Abstract
This paper reports fieldwork from an organization in the print industry, examining a workflow system introduced to the shopfloor. We detail the indigenous methods by which members order their work, contrast this with the order provided by the system, and describe how members have attempted to accommodate the two. Although it disrupted shopfloor work, the system’s use was a contractural requirement on the organization to make its services accountable. This suggests workflow systems can often be seen as technologies for organizational ordering and accountability. We conclude that CSCW requirements should acknowledge such exigencies and the organizational status of workflow technologies.
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© 1995 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
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Bowers, J., Button, G., Sharrock, W. (1995). Workflow From Within and Without: Technology and Cooperative Work on the Print Industry Shopfloor. In: Marmolin, H., Sundblad, Y., Schmidt, K. (eds) Proceedings of the Fourth European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work ECSCW ’95. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0349-7_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-0349-7_4
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-4155-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-0349-7
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