Special Issue: Connectivity in and around Organizations

 Connectivity in and around Organizations

Connectivity has become the foundation for organizing as it increasingly underpins and defines the way we live and work. Understanding the world of digital connectivity is central to our ability to understand human social behaviors. Moreover, even as globalization comes under threat, it is difficult to imagine a world without pervasive connectivity. 

 

In the current Special Issue of Organization Studies, we summarize four waves of connectivity-globalization, socialization, personalization and datafication—that combine to create opportunities and challenges for contemporary organizations and draw upon currently emerging challenges to suggest enduring tensions and trade-offs for connectivity research in the future. 

 

Articles included within the collection address a wide range of topics, from behavioral visibility in an age of datafication, developing interpersonal connectivity efficacy in emergency settings, opening and protecting professional boundaries for high-performance, social media usage to support diversity within and beyond organizations, and the implications of anywhere/anytime work as career challenge/barrier for those required to work across time zones. 

 

Darl Kolb, Marleen Huysman, Kristine Dery and Anca Metiu (Guest Editors), Organization Studies Special Issue: ‘Connectivity in and around Organizations,’ Volume 41, Number 12, December 2020. 

 

https://journals.sagepub.com/toc/ossa/current

 

#Marleen Huysman, #Kristine Dery, #Anca Metiu

Introduction to Special Issue:

'Connectivity in and around Organizations: Waves, tensions and trade-offs'

Organization Studies 2020, Vol. 41(12) 1589–1599

DOI: 10.1177/0170840620973666

© The Author(s) 2020

Darl G. Kolb, University of Auckland Business School, New Zealand

Kristine Dery, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA

Marleen Huysman, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Anca Metiu, ESSEC Business School, France

Abstract

Connectivity has become the foundation for organizing as it increasingly underpins and defines the way we live and work. Notwithstanding all the advances in connectivity within organizations, there are even more pervasive changes between and around organizations. In a digital world, more and more of us are working anytime, anyplace, and companies deliver value by better connecting with customers and external partners within digital ecosystems. In this introduction to the Special Issue, we summarize four waves of connectivity – globalization, socialization, personalization and datafication – that combine to create opportunities and challenges for contemporary organizations. We then introduce the papers in the special issue and discuss their contributions to theory and practice. Finally, we draw upon currently emerging challenges to suggest enduring tensions and trade-offs for connectivity research in the future.

Keywords

connectivity, datafication, digital communication, globalization, remote work, waves

Introduction

Connectivity is incorporated into our day-to-day life from the moment we awake to the end of our

day. From shared photos taken moments after birth to digitally extended funerals, we have come to

accept and expect digital connections throughout our lives. We use our smartphones and other mobile devices to inform, entertain and guide us (literally) from one place to the next. We consume

and create media, which have become ‘social’ through the interactivity afforded by the Internet.

Understanding digital connectivity is central to our ability to understand human social behaviours.

Moreover, connectivity has become the core infrastructure of globalization. Even as globalization

comes under threat, it is difficult to imagine a world without pervasive connectivity.

Early connectivity studies initiated discussions of its attributes, dimensions and duality (Kolb,

2008), states of connectivity (Kolb, Caza, & Collins, 2012; Kolb, Collins, & Lind, 2008; Wajcman

& Rose, 2011), paradoxes of proximity (Wilson, O’Leary, Metiu, & Jett, 2008) and autonomy

(Mazmanian, Orlikowski, & Yates, 2013), as well as studies of connectivity in practice, including

mobile phones (Dery, Kolb, & MacCormick, 2014; MacCormick, Dery, & Kolb, 2012) and enterprise

social media (Leonardi, Huysman, & Steinfield, 2013). But much has changed in the realm

of technical innovations, such as sensor technology, artificial intelligence, machine learning and

robotics. And the number of ways in which organizations and societies around the globe have

embraced and embedded digital communication has grown at astounding rates. We consequently

felt the time was ripe for new conceptualizations and investigations into connectivity in and around

organizations.

The call for papers for this special issue anticipated contributions reflecting advances in connective

technologies, the uptake and pervasiveness of social media as it pertains to organizations and

work, the volume and impact of data on organizational processes, and social issues associated with

technology, such as equity, diversity and ethical dilemmas. We nonetheless underestimated the

changes that would occur in those spheres since the call went out. In particular, as we introduce this

special issue, we cannot ignore the profound historical context in which this collection is presented,

namely the Covid-19 pandemic and its dramatic impact on organizational life and life in

general. While we acknowledge the significant impact of this global health crisis on organizational

connectivity, we are not able yet to fully account for the role that digital technologies have played

to transform work during and after the crisis. We will leave that task for others. The papers in this

special issue may nonetheless provide insights and lessons that help us re-imagine a post-Covid

world.

