Knowledge work across traditional boundaries : a compilation of interviews

This report is a compilation of ten interviews made with people active in three new Arenas at Luleå University of Technology. The report is intended for the International Evaluation Group connected to the strategic work at the University of Technology in Luleå (LTU). The collected data will be used in a future licentiate thesis. In this report however the material is not completely processed and analyzed. Therefore the report should be considered as a preliminary report containing empirical findings and an early analysis. The purpose with the report is to give illustrative examples of new boundary crossing groups in order to develop our knowledge of how to design for knowledge work. Through the understanding of what experiences people who work in boundary-crossing groups meet when they interact and communicate and in this way create a shared context important input to which issues to consider when we design or chose systems for boundary- crossing knowledge work will be given. The systems I focus on are human activity systems (Checkland 1981) and their supporting systems, i.e. information systems in Checkland’s vocabulary. The results from the interviews are presented in the context of Arenas as a way to keep the respondents anonymous but still in a rich way with the ambition to give a rich picture of the work within the Arenas. Showing how communication, interaction, knowledge creation and the creation of shared context have been done. The resluts show taht all three Arenas have been successful and innovative in that they all have been able to create new undergraduate programs and new research projects. This work have been supported by the social networking which can be viewed as a communications process in which knowledge is shared and new knowledge is created. The creation of a shared knowledge base within the Arenas have facilitated and made the innovation process possible. The social networking gives possibilities for redundant knowledge and this redundancy is essential since it gives the ability to envisage a social system of joint actions. Information and communication technology (ICT) is used to complement these processes and in this way increase the ability to communicate across boundaries in time and space. It has been a natural process to begin work with face to face meetings as a way to create the shared context for the work and that as the process proceeds the respondents now considers virtual media.Godkänd; 2004; 20060928 (evan