Using Genre Systems to Investigate the Interplay Between Technology ...

Proceedings of the 38th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2005

Using Genre Systems to Investigate the Interplay Between Technology-in-Practice and the Knowledge Management Practices of Lawyers Chad Saunders and Mike Chiasson Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract Our purpose is to incorporate recent theorizing on the connection between people, technology and organizations into a framework using the genre perspective of communicative action, and to illustrate how professional organizations represent an underresearched and ideal context in which to conduct investigations using this framework. The framework directs our attention to the resource aspects of genre in addition to the rule aspects highlighted within the extant literature employing a structurational view of genre. By drawing upon an ongoing longitudinal study of the interplay between a document management system and the professional practices of lawyers in a multi-site law firm we illustrate the use of the framework and demonstrate how the analytic lens of genre systems can be usefully applied to the legal case file.

1. Introduction There is a growing concern within the knowledge management field that the knowledge management (KM) concept is at risk of collapse unless researchers can develop more integrative core theories of knowledge related phenomena in organizations [1, 2]. Furthermore, closer examination of the knowledge management concept has lead researchers and practitioners to question the role of knowledge management systems (KMS) in successful knowledge management [3, 4]. The challenge is therefore to conceptualize and articulate the nature of the ongoing relationship between knowledge management and knowledge management systems in organizations so that their impacts can more adequately be assessed.

2. Conceptualizing KMS impacts A useful point of departure for conceptualizing the impacts of KMS is the role of information technology in the structuring of organizations [5, 6]. Within this tradition, the structurational perspective on technology and its use has provided a particularly fertile basis for furthering our understanding of these issues [5, 7, 8]. Human action is central to these models since they posit technology as embodying social structures as designers embed the structures that are later appropriated during technology use [9]. While this operationalization of embedded structures has considerable analytic and intuitive appeal, it is nonetheless counter to the structurational definition of structure, as rules and resources recursively implicated in the reproduction of social system, since structure exists only as memory traces, the organic basis of human knowledgeability, and as instantiated in action [10]. That is, while technology can embody particular symbol and material properties, structure is only instantiated in practice [9]. By interacting with certain properties of a technology, structures of technology use are recursively constituted and thus shape the set of rules and resources that then shape their interaction [9]. These enacted structures of technology use are termed technologies-in-practice [9]. Structure mediates social action through three dimensions or modalities: facilities, norms and interpretive schemes [10]. In social life actors draw upon their tacit and explicit knowledge or prior action and the situation at hand (e.g. assumptions), the available facilities (e.g. land, buildings, hardware, software), and the norms (e.g. protocols, etiquette) that inform their ongoing practices [9]. Under this framework technologies-in-practice is considered to be a kind of structure. This is graphically represented in Figure 1.

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STRUCTURE

Technologies-in-practice

theory of structuration upon which this work is based, the practice framework can be used as a ‘sensitizing device’ to guide empirical investigations [10]. The next section demonstrates how this framework informs the selection of appropriate research contexts and the analytical devices employed.

3. Knowledge management and texts FACILITIES

NORMS

INTERPRETIVE SCHEMES

AGENCY Ongoing situated use of technology

(Adapted from Orlikowski 2000)

Figure 1. Enactment of technologies-in-practice The above framework highlights an important distinction between the technological artifact, as the bundle of material and symbol properties packaged in some socially recognizable form, e.g. hardware, software, techniques, and the use of that technology in terms of what people actually do with the technological artifact in their recurrent situated practices [9]. This raises important implications for assessing performance impacts of IT since the focus to date has tended to place primacy on investments in the technological artifact (e.g. productivity paradox) to the detriment of consideration for what is actually done with the technology in daily use. The predominant view that knowledge management within organizations is in place after the hardware and software has been purchased, is similar to the focus on IT investment and the productivity paradox Recent theorizing on the practice perspective for studying technology in organizations [9, 11], while not denying the importance of the technological artifact, places renewed emphasis on human agency in understanding their effects. This suggests that there is considerable merit in pursuing investigations that consider the impacts of IT using the conceptual lens of technology-in-practice. While this likely directs our attention “into the shadowy areas of our field where our light has not yet been directed”1, there is still considerable latitude available to the researcher on the related issues of (i) where to look for those impacts and (ii) how to assess them empirically. As with the social 1

Paraphrased from presentation given by Dr. Wanda Orlikowski at the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC) conference held in Quebec, City from June 5-8, 2004.