In this introduction to the special issue, we begin with a brief description of four waves of connectivity

that have reshaped the social and technical landscape in which we live and work. We then

go on to describe and discuss the papers in this issue, including some of their contributions to our

thinking. From there, we identify several tensions and trade-offs for future connectivity studies.

Our intent is to stimulate interest in and attention to connectivity in and around organizations – and

to set new waves of research in motion.

The Social Destruction of Reality

"For some time, we have understood the social construction of reality (Berger & Luckmann, 1967). Now, we have reached an age where social actors not only construct alternative explanations of observed phenomena, but actively ‘weaponize’ information in order to destroy others’ perception of reality. As such, we are living in an era increasingly characterized by what could be called the social destruction of reality. Science is being denied legitimacy in many camps, even as the world desperately needs solutions to extensive, if not existential, problems (Fotaki, Altman, & Koning, 2019). We cannot agree if there is actually a problem to be solved, let alone whose truth will prevail in addressing it. While gossip is nothing new, organizations may increasingly struggle to establish and maintain credibility in a world where both information and misinformation abound in mass quantities. In a world swimming in data, the principles of scientific inquiry and thoughtful uncertainty are under threat from a dangerous cocktail of ignorance and arrogance."

This is an excerpt from our article, Kolb, D.G., Dery, K., Huysman, M. and Metiu, A. (2020), 'Connectivity in and around Organizations: Waves, Tensions and Trade-offs,' an introduction to a Special Issue on 'Connectivity In and Around Organizations' in Organization Studies.  https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840620973666

Distance is back

In a recent report 'The future is not what it used to be' McKenzie takes as its first premise:

1. Distance is back

What McKenzie said:

"In the mid-1990s, the idea of the “death of distance” gained currency. The thinking was that new web-based and telecom technologies had made it possible to communicate and work in new ways that dramatically reduced the value of physical proximity. As the flow of information became cheap and seamless, global supply chains of bewildering complexity were able to deliver just-in-time products as a matter of routine. Cross-border trade reached new peaks. And the world’s burgeoning middle class took to travel and tourism with something like abandon. 

Even before COVID-19 hit, there were signs of unease, expressed in calls for protectionism and more restrictive immigration and visa policies. In these ways, people sought, in effect, to create more distance from those unlike themselves.

Such attitudes were far from universal, of course. But to deal with the pandemic, governments around the world have imposed restrictions on people and goods of a severity not seen for decades. According to one study, more than three billion people live in countries whose borders are now totally closed to nonresidents; 93 percent live in countries that have imposed new limits on entry, because of the coronavirus. If a modern-day Hannibal wanted to cross the Alps peacefully, his elephants would be turned away. Eventually, the tourists will come back and the borders will reopen, but it is certainly possible that the previous status quo will not return.

Indeed, for businesses, the prospect of more border restrictions; a greater preference for local over global products and services; the need for resilience across supply chains driving a move to bring sourcing closer to end markets (see element 2, “Resilience AND efficiency”); and perhaps renewed resistance to globalization, are all possible second-order consequences of the actions being taken now to cope with the coronavirus. Technology continues to shrink physical distance, but in other ways, it could be set for a return."

What I said:

I couldn't help but remember a paper I had given to the European Group for Organization Studies (EGOS) colloquium in Lyon, France in 2001.

Paper title: 'Distance, space and isolation: An organisational research agenda'

Abstract:

The ‘death of distance’ is but one of the many claims associated with information technology and other forces of globalisation.  But it is a significant claim and one, which, until rather recently, has gone, unchallenged.  Is distant really dead?  Or even dying?  In this paper, I assemble some interdisciplinary views on the topics of ‘space’ and ‘isolation’ and then put forth the argument that distance and ‘isolation’ are relevant and deserving concepts for more extensive organizational research. I also suggest a list of organizational research questions which might be asked in the pursuit of an enhanced understanding of distance, place and isolation.  

Conclusion:

An Odyssey usually means going to far away places.  But, in the complex connectivity of global culture and organisational life, has the ‘isolation’ of far away places become a thing of the past?  Is distance ‘dead’?  I would argue that distance, place and isolation are still part of the Odyssey of organizing.  And, if distance is not dead, perhaps we are oversimplifying its role in our studies of organizations and management.  I believe that while we are increasingly drawn closer together by technology, spatial relationships, especially ‘isolation’ deserves research attention.  There is clearly much more we might learn about this phenomenon as it applies to individuals, groups and organizations.  The purpose of this paper was to reiterate the fact that distance is still a valid concept, to highlight various disciplinary angles on the topic and to outline areas where further research is needed.  Indeed, distance may not only be manageable, it may be a good thing for organizations.  It is hoped that this research agenda will, in some measure, be accomplished, not to ‘shrink’ the planet, but to further our understanding of our shared Odyssey upon it.

