Collaborative work practices in Turkey, five case studies

摘要

Current work practices in five Turkish AEC sector organizations are observed to better understand how it is knowledge workers employ physical and virtual environments and ICT tools to enable their collaborative work activities. The objective is to suggest insights and actions to enhance the relationship of activity, place and tool to leverage the potential to create new knowledge through teamwork. The case studies probe into the organizations' objectives of collaborative work activities and how the tools utilized and the environments engaged support those objectives. The common themes emerging from the case studies are considered alongside three workplace-making perspectives that attempt to expound the potentials of knowledge workers ability to generate new ideas through their work practices. Each theory shares the position that knowledge work is either enabled or hindered by the physical and virtual environment in which the activity is carried out and by the tools used to assist the activity. In conclusion, I suggest two actions Turkish organizations can consider to explore available opportunities in their existing knowledge capital and to engender a collaborative practice with external stakeholders in order generate new products and services. This research is a first effort in a broader initiative to motivate a workplace-making methodology aimed to deliver sustainable workplace accommodations appropriate for the context of Turkey.