Comfortably ‘Betwixt and Between’?: Delimiting and Blending Space, Time, Tasks and Technology at Work

Mari-Klara Stein; Tina Blegind Jensen; Riitta Hekkala

Comfortably ‘Betwixt and Between’? Delimiting and Blending Space, Time, Tasks and Technology at Work

Mari-Klara Stein, Tina Blegind Jensen, Riitta Hekkala

Aalto University

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

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Abstract

This paper explores the changing nature of work at a telecommunications enterprise, where distributed work has become the new “normal” due to advances in ICTs. To make sense of this distributed nature of work, we build on the concept of liminality, which refers to an “in-betweenness”, where times and tasks of work and leisure, spaces and technologies of the office and home tend to blend. However, work and leisure do not just blend on their own, people continuously work on both mixing and separating them. Our study explores the different types of liminality work that people do to accomplish their daily practices. Our findings demonstrate four types of liminality work – spatial, temporal, structural and technical – and two aims of each type of work – blending and delimiting. Our contribution lies in outlining three propositions that can guide future research on technology-mediated changes to the nature of work.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the Thirty Sixth International Conference on Information Systems. ICIS 2015
Editors	Traci Carte, Armin Heinzl, Cathy Urquhart
Number of pages	19
Place of Publication	Atlanta, GA
Publisher	Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL)
Publication date	2015
ISBN (Print)	9780996683111
Publication status	Published - 2015
Event	2015 International Conference on Information Systems: Exploring the Information Frontier, ICIS 2015: Exploring the Information Frontier - Fort Worth Convention Center, Fort Worth, Texas, United States Duration: 13 Dec 2015 → 16 Dec 2015 Conference number: 36 http://icis2015.aisnet.org/

Conference

Conference	2015 International Conference on Information Systems: Exploring the Information Frontier, ICIS 2015
Number	36
Location	Fort Worth Convention Center
Country/Territory	United States
City	Fort Worth, Texas
Period	13/12/2015 → 16/12/2015
Internet address	http://icis2015.aisnet.org/

Series	Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems
ISSN	0000-0033

Keywords

Liminality
Nature of work
Practice
ICTs
Materiality

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Stein, M.-K., Jensen, T. B., & Hekkala, R. (2015). Comfortably ‘Betwixt and Between’? Delimiting and Blending Space, Time, Tasks and Technology at Work. In T. Carte, A. Heinzl, & C. Urquhart (Eds.), Proceedings of the Thirty Sixth International Conference on Information Systems. ICIS 2015 Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). http://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1421&context=icis2015

Stein, Mari-Klara ; Jensen, Tina Blegind ; Hekkala, Riitta. / Comfortably ‘Betwixt and Between’? Delimiting and Blending Space, Time, Tasks and Technology at Work. Proceedings of the Thirty Sixth International Conference on Information Systems. ICIS 2015. editor / Traci Carte ; Armin Heinzl ; Cathy Urquhart. Atlanta, GA : Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL), 2015. (Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems).

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abstract = "This paper explores the changing nature of work at a telecommunications enterprise, where distributed work has become the new “normal” due to advances in ICTs. To make sense of this distributed nature of work, we build on the concept of liminality, which refers to an “in-betweenness”, where times and tasks of work and leisure, spaces and technologies of the office and home tend to blend. However, work and leisure do not just blend on their own, people continuously work on both mixing and separating them. Our study explores the different types of liminality work that people do to accomplish their daily practices. Our findings demonstrate four types of liminality work – spatial, temporal, structural and technical – and two aims of each type of work – blending and delimiting. Our contribution lies in outlining three propositions that can guide future research on technology-mediated changes to the nature of work.",

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publisher = "Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL)",

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Stein, M-K, Jensen, TB & Hekkala, R 2015, Comfortably ‘Betwixt and Between’? Delimiting and Blending Space, Time, Tasks and Technology at Work. in T Carte, A Heinzl & C Urquhart (eds), Proceedings of the Thirty Sixth International Conference on Information Systems. ICIS 2015. Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL), Atlanta, GA, Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems, 2015 International Conference on Information Systems: Exploring the Information Frontier, ICIS 2015, Fort Worth, Texas, United States, 13/12/2015. <http://aisel.aisnet.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1421&context=icis2015>

Comfortably ‘Betwixt and Between’? Delimiting and Blending Space, Time, Tasks and Technology at Work. / Stein, Mari-Klara; Jensen, Tina Blegind; Hekkala, Riitta.
Proceedings of the Thirty Sixth International Conference on Information Systems. ICIS 2015. ed. / Traci Carte; Armin Heinzl; Cathy Urquhart. Atlanta, GA: Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL), 2015. (Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems).

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Article in proceedings › Research › peer-review

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AB - This paper explores the changing nature of work at a telecommunications enterprise, where distributed work has become the new “normal” due to advances in ICTs. To make sense of this distributed nature of work, we build on the concept of liminality, which refers to an “in-betweenness”, where times and tasks of work and leisure, spaces and technologies of the office and home tend to blend. However, work and leisure do not just blend on their own, people continuously work on both mixing and separating them. Our study explores the different types of liminality work that people do to accomplish their daily practices. Our findings demonstrate four types of liminality work – spatial, temporal, structural and technical – and two aims of each type of work – blending and delimiting. Our contribution lies in outlining three propositions that can guide future research on technology-mediated changes to the nature of work.

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Stein MK, Jensen TB, Hekkala R. Comfortably ‘Betwixt and Between’? Delimiting and Blending Space, Time, Tasks and Technology at Work. In Carte T, Heinzl A, Urquhart C, editors, Proceedings of the Thirty Sixth International Conference on Information Systems. ICIS 2015. Atlanta, GA: Association for Information Systems. AIS Electronic Library (AISeL). 2015. (Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Systems).