The full paper is available upon request.  Just email me d.kolb at auckland.ac.nz

Indeed, for businesses, the prospect of more border restrictions; a greater preference for local over global products and services; the need for resilience across supply chains driving a move to bring sourcing closer to end markets (see element 2, “Resilience AND efficiency”); and perhaps renewed resistance to globalization, are all possible second-order consequences of the actions being taken now to cope with the coronavirus. Technology continues to shrink physical distance, but in other ways, it could be set for a return.

Virtual is the new Reality

Martin Scorsese once said, 'When it's personal, it's real.'

Sociologists might say, when it's social, it's real.'  By that, we mean that things become real ('reified') when we collectively treat them as real.

After years of referring to online experiences as 'virtual reality,' society has almost instantly and almost universally come to accept that when we do things online, they are no less 'real' than they were with physical proximity.

Virtual drinks with friends, virtual holiday gatherings and virtual catch-ups remind us that the feelings we have for and with others can be just as intense when we experience it in mediated space. One might wonder what took us so long to discover the reality of virtual worlds.

Necessity is, of course, the big driver for doing things differently, but I believe there are two other reasons for this phenomenon.  For some, it's the herd mentality, i.e., everyone's doing and so should I. The other factor is, at least in some societies is an element of altruism, where using new technology is associated with being a team player, a good citizen, or at least a good sport.

While new and even more radical technologies have been adopted by humans forever, but I don't know of any time when so many people took up a new way of work in such a short time.  It may not be much fun, but we're living history.  Let's keep good notes.

Connectivity's Consequences

Today my home country (New Zealand) is going into a 4-week nation-wide lockdown.  Only essential services and businesses will be allowed to operate and everyone is required be live in isolation 'bubbles' at home or another place of residence (i.e., in student dorms for international students).

Other countries are already in lockdown and others are heading in that direction it seems, so we are not alone in this 'grand social experiment.'  With our normal social contact and the physical dimension of connectivity (trade, travel and tourism) enabling the spread of the deadly Coronavirus around the world, our radical isolation efforts force us to rely on technical connectivity at a rate and extent never seen before.  These times reinforce the notion that connectivity isn't everything, but it's almost everything.

What this means for many of us is an overnight shift from co-located work environments to working from home, or wherever we have chosen to self-isolate (or shelter-in-place). While working from home is nothing new, what's new is the sudden scale and scope of such arrangements.  Whole companies and institutions working remotely brings with it an extra emphasis (and stress) on the 'technical' aspects of socio-technical (also known as sociomaterial) systems.

The unthinkable, improbable, but possible technical risk is that the Internet breaks. This seems far-fetched, but in 2006, an article in MIT's Technology Review, titled, 'The Internet is broken,' reviewed the potential weaknesses in a system that miraculously, but organically grew rapidly without much redundancy designed into it.  And, that was before we understood what havoc hackers can cause.

The social 'experiment' is living with social distance and, in many cases, isolation.  For many of us, this represents an opportunity to embrace solitude (as opposed to isolation), to simplify our lives and reconnect remotely with friends, family and neighbors.  It is nonetheless stressful, as family or apartment units are not always based on 'natural' social boundaries, i.e., we're sometimes 'stuck' with folks we're not that comfortable with and miss those with whom we have more in common.

The 'experiment' part is that very few of us have encountered situations that demand so much time with so few people around us.  Like any experiment, we need to try things out, reflect on what works and what doesn't and then try something else until we get our systems and approach refined to what works best for us.

We can, of course, share what we've learned with others, which brings me to the other element of this experience.  This is perhaps one of the greatest 'shared experiences' of our time, if not all time.  Wars are impactful on the whole population of the nation states who wage them or engage in them, but less important to those not directly affected.  The irony of the pandemic is that it is both a consequence of globalization and a salient symbol of the unity of humanity, as we all share its consequences on our health, our economies and our lives.

As with any experiment, we do not know how this will all work out.  We hope the accelerated uptake and applications of the tools of digital connectivity don't let us down, and perhaps lead us to discover new ways of work en masse.  And, hopefully we will discover that the population of this small planet can use the social fabric of our cultures as a protection against harm and a shield against ignorance and the forces that would disconnect us from each other.

Stay safe and go well.