Skip down to main content

OxDeg: Negotiating Control: Organizations & Mobile Communication

Date & Time:
16.30 - 18.00,
Wednesday 13 June, 2018

About

Until the early 2000’s places of work provided most of the computers and portable devices that employees used to do their jobs and communicate with others. Now, people bring their own mobile devices to work, use them to circumvent official organizational channels, and create new norms for how communication occurs. Building on longitudinal qualitative research conducted over the past two decades, this seminar focuses on the results of a grounded theory analysis resulting from 150 distinct interviews of people representing over 35 different types of jobs. The data represent voices ranging from janitors, police dispatchers, and customer service representatives, to knowledge workers. Together their experiences illustrate the underlying—often hidden—issues of control and power that shape how people are permitted and expected to use mobiles to communicate while working. #negotiatingcontrol

Data Dump to delete

Speakers

  • Name: Keri Stephens
  • Affiliation: University of Texas
  • Role:
  • URL:
  • Bio: Keri K. Stephens is an Associate Professor, an Associate Director with Center for Health Communication in the Moody College of Communication and Dell Medical School, and a faculty affiliate with the Center for Health and Social Policy at the LBJ School of Public Affairs.   Her research and teaching interests bring an organizational perspective to understanding how people interact with communication technologies and she focuses on contexts of crisis, emergency, disaster, and healthcare.  She has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles and has a book coming out this year, Negotiating Control: Organizations and Mobile Communication (Oxford University Press). She is currently the Principal Investigator (PI) on an NSF Grant studying how people posted “Calls for Help” on social media during Hurricane Harvey.

Papers