Our research extends debates regarding technology use for knowledge sharing through examining how smartphone photography mediates a complex, unpredictable distributed work practice: responding to operational problems within a transport system. We offer a narrative analysis examining how smartphone photography may (partially) bridge physical distance between managers and engineers, and how sharing images establishes ‘truths’ and provides ‘evidence’. We further explore the challenges engineers face as the demand for images impacts the acceptance of their verbal accounts. We conclude that smartphone photography prompts the negotiation of new narratives of knowledge sharing, narratives that highlight tensions around the role and status of the digital image. With the increasing availability of smartphones at work, and an emerging interest in the visual in organisational studies, this research offers both practical and theoretical insights.
AllenDKShoardM (2005) Spreading the load: Mobile information and communications technologies and their effect on information overload. Information Research10(2), Paper 227. Available at: http://informationr.net/ir/10-2/paper227.html (accessed 20 March 2009).
ArnoldM (2003) On the phenomenology of technology: The ‘Janus-faces’ of mobile phones. Information and Organization13(4): 231–256.
4.
AshcraftKLKuhnTRCoorenF (2009) Constitutional amendments: ‘Materializing’ organizational communication. The Academy of Management Annals3(1): 1–64.
5.
AxtellCHislopDWhittakerS (2008) Mobile technologies in mobile spaces: Findings from the context of train travel. International Journal of Human: Computer Studies66(12): 902–915.
6.
BechkyBA (2003a) Object lessons: Workplace artifacts as representations of occupational jurisdiction. American Journal of Sociology109(3): 720–752.
7.
BechkyBA (2003b) Sharing meaning across occupational communities: The transformation of understanding on a production floor. Organization Science14(3): 312–330.
8.
BittmanMBrownJEWajcmanJ (2009) The mobile phone, perpetual contact and time pressure. Work Employment and Society23(4): 673–691.
9.
BojeDM (2001) Narrative Methods in Organizational and Communication Research. London: SAGE.
10.
Bosch-SijtsemaPMRuohomakiVVartiainenM (2010) Multi-locational knowledge workers in the office: Navigation, disturbances and effectiveness. New Technology Work and Employment25(3): 183–195.
11.
BrownJSDuguidP (2001) Knowledge and organization: A social practice. Organization Science12(2): 198–213.
12.
CarlilePR (2002) A pragmatic view of knowledge and boundaries: Boundary objects in new product development. Organization Science13(4): 442–455.
13.
Corbett-EtcheversIMounoudE (2011) A narrative framework for management ideas: Disclosing the plots of knowledge management in a multinational company. Management Learning42(2): 165–181.
14.
CorradiGGheradiSVerzelloniL (2010) Through the practice lens: Where is the bandwagon of practice-based studies heading?Management Learning41(3): 265–283.
15.
CramtonCD (2001) The mutual knowledge problem and its consequences for dispersed collaboration. Organization Science12(3): 346–371.
16.
DennisARRenneckerJAHansenS (2010) Invisible whispering: Restructuring collaborative decision making with instant messaging. Decision Sciences41(4): 845–886.
17.
DuchenautNWattsLA (2005) In search of coherence: A review of research human–computer interaction. Human–Computer Interaction20(1–2): 11–48.
18.
EdwardsR (1979) Contested Terrain: The Transformation of the Workplace in the Twentieth Century. New York: Basic Books.
19.
EwensteinBWhyteJ (2009) Knowledge practices in design: The role of visual representations as ‘epistemic objects’. Organization Studies30(1): 7–30.
20.
FeldmanMSOrlikowskiW (2011) Theorizing practice and practicing theory. Organization Science22(5): 1240–1253.
21.
FerneleyELightB (2008) Unpacking user relations in an emerging ubiquitous computing environment: Introducing the bystander. Journal of Information Technology23(3): 163–175.
22.
FossNHustedKMichailovaS (2010) Governing knowledge sharing in organizations: Levels of analysis, governance mechanism and research directions. Journal of Management Studies47(3): 455–482.
23.
GabrielY (2000) Storytelling in Organizations: Facts, Fictions and Fantasies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
24.
GreenN (2002) On the move: Technology, mobility and the mediation of social time and space. The Information Society18(4): 281–292.
25.
GuimondJ (1991) American Photography and the American Dream. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.
HerrmannAF (2011) Narrative as an organizing process: Identity and story in a new nonprofit. Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal6(3): 246–264.
28.
HindsPMortensenM (2005) Understanding conflict in geographically distributed teams: An empirical investigation. Organization Science16(3): 290–307.
29.
HislopDAxtellC (2009) To infinity and beyond? Workspace and the multi-location worker. New Technology Work and Employment24(1): 60–75.
30.
JarvenpaaSLLangKR (2005) Managing the paradoxes of mobile technology. Information Systems Management22(4): 7–23.
