Reflecting on Work in Project-Based Organizations: Leveraging Email to Construct Activity System Models for Project Work

摘要

Project-based organizations offer challenging environments for professional communicators interested in reflecting on and improving project related work practices. The episodic work that sustains an organization is often lost to time and the constant reconfigurations of labor. We contend email provides a promising empirical source of data for hidden project work that, when identified and modeled through an activity system framework, offers incredible insights into work practices and organizational influences. Reflecting on a recent case study, we highlight modifications needed to enable this email-based modeling approach to work for analysts considering work in active project-based organizations. We offer a strategy for moving the modeling exercise into the field.