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Dissertation Information for Mick Khoo

NAME:
- Mick Khoo
- (Alias) Michael John Khoo

DEGREE:
- Ph.D.

DISCIPLINE:
- Communication

SCHOOL:
- University of Colorado, Boulder (USA) (2004)

ADVISORS:
- None

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
- None

MPACT Status: Incomplete - Not_Inspected

Title: On being on the same page: Organizational communication and the user-centred development of a digital library collection

Abstract: In a world of rapid technological change, how do organizations understand and make sense of technology? How do organizational members share their understandings of technology with other organizational members? Existing research into organizational responses to new technologies has described how these responses can be complex, unpredictable, and sometimes conflictual, and how remedies for such conflicts are often framed in terms of the need for improved communication amongst organizational members regarding the ways in which they define technologies. I argue that such approaches simplify and elide both the complex nature of perceiving technology, and also the ways in which such perceptions are explained.

This thesis describes the organizational communication of an NSF-funded project as it designs a complex technical artifact, the Digital Water Education Library (DWEL). Drawing on Anthony Giddens' theory of structuration, and in particular his model of consciousness, I suggest that new technologies (such as digital libraries) can be understood by different organizational members in different ways that are ontologically driven and at times incommensurate. Referring to Pelle Ehn's theory of work-oriented design and Wittgenstein's notion of language games, I suggest that the amelioration of such ontological differences amongst organizational members involves those members not just talking about these technologies but also engaging in various forms of reflexive practice associated with them.

I illustrate my claims with an account of the DWEL project that describes how while various project members appeared to be in discursive agreement regarding the issues involved in the design of DWEL, at the same time they embraced different ontological understandings of what they thought DWEL as a digital library was. I will describe the problems that this caused the project; how a range of qualitative and quantitative theories and methods were used to analyse this situation, to identify the ontologies involved, and to provide feedback to DWEL's project management; and how the subsequent organizational communication interventions based on these analyses affected the project in positive ways.

MPACT Scores for Mick Khoo

A = 0
C = 2
A+C = 2
T = 0
G = 0
W = 0
TD = 0
TA = 0
calculated 2013-12-21 17:14:14

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