Keynote #1 - Thursday 9th of June, 2011 at 14:00-15:00

Constant connectivity: Rethinking interruptions at work

Judy Wajcman (biography)

London School of Economics

Abstract

While the subject of interruptions has received considerable attention among organizational researchers, the pervasive presence of information and communication technologies has not been adequately conceptualised. Here I consider the way knowledge workers interact with these technologies. I present data that reveal the crucial role of mediated communication in the fragmentation of the working day. These mediated interactions, which are both frequent and short, have been commonly viewed as interruptions – as if the issue is the frequency of these single, isolated events. In contrast, I argue that knowledge workers inhabit an environment where communication technologies are ubiquitous, presenting simultaneous, multiple and ever-present calls on their attention. Such a framing employs a sociomaterial approach which reveals how contemporary knowledge work is itself a complex entanglement of social practices and the materiality of technical artefacts. My findings show that employees engage in new work strategies as they negotiate the constant connectivity of communication media.

Keynote #2 - Friday 10th of June, 2011 at 11:00-12:00

In the marketplace there is only service – Facilitating customers’ value creation

Christian Grönroos (biography)

Hanken School of Economics

Abstract

In the marketplace there are only two types of actors: those who need support to facilitate their processes to achieve their goals in life or in business, on one hand, and on the other hand, those who have the resources and capabilities to provide this support. The former actor (customer) looks for service provided by the latter group (service provider). The resources invovled in providing this service, that is for support to the customer’s processes, is not important as such. It is what the customer can do with the resources and with the way they are delivered that is important for the customer’s ability to create value when using them. – There are only service businesses, and any firm can be a service business. It depends on the approach to the customers taken.