding of "virtual’’ to describe changing work environments. Specifically, we propose a framework to classify work environments based on the type of discontinuities involved. Discontinuities are gaps or a lack of coherence in aspects of work. The framework allows us to compare research across different topics and work settings. We use the framework to classify 75 published articles on virtual work environments or earlier, related research streams. We observed that many studies were simultaneously addressing existing or emerging continuities, factors or strategies for overcoming discontinuities. The focus of "virtual’’ is on changes in the work environment; however, our analysis suggests the need to be equally aware of factors that have not changed and which may become more critical with the introduction of discontinuities. VL - 15 IS - 3 ER - TY - CONF T1 - Discontinuities and Post-Bureaucratic Organizing: A Framework and Research Propositions T2 - Academy of Management Conference Y1 - 2002 A1 - Chudoba, Katherine M. A1 - Kevin Crowston A1 - Mary Beth Watson-Manheim KW - Discontinuity KW - Virtuality AB - Some organization theorists argue that prevailing theories of organizing are based primarily on detailed observations of bureaucratic work, but that the nature of work today is sufficiently different to bring the applicability of these theories into question. They note in particular the growth in white collar and service workers, the rise of “contingent work” and the increased application of computer technologies. While various kinds of non-bureaucratic work such as project-based work and non-traditional employees such as contractors is not new, the pace and intensity of work enabled by communications technologies suggest that a postbureaucratic theory of work may be appropriate. Indeed, “virtual” has become shorthand for novel work arrangements involving telecommuters or virtual organizations. We propose that an increasingly important characteristic of non-bureaucratic work settings is the fact that the workers in these environments face discontinuities, that is, a lack of coherence in aspects of their work, such as the work setting, task, relations with other workers or managers. In this paper, we argue that studying how discontinuities have been managed in a variety of settings may offer insights into the nature of post-bureaucratic work. The first contribution of this paper is a framework that illuminates commonalties in diverse non-bureaucratic work settings and thus suggests how the existing research in these settings might be integrated. Based on this framework, we then consider how various existing theories might be integrated into a theory of post-bureaucratic organizing. We conclude by proposing a set of questions for future research based on this perspective. JF - Academy of Management Conference CY - Denver, CO ER - TY - Generic T1 - A New Perspective on "Virtual":Analyzing Discontinuities in the Work Environment T2 - Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICIS) Y1 - 2002 A1 - Mary Beth Watson-Manheim A1 - Kevin Crowston A1 - Chudoba, Katherine M. KW - Virtuality AB - The word "virtual" has become a potent buzzword and, as such, is freely applied to many situations, with many meanings. As a result, it, like other buzzwords, is in danger of meaning nothing. In this paper, we develop a more precise understanding of the use of the word "virtual" to describe changing work environments. Our specific contribution is to propose a framework to classify these different work environments based on the type of discontinuities involved. This framework enables us to compare research across a variety of different topics and work settings and further develop a foundation for future research investigating managing and working in this new environment. In this paper; we test our framework by using it to classify 75 published articles on virtual work environments and from earlier research streams. JF - Proceedings of the 35th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICIS) CY - Kona, HI ER -