Computer Supported Cooperative Work

Citation

Hannah, R.L. (2004), "Computer Supported Cooperative Work", Personnel Review, Vol. 33 No. 2, pp. 257-259. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480410518086

This book is a well‐documented, but short read, with only 96 pages of text. The purpose as stated in the preface is “… to provide an introduction to CSCW [computer supported cooperative work] and to discuss its implications for organizations, managers, and employees performing various types of collaborative work” (p. ix). Between the overview and conclusion are four chapters that form the core of the book, articulating the dual themes of evolving work‐related technologies and collaborative work organization. Once this groundwork is laid, the objective is to stimulate thinking about the application of CSCW to human resource management.

The text is interspersed with Web references. Given the hard print medium of this book and its topic, one dimension of quality is the currency of the Web references, so I attempted access to the eight prominently mentioned sites. I accessed four directly without any problems, one that was moved but had a forward link, and was unable to access three. The unaccessible sites were all at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The error returned was unclear as to whether I needed a password or I did not have the right software to image the site. Given the 2001 publication date, I do not find this rate of site of access unusual, especially given the cutting edge nature of the subject matter. The sites accessed appeared less intended to present deep scholarship on the subject than to serve as examples of the possibilities that are emerging.

All chapters except the conclusion begin with numerous definitions, especially of the emerging terms of technology. Examples include artificial intelligence, augmented reality, nomadic computing and intelligent agents. These are not airy, imaginative terms. They are highly reflective of popular literature, especially in the context of computer network technologies. Chapter 5, “Human resource management”, lists terms and definitions that are more familiar to the academic or practitioner in the field. These range from job analysis and performance evaluation to leadership and commitment theories. Within this technology‐human‐organizational interface the problem is set up. How do we (as academics or practitioners) reconcile the familiar with the unfamiliar? To reiterate, the unfamiliar is characterized as the options presented by new technologies and the economic imperatives of work and workforce reorganization in the twenty‐first century.

As a whole, I think the authors have succinctly set up the need for CSCW visioning by the HR profession. Since the text is so short, it is worth the small investment of read time for this purpose alone. For the reader who wants more there are sufficient references to dive for depth.

Academics should find the topic relevant, but perhaps for a different purpose than the authors intended, a purpose to which I will return. Practitioners are likely to find the approach taken by the authors more engaging in terms of forward thinking about applications. I gratuitously agree with the authors that more research is needed to move from scientific discovery of new technologies to their productive or utility enhancing applications. I do not know of any academic researcher who has ever stated the contrary, and am confident in predicting that few ever will. Convergence of exotic technologies with collaborative work systems is an imaginative endeavor in terms of possible applications and outcomes, and imagination is where the authors lead and leave us.

Two sentences struck me in the description of applied CSCW. The first, “Rather than offering an exhaustive treatment of HRM, we elaborate on several key areas, using a fictitious case study to discuss the ways in which CSCW may affect the future use of an organization's most precious resource” (p. 70). I have an intellectual quibble here. In the evolution to a technology rich, highly collaborative environment, some people are precious and some are not, a near truism in any shift in modes of production, and a point aptly illustrated by “Donna” in the authors’ own fictitious case. “Donna,” a supervisor, departed the organization described because she was ill‐prepared to cope with evolving work relations that the authors envisioned in the year 2016. This is a future of virtual employees, virtual contractors, electronic personal agents, and self‐managed work teams. Such new places and times require new leadership skills, and “Donna” was intellectually unable to break out of the old models and modes of thought.

The second sentence, “We invite the reader, while reviewing this HRM primer, to speculate how these modern practices might change as we move to a work world characterized by CSCW” (p. 71). While the case presented to accomplish this purpose is both effective and instructive, I do not see it as a strong close for the book. The reader needs more, and I would have preferred the authors to take more risks in articulating their vision of how CSCW will unfold. In short, such a short book could have employed a few more pages to considerable advantage.

In reviewing a book of this nature I believe fairness dictates not just saying the authors should have done more. The reviewer should be a bit more forthcoming as to what he/she would have done, constructively hinting that the authors might be even more helpful by pursing related lines of research. I return to the above‐mentioned “different purpose.”

That purpose is teaching HRM. Academics should be especially intrigued by the prospects raised by the authors in the context of the total learning experience of students in HR programs of study. Most universities are technologically rich environments (i.e. computer supported, media supported and network supported). There are numerous possibilities to engage student thinking and preparation for whatever form CSCW takes. Using the Web or distance learning technologies is becoming old hat now. However, consider the added prospects of the cable TV production and satellite transmission facilities that many universities have. These are not new and exotic technologies but they can serve well as initial exposure technologies for students. I do not think any of us want our students ending up like “Donna” in the case presented in the book. Somewhere along the way, if HR teaching and learning are to be truly cutting edge, we need to demonstrate that the content of what we teach and how that knowledge is processed and applied via CSCW or other means, is an academic objective of a higher order.

I think the above topic, and perhaps others, would have been worth an additional chapter in the book. However, all in all the authors accomplished their objective. The reader has an idea of what is coming, references to look deeper into the technologies and a case that is a model to think about their own work environments.