Tammy E. Beck , Stephanie T. Solansky , Daniel J. Davis , Karen Ford-Eickhoff , Donde Plowman
{"title":"Boundary work and high-reliability organizing in interorganizational collaborations","authors":"Tammy E. Beck , Stephanie T. Solansky , Daniel J. Davis , Karen Ford-Eickhoff , Donde Plowman","doi":"10.1016/j.infoandorg.2024.100524","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Consider the massive recovery response that included over 25,000 professionals and volunteers representing more than 120 organizations tasked with locating both human remains and vehicle debris following the <em>Columbia</em> Space Shuttle tragedy. Despite the daunting scope of the initial search area – 2.28 million acres of land – participating members were successful in their efforts to achieve the collective's goals. We contend that the response effort was effective because relatively disparate organizations and governmental agencies came together and ultimately exemplified the hallmarks of high reliability organizing (HRO). Our study explores how the transition in boundaries made this possible. Using interview and secondary data from our case study, we explore how individuals engaged in boundary work that facilitated boundary transformation. Specifically, we document how individuals interacted with a data visualization system to temper the physical, social, temporal, and scope boundary tensions initially present following the disaster. Amidst an emergent, messy, and complex setting, the interaction with a boundary object allowed for unity in diversity of participating organizations, a common language through mapping, a form of trichordal temporal and rapid sensemaking, and a foundation for dynamic decision making. Therefore, our study yields critical insights into how organizational members engage in boundary work to aid HRO collaborations.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":47253,"journal":{"name":"Information and Organization","volume":"34 3","pages":"Article 100524"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7000,"publicationDate":"2024-06-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Information and Organization","FirstCategoryId":"91","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1471772724000241","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"INFORMATION SCIENCE & LIBRARY SCIENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Consider the massive recovery response that included over 25,000 professionals and volunteers representing more than 120 organizations tasked with locating both human remains and vehicle debris following the Columbia Space Shuttle tragedy. Despite the daunting scope of the initial search area – 2.28 million acres of land – participating members were successful in their efforts to achieve the collective's goals. We contend that the response effort was effective because relatively disparate organizations and governmental agencies came together and ultimately exemplified the hallmarks of high reliability organizing (HRO). Our study explores how the transition in boundaries made this possible. Using interview and secondary data from our case study, we explore how individuals engaged in boundary work that facilitated boundary transformation. Specifically, we document how individuals interacted with a data visualization system to temper the physical, social, temporal, and scope boundary tensions initially present following the disaster. Amidst an emergent, messy, and complex setting, the interaction with a boundary object allowed for unity in diversity of participating organizations, a common language through mapping, a form of trichordal temporal and rapid sensemaking, and a foundation for dynamic decision making. Therefore, our study yields critical insights into how organizational members engage in boundary work to aid HRO collaborations.
期刊介绍:
Advances in information and communication technologies are associated with a wide and increasing range of social consequences, which are experienced by individuals, work groups, organizations, interorganizational networks, and societies at large. Information technologies are implicated in all industries and in public as well as private enterprises. Understanding the relationships between information technologies and social organization is an increasingly important and urgent social and scholarly concern in many disciplinary fields.Information and Organization seeks to publish original scholarly articles on the relationships between information technologies and social organization. It seeks a scholarly understanding that is based on empirical research and relevant theory.