All Edge: Inside the New Workplace Networks

摘要

As complex and adaptive environments, workplaces have long been a subject of study in the field of technical communication and an area of concern in Clay Spinuzzi's scholarship. In All Edge, however, Spinuzzi shows his readers the workplace from a perspective that seeks to communicate how developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs) have become a catalyst for a significant restructuring of some physical and virtual workplaces. As a devoted workplace researcher, Spinuzzi uses his trademark blend of case studies, analysis, and accessible theoretical discussion to guide readers into the technical and social intricacies of the new workplace networks and helps them to remerge with conceptual and practical knowledge of what Spinuzzi terms "all-edge adhocracies," an emergent form of workplace environment that should be of interest to technical communication scholars. In this review, I distill Spinuzzi's attempts to characterize the adhocracy, describe the all-edge adhocracy's organizational schema, introduce a theory that conceptualizes workplace structures, and identify the adhocracy's place among other workplaces as a potential force moving into the future. I then discuss the book as a widely accessible primer for workplace analysis and an important resource for researchers, instructors, and technical communicators interested in the adhocracy before identifying areas that would benefit from further explanation and research.