Verbal and visual representations in task redesign: how different viewpoints enter into information systems design discussions

Abstract

We explore an important phase of information systems design (ISD), namely task redesign, and especially how different viewpoints enter into the discussions. We study how one particular visual representation, a process diagram, is interpreted and how alternative, even competing, representations are produced verbally. To tie the visual and verbal representations and the representational practices to wider social practices, we develop and use the Extended Three-dimensional Model of discourse. Visual representations emerged as focal in bringing in the different viewpoints and as reference points for discussions. Our model provided a focused and powerful means to unveil for the outside researchers how the planned changes in tasks and authority relationships instigated a social struggle. The IS designer was an outsider to the client organization and therefore considered only the information system, not the social system in which it was intended to operate. Other participants did not recognize this, therefore, seeing the designer as furthering managerial interests. Seeing task redesign in the social context of a client organization can help IS designers and researchers to understand what the users see naturally, that is, the ISD as a dynamic, enabling but socially constrained process where different viewpoints are represented.Keywords: critical discourse analysis, task redesign, verbal and visual representations, social struggle, social determinants Don't think there are no crocodiles because the water is calm.-Malayan proverb I N T R O D U C T I O NInformation systems design (ISD) projects are established to construct not only new computerized information systems but also new work practices, task divisions between people, and J Sarkkinen & H Karsten

Video diary as a means for data gathering with children – Encountering identities in the making

“…as a performance addressing a particular audience, the performer adopting particular subject positions and performing certain kinds of identities. These studies have been carried out in various empirical settings (see e.g., Alvarez, 2001;Alvarez, 2002;Finken, 2003;Nielsen, 1999;Sarkkinen, 2004;Sarkkinen and Karsten, 2005), for example arguing that discourses in ICT development advocate the voice of managers and silence that of users (Finken, 2003;Nielsen, 1999;Sarkkinen, 2004;Sarkkinen and Karsten, 2005) as well as showing how identities are performed during requirements elicitation interviews (Alvarez, 2001 and2002). The aspect of identity construction and exploration has been addressed also in other studies within ICT research, these studies arguing that designers' identities influence the design process and outcome (Kilker, 1999;Levina, 2005;McDonough, 1999) and designers create the conditions for users' identity performances (McDonough, 1999;Van House, 2011).…”

Discursive construction of ‘user innovations’ in the open source software development context

“…Some researchers have already empirically examined discourses in the development context between developers and users (e.g. Alvarez 2002, Bloomfield & Vurdubakis 1997, Sarkkinen & Karsten 2005, showing that the discourses mainly reinforce management agendas and goals. The studies have analyzed planning and task redesign (Sarkkinen & Karsten 2005) and requirements determination (Alvarez 2002, Bloomfield & Vurdubakis 1997 discourses, in which 'user requirements and needs' (Alvarez 2002) and 'changes in tasks and authority relationships' (Sarkkinen & Karsten 2005) are constructed.…”

A study on the effects of routing symbol design on process model comprehension

“…Process models have been recognized as an effective means for documenting and communicating business processes, especially as a means for helping to discuss different viewpoints of stakeholders in projects such as the re-design of business processes [61] or the analysis and design of process-aware information systems [45]. Indications that process models indeed make a solid contribution in this area are, for instance, provided through a study of a large number of redesign projects [26].…”