Switching medium: medium specificity, sensemaking, and the re-design of practice

Giovan Francesco Lanzara
University of Bologna and Information Systems and Innovation Group, LSE

Thursday 25 October 2007 12.00 - 1.30 p.m.

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Fifth Floor, Tower One

This paper explores the problem of medium specificity and its implications for practice in professional and organizational settings. My questions are: What happens in a practice when the introduction of a new technology requires the practitioners to switch to a different medium? How are their skills and cognitions affected?

How are work routines adapted or re-designed? Based on findings from a case study of the introduction of video-recording technology in the courts for the criminal trial, I argue that when a practice is highly dependent on the medium, switching medium may bring about remarkable changes in the domain of expertise, affecting the familiar objects, tools, routines and representations upon which the practice is based.

The new medium puts novel and specific demands to the practitioners’ cognitive processing. If practitioners want to successfully integrate the new medium into their practice, they must learn to work with multiple representations and redesign their familiar routines. However, in their efforts to adapt to a multimedia environment, they also discover new features of their practice and their practical knowledge that are revealed by the new medium.

Giovan Francesco Lanzara is Professor of Organization Theory and Political Science at the University of Bologna, Italy. His interests concern issues of organizational design and learning, with a specific focus on ICT-based innovation and change. His ongoing research explores innovation, governance and institutional dynamics, and processes of knowing and organizing in a variety of settings, among which fashion show management, open source development, industrial firms, and the judiciary.

Please note places will be available on a first-come-first-serve basis - registration is not required.

For any further queries regarding this seminar or to request information about future events please contact Frances White. Research Coordinator.

page last updated 26 October, 2007

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