Investigating New Techniques for Developing Meaningful Models of Knowledge Work

With the proliferation of networked digital technologies and the concurrent fragmentation of work in globalized business organizations, knowledge work is developing along complex lines that are not accounted for adequately in our literature. The field of technical communication, for example, is being redefined as its professionals are articulated to work practices that did not exist months earlier. In an attempt to provide a principled means for making sense of such knowledge work, this paper reports on an ongoing effort to develop new techniques for creating meaningful models of work today. The paper offers an overview of this research and suggests ways that this investigation will be pursued in the future.