A dominant conceptualization of knowledge management within the KMS literature is the role played by information technology in the increased dissemination of codified knowledge throughout the organization. The underlying assumption is that increased sharing is universally beneficial, and that once codification has occurred, knowledge is easily transferable. However, there is a growing sentiment that other conceptualizations may be possible. Consistent with this interest are investigations of the role of text within organizations as both knowledge representation (product) and the means by which communities sustain organization (process) [12]. Writing structures our relations with others and organizes our perceptions of the world. As a result, by studying texts within their contexts helps us study the dynamics of context building [13]. In the particular case of professions, by understanding texts of the professions, we understand how they constitute themselves and carry out their work through texts [13]. The view that texts are dynamic, causal entities in a social environment is at odds with certain assumptions common in modern criticism since textual analysis typically isolates texts from their social and intentional origins. However, textual independence tends to ignore the profound material basis of texts, thus discarding as inconsequential those texts that have manifestly functional purposes [13]. The social function of texts and how those texts are used to rhetorically manage those functions has received less attention [13]. This is despite evidence that texts are the transactions that make institutional collaboration possible; they are the means by which individuals collectively construct the contexts out of which intellectual and material products emerge [13]. Textual dynamics refers to the idea that written discourse is produced by a complex mixture of social, cognitive, material and rhetorical activities. In return, written texts dialectically precipitate the various contexts and actions that constitute the professions [13]. Once established, professions maintain their organization, power and activity in large part through networks of texts [13]. The next section proposes one way of studying those texts within a professional context.

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5. Connecting technology-in-practice and genres of organizational communication The above discussion places both technology-inpractice and genres of organizational communication within a structurational frame. Recent theorizing on the enactment of technologies-in-practice [9, 11] provides for further theorizing on genres of organizational communication. Figure 1 highlights that technology-in-practice are a kind of structure, but it should also be recognized that this is situated within a number of nested and overlapping social systems [9]. As the above discussion suggests, genres of organizational communication serve as an institutionalized template for social action – an ongoing structure – that shapes ongoing communicative actions [14, 19].

STRUCTURE

The analytic lens of communicative genres, which are socially recognized types of communicative action, is proposed as a useful way of conceptualizing knowledge management since members of a community enact a genre by drawing on their knowledge of a set of genre rules [14]. In structurational terms, genres are social institutions that are produced, reproduced, or modified when human agents draw on genre rules to engage in organizational communication [15]. Genres are characterized by similar substance and form and taken in response to recurrent situations. For professional communities, genres characterize their practice – physicians and the patient chart [16], senior managers and the internal memo [15], accountants and accounting records [17] and web developers and web pages [18]. The genre can be considered in terms of its substance and form, where the substance refers to the social motives, themes and topics being expressed in the communication while the form is the observable physical and linguistic features of the communication [15]. It is posited that genres are enacted through rules, which associate appropriate elements of form and substance with certain recurrent situations [15]. Genre rules may operate tacitly, through habitual or socialized use of communicative form and substance or through explicit standards of form and substance. Genres are predicted to change over time in response to human actions since each time a genre is enacted there is also the potential for the actor to do otherwise to modify the genre or to create entirely new genres. Building on the concept of communicative genres, genre systems are collections of interdependent genres. Genres systems can be considered in terms how they are used as a means of structuring the six dimensions of communicative interaction: purpose – the why or socially recognized purpose; content – expectations about what it contains; participants – who initiates and to whom it is addressed; form – the how, expectations about media, structuring devices and linguistic elements; time – temporal expectations; place – where, location and place expectations [19]. The genre is employed here to operationalize structuration theory for investigating the interplay between professional practice and knowledge management system use. This parallels Barley’s [7] use of scripts to operationalize structuration theory to investigate how technology may occasion different organizational structures by altering institutional roles and patterns of interaction. However it should be noted that scripts were developed by Barley as an analytic tool that operated at the modality level and that the

agents did not necessarily recognize these scripts, while genres operate at the structure level and are generally recognized in practice.