31.
KrugerJEpleyNParkerJ. (2005) Egocentrism over email: Can we communicate as well as we think?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology89(6): 925–936.
32.
KuhnTJacksonMH (2008) Accomplishing knowledge: A framework for investigating knowing in organizations. Management Communication Quarterly21(4): 454–485.
33.
LatourB (1999) On recalling ANT. In: LawJHassardJ (eds) Actor Network Theory and After. Oxford: Blackwell, 14–26.
34.
LatourB (2011) Networks, societies, spheres: Reflections of an actor-network theorist. International Journal of Communication5: 796–810.
LeonardiPMBaileyD (2008) Transformational technologies and the creation of new work practices. MIS Quarterly32(2): 411–436.
37.
LeonardiPMNeeleyTBGerberEM (2012) How managers use multiple media: Discrepant events, power, and timing in redundant communication. Organization Science23(1): 98–117.
38.
MaierRHadrichT (2007) Designing portals for knowledge Work. In: TatnallA (ed.) Portal Technologies and Applications. New York: Hershey, 217–223.
39.
MaitlisS (2012) Narrative analysis. In: SymonGCassellC (eds) Qualitative Organizational Research: Core Methods and Current Challenges. London: SAGE, 492–511.
40.
MatusikSFMickelAE (2011) Embracing or embattled by converged mobile devices? Users’ experiences with a contemporary connectivity technology. Human Relations64(8): 1001–1030.
41.
MazmanianMYatesJOrlikowskiW (2006) Ubiquitous email: Individual experiences and organizational consequences of blackberry use. In: Proceedings of the 65th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Atlanta, GA, 11-16 August.
42.
MiddletonCA (2008) Do mobile technologies enable work-life balance? Dual perspectives on blackberry usage for supplemental work. In: HislopD (ed.) Mobility and Technology in the Workplace. London: Routledge, 209–224.
43.
MunirKA (2005) The social construction of events: A study of institutional change in the photographic field. Organization Studies26(1): 93–112.
44.
NonakaIvon KroghG (2009) Tacit knowledge and knowledge conversion: Controversy and advancement in organizational knowledge creation theory. Organization Science20(3): 635–652.
45.
NybergD (2009) Computers, customer service operatives and cyborgs: Intra-actions in call centres. Organization Studies30(11): 1181–1199.
OrlikowskiWJScottSV (2008) Sociomateriality: Challenging the separation of technology, work and organization. The Academy of Management Annals2(1): 433–474.
50.
OrrJE (1996) Talking about Machines: An Ethnography of a Modern Job. New York: Cornell University Press.
51.
OrrJE (2006) Ten years of talking about machines. Organization Studies27(12): 1805–1820.
52.
PickeringA (1995) The Mangle of Practice: Time, Agency and Science. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
53.
PyoriaP (2003) Knowledge work in distributed environments: Issues and illusions. New Technology Work and Employment18(3): 166–180.
54.
RhodesCBrownAD (2005) Narrative, organizations and research. International Journal of Management Reviews7(3): 167–188.
55.
RichardsL (2009) Handling Qualitative Data: A Practical Guide. London: SAGE.
RundeJJonesMMunirKA. (2009) On technological objects and the adoption of technological product innovations: Rules, routines and the transition from analogue photography to digital imaging. Cambridge Journal of Economics33(1): 1–24.
58.
SchultzeUBolandRJ (2000) Knowledge management technology and the reproduction of knowledge work practices. Journal of Strategic Information Systems9(2–3): 193–212.
59.
SorensenC (2010) Cultivating interaction ubiquity at work. The Information Society26(4): 276–287.
60.
SorensenCPicaD (2005) Tales from the police: Rhythms of interaction with mobile technologies. Information and Organization15(2): 125–149.
61.
StyhreA (2009) Tinkering with material resources: Operating under ambiguous conditions in rock construction work. The Learning Organization16(5): 386–397.
62.
SwartJvan den HoffBvan BaalenP (2011) Connecting worlds. Management Learning42(4): 371–377.
63.
SymonGPritchardK (2011) Performing and resisting the ‘connected’ worker as sociomaterial identity. In: 7thCritical Management Studies Conference, Naples, Italy, 11-13 July 2011.
64.
SzulanskiG (2000) The process of knowledge transfer: A diachronic analysis of stickiness. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes82(1): 9–27.
65.
van DijckJ (2008) Digital photography: Communication, identity, memory. Visual Communication7(1): 57–76.
66.
Van WijkRJansenJLylesM (2008) Inter- and intra-organizational knowledge transfer: A meta-analytic review and assessment of its antecedents and consequences. Journal of Management Studies45(4): 830–853.
67.
WagemanRGardnerHMortensenM (2012) The changing ecology of teams: New directions for team research. Journal of Organizational Behavior33(3): 301–315.
