Post 9: Networked Work

This post is based on reading "Networked" and selecting the chapter "Networked Work"

After reading this chapter, I begin to see how ICTs (information and communication technologies) have enabled our jobs to become networked work. It is interesting to see how the organization I currently work for is becoming a networked organization and in some cases already is. The book uses the metaphor "switchboard" organizations "where each person plugs into a direct connection to his/her own colleagues".

It is an interesting thought, that now these organizations are more flexible, team based, laterally coordinated, and boundary spanning. At my internship I have viewed some of these aspects that make them a networked organization. This includes:

• Employees work in multiple teams across multiple departments. I currently am a part of four different teams in my internship. My department is less of a silo and more of a support team for other parts of the organization. We are constantly working with other members that are not in our department.

• The employees work almost everywhere. It was odd when I first joined and started meeting everyone on the team. I saw a couple of names on the organizational chart but did not see them on the floor of our department. Finally someone explained it to me that these employees worked on our team but geographically speaking were in different states. I am still unsure how we can we be so effective when we have members that we cannot see face to face.

• Employees blur the work-home boundary. Every instructional designer in my department works from home one day a week. They 'telework" and stay connected through our Lync chat platform and through email. We can also call them on their cells. Most employees love the flexibility and some say that it reduces the stress of having to commute to work. 

• ICTs have allowed for flexible communication at work. I have seen this happen in my internship multiple times. I login to a chatting software call Lync every day. My supervisor will 'ping' me if she has a question. She sits only three cubicles away, but the questions she has do not merit the walk to find me. I would say it is more effective than having to come to my office and ask me a question.

There are some drawbacks in being a networked work environment. Sometimes work interferes with home life and vice-versa. Sometimes employees might pay too much attention to the social aspect of ICTs and become unfocused. In a decentralized network, they may be less efficient in facilitating the downward communication of knowledge and commands in respect to routine tasks.

What kind of work environment are you in? If your work 'networked'?