Enterprise Mobility

Understanding mobile information technology in the context of work requires a perspective on technology. Throughout the past decades several governing metaphors have been forwarded that characterise computer technology in general as a tool (Ehn and Kyng, 1985), a medium (Andersen et al., 1993), language actions (Winograd and Flores, 1986), intelligent agency (Maes, 1991 and 1994), infrastructure (Ciborra and Associates, 2000) or embodied interactivity (Dourish, 2001). Each metaphor reflects a particular debate and contemporary use of mobile information technology can be viewed as representing all of these perspectives.

This chapter is concerned with technology performances related to the control, planning and general management of mobile work as performed by or subjected to mobile workers. Hughes et al. (2001, p. 63) argue that the increased virtualisation of teamworking ‘creates managerial problems in the form of monitoring and control’. Most mobile work is not directly observable and therefore requires the use of a standardised symbol language modularising and mediating the interaction (Schmidt, 1993; Kallinikos, 1996). The aim is not to explore the complexity of effective organisational interventions in order to manage work in general, as this would require embracing the entirety of the organisation studies discourse. Rather, the aim is to identify salient issues of technology performances for effective intervention in mobile working, such as the tensions between remote control and local discretion, shifts in direct observation and indirect control, and the role of trust in mobile working. The issue of remote control and local discretion is explored in the case of a food delivery driver. The discussion of a health sector professional engaging in work-integrated learning exemplifies the issue of direct observation and indirect control. The chapter synthesises findings into the discussion of technology performances supporting the cultivation of decision flows and organisational boundaries.