A Phenomenological Exploration of Adaptation in a Polycontextual Work Environment

Paul van Fenema and Sadja Qureshi

ERIM Report Series Research in Management from Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam

Abstract: The rise of new ways of working through the use of information and communication technology brings about new phenomena that are powerful in the effects that they have on people. The potency of phenomenology lies in its philosophical simplicity and it provides the researcher with the ability to study the essence of an observable but scarcely understood phenomena: How do people perform effectively and efficiently in a geographically and temporally dispersed work environment? Collective action across multiple time zones continues to challenge both academics and practioners. This study provides a unique view of how globally dispersed participants achieve collective action. It throws light into how the creation of shared understanding is tempered by differences in time zones and how participants adapt through their choice of media, work practices and communication. Following an analysis of a case studied using phenomenology, this paper concludes with a model of adaptation in polycontextual work environments.

Keywords: adaptation; asyncronous collective action; life-worlds; phenomenology; polycontextuality; shared understanding (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J29 M M11 R4 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2004-09-17
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://repub.eur.nl/pub/1612/ERS%202004%20061%20LIS.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ems:eureri:1612

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in ERIM Report Series Research in Management from Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus University Rotterdam Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by RePub ( this e-mail address is bad, please contact ).