Enacting New Ways of Organizing: Exploring the Activities and Consequences of Post-industrial Work

Abstract

Our empirical study of an interactive marketing company explores how post-industrial work is constituted through the ongoing daily activities of organizational actors drawing on diverse backgrounds to accomplish project-based work. These actors engage in four types of work practices: negotiating agreements, concurrent designing and building, coordinating across boundaries within the organization, and collaborating with clients. As individuals interact across their occupational differences, new ways of working are both enabled and constrained, resulting in intended and unintended consequences for both individuals and organizations.