Genres of Organizational Communication Technologies-in-practice

FACILITIES

AGENCY

4. Genres in organizational communication

NORMS

INTERPRETIVE SCHEMES

Ongoing situated use of technology

(Adapted from Orlikowski 2000)

Figure 2. Connecting technologies-in-practice and genres of organizational communication Conceptually this can be represented as overlapping versions of Figure 1 as demonstrated in Figure 2. This highlights some important parallels between the discussions surrounding technology-in-practice and genres of organizational communication. First, the technology-in practice framework places an analytic emphasis on agency in the enactment of emergent structures in the recurrent use of technologies. This provides a useful conceptual link between technologies-in-practice and genres of organizational communication and highlights the

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importance of practice in understanding these concepts and the interplay between them in organizations. Second, the distinction between the technological artifact and technology-in-practice has a parallel with the genre literature in the form of the distinction between the medium and genres of communication. Whereas the genre refers to typified communicative action, the medium is the physical means of communication. The framework presented above facilitates articulating the distinction between the medium and genre through the analytical separation of the modalities. The practice lens avoids conflating the medium and genre as two separate pieces by highlighting what people do with the technological artifact and how the medium is employed in practice. Finally, the technology-in-practice lens highlights that structures are not embedded in technology per se, since structures are virtual in the sense that they are only instantiated in practice. A parallel argument is made for the structuring role of genres in that structures are only realized and observable from genres during practice. Thus believing genre rules are standardized and embedded in a medium [15] is overturned by the practice lens since structure can only be observed during every new moment of use. The above framework builds upon the extant genre literature by emphasizing the role of the media as resource within the conceptualization of structure under structuration theory. To date communicative genres have been conceptualized by emphasizing the rules aspects, however, structure consists of both rules and resources. Considering genres in terms of both aspects of structure (i.e. rules and resources), provides a more holistic view of the role of genres in the interplay between technology use, people and the organization. The next section illustrates the use of the above framework for selecting contexts that lend themselves to empirical investigations of the impacts of KMS.

6. Professional organizations The interplay between technology-in-practice and genres has interesting implications for the study of knowledge in existing and new contexts of KMS use. It is purported here that professional organizations are an under-researched and ideal setting in which to conduct such investigations. Several arguments and observations are used to support this claim: Under the technology-in-practice lens, agency is given increased attention. This is consistent with the professional context since one of the defining characteristics of professional practice is the high level of autonomy under which they operate [20].

Structuration theory highlights the reciprocal relationship between structure and agency through the concept of duality-of-structure and while agents always have the capacity to do otherwise, there are often practical limits to this in practice. The professional setting is one context where the ‘ability to do otherwise’ is particularly evident. The professions rely on texts and text forms, thus the analytic genre lens is applicable within this context [13]. Professionals rely heavily on socially recognized communicative actions often manifested in texts. Studies of genres such as the business memo, accounting records and the patient chart all either explicitly or implicitly draw upon this connection to the professions. From a data collection perspective, especially in light of the longitudinal type of research called for in both genre and technology use investigations, professionals maintain considerable data as part of their ongoing professional practice. These ongoing records form the basis for their professional practice and it is argued here that the application of the genre lens and the technology-inpractice framework can foster insights into the knowledge management practices of professionals and the interplay between those practices and the technologies employed. One of the key considerations in both technology use and genre investigations is associating genre use to important outcomes. However, this is often difficult to accomplish within a business context since outcomes of technology use are often framed in terms of technology investments and profitability. How information technologies affect practice and business genres (e.g. internal memo) are often difficult to connect directly to such performance measures in traditional business contexts. However, within the professions certain genres form the basis of both insights into knowledgeable and successful professional practice, which in turn provides a window into of how information technologies are used to achieve these ends. Therefore, we argue that by looking at how these genres change over time it is possible to gain insights into the interplay between the knowledge management practices of professionals and the technologies employed in that practice. Furthermore, since these genres play such a crucial role in the ongoing practice they can often be linked directly to key performance measures of professional practice. The next section illustrates the above points through an ongoing longitudinal field investigation of the interplay between a document management system and the knowledge management practices of lawyers.

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between technology and professional practice, and this in turn can be connected directly to billable hours.

7. Illustrative example The legal context has received surprisingly little attention within the knowledge management literature. This is despite the importance of professionals as purveyors of knowledge, their growing reliance on KMS in practice [21, 22] and the recognition of the critical role that genre repertoires play in a legal context [14]. The remainder of this section is organized as follows. First, the legal context is offered as an ideal setting in which to investigate the interplay between practice and technology use and second, an overview of a study that employs this framework within a legal context is presented.

7.1. Legal Context Drawing upon the above discussion, four reasons why law firms are an ideal setting in which to investigate the interplay between practice and technology use have been identified. First, lawyers within a law firm have considerable latitude in how they practice law and the technologies they use as well as considerable knowledge about previously successful cases and the practices that enable and constrain this latitude. This high level of autonomy and expertise in practice provides a compelling environment in which to conduct investigations of information technology use. Second, lawyers rely heavily upon texts in their practice in the form of the ongoing records as maintained in the legal case files. Lawyers also maintain a daily record of their activities as broadly classified into billable and non-billable hours. This ongoing record of professional practice is an empirical boon for researchers wishing to conduct longitudinal research in a professional setting. That is, one of the difficulties in conducting longitudinal research is the time commitment often needed from participants so the ability to draw upon data that is produced as part of normal practice is an excellent basis for investigations that minimizes time requirements on the part of participants. Third, it is argued here that the legal case file represents a typified communicative action invoked in response to a recurrent situation (i.e. serving client legal needs) and therefore lends itself to genre analysis. Since the legal case file serves as the basis for the fees charged by lawyers it is also possible to directly link the genre analysis to a key metric for individual lawyers and law firms, namely billable hours. Finally, the technology-in-practice framework presented above combined with a genre analysis of the legal case file can be used to establish the interplay

7.2. Study overview The illustrative example presented here is from a study of the interplay between the knowledge management practices of lawyers and the technologies employed in a longitudinal investigation of a multi-site law firm. During the start of study, the firm was in the process of migrating from existing document management technologies (ranging from paper based to Lotus Notes) to the enterprise document management application Hummingbird Enterprise DM provided by Hummingbird Ltd. The organization is a medium size law firm with regional offices operating in five major Canadian cities. The scope of the study extends to four of these offices where key informants within the firm identified considerable variation across locations. One area of law practice was selected to simplify data collection across the four offices. The area of law practice was selected based upon the criteria that the legal cases worked on by the lawyers were reasonably short in duration so that at least some complete cases could be observed during the study and there was a balance between cases that could be completed using organizational templates and those requiring more customized work for the client. For example, intellectual property law practice could be considered to range from transactional cases where existing legal documents are tweaked for the client (e.g. nondisclosure agreements) to cases where entirely novel work for the client is required (e.g. filing a patent) while still drawing upon transactional aspects. A longitudinal multi-case study design was selected since the theoretical model emphasizes the importance of time within structuration research. The longitudinal design consists of examining individual cases serially and in parallel over time. Since the research question focuses on the interplay between technology and people, there are two levels of analysis of interest, and an embedded design was selected. This is shown in Figure 3. The figure shows one time segment of the study, which is focused on one context (e.g. one of the regional offices) and deals with several cases that draw upon the document management system. Ongoing reviews of the case file combined with observations of the professional work setting are used to focus interviews with lawyers and other key informants within the firm (e.g. admin, technical, chief knowledge officer).

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Figure 3. Embedded case design A distinction must be made between the unit of analysis for the case study and the unit of data collection since they are different. There is a further issue of terminology within the context of the current study since professional practice commonly uses the term “case” to refer to individual legal projects. In this study the main unit of analysis is the individual legal case upon which a dynamic team of legal professionals collectively work over time. The subunit of analysis is the document management system. The unit of data collection is the case file, which represents an ongoing record of the work performed on behalf of the client for a particular case. Two general approaches to longitudinal data collection in this context are possible: (1) looking at various versions of an historical document over time, or (2) periodic review of a ‘living’ case file. Both approaches have the potential to capture changes over time, but certain documents may not be ‘backed-up’ so that it may not be possible to track such documents and only living documents will be available whereby the researcher must actively archive, or at least note the changes in those documents as they are modified over time. That is, following certain cases as they unfold and either relying on the knowledge management systems to manage the document versions or to manually archive documents as they are modified. Data is sourced from 2-3 lawyers in each of the offices, all practicing in the same area of law. Primary data collection for this study consists of 3-5 case files from each lawyer. As noted above, some of the cases will have been completed before the DMS was implemented to provide a baseline assessment of professional practices while the remaining cases will be during and post implementation of the system. The data collection protocol was designed to minimize