Paulo Nunes de Abreu

Fostering Computer Support to Co-operative Work Paulo Nunes de Abreu

This is the book reprint of my PhD thesis. Abstract: The area of research on Computer-Supported Co-operative Work (CSCW) has been attracting contributions from various disciplines such as Computer Science, Sociology, Management 5Science and Information Systems. The cross-fertilisation of different research approaches to foster the understanding of the social contexts of design and use of CSCW technologies is seen as one of the more important distinctive characteristics of this recent research area. the main objective of the present work is to contribute to such cross-fertilisation by exploring the use of Soft Systems Methodology as an action-research methodology. The research consisted of planning and undertaking research with SSM, which was usefully employed to materialise the learning process that was experienced during the study of the adoption of groupware applications by several case organisations. The present work cannot be described as conventional case study research. Instead, it purposefully concentrates on the self-learning process that constitutes the whole of the research, which is captured in the form of narratives, rather than day-to-day content from the fieldwork. Therefore, the phenomenological contributions that are offered differ from those that could be expected from mainstream qualitative research and seek to make a methodological contribution in what concerns action-research with the use of Soft SystemsMethodology. An innovative aspect of the present research consisted in the application of SSM to design electronic meetings; the learning extracted, in the form of reflections from practice, can be potentially relevant to groupware designers, particularly for those who are concerned in bridging the gap between groupware-design and groupware-in-use. The conclusions point to the need to rethink the meaning of 'technology' not as something that supports group work, but as a form of representing and enacting purposeful group processes in particular situations.