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Getting the job done: workarounds in complex digital infrastructures
Conference proceeding   Peer reviewed

Getting the job done: workarounds in complex digital infrastructures

Sara Willermark, Anna Sigridur Islind, Helena Vallo Hult and Livia Norström
Exploring digital resilience challenges for people and organizations, pp.118-132
Lecture Notes in Information Systems and Organisation, 57
18th Annual Conference of the Italian Chapter of AIS, ItAIS 2021, 281249 (Trento, 15/10/2021–16/10/2021)
2022
Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85135169359

Abstract

Digital infrastructures Digital tools Digital work Infrastructuring Innovation Public sector Workarounds
Work today consists of complex arrangements of loosely interrelated digital tools that shape work and form digital infrastructures. These digital infrastructures can either support or hinder the workers in their daily tasks. Working in an environment where some digital tools are designed for work purposes, and others without the proposed end-users in mind creates a need for improvisation. The consequence for workers may include finding various types of workarounds when shifting between digital tools. These workarounds become important for how work is performed. Through a multiple case study, this paper explores how workarounds are manifested in different work settings through four cases in the public sector. We conceptualize workarounds as practices of flexibility, efficiency, and responsibility, and show how workarounds result in new and innovative ways of working, which can be understood as a form of infrastructuring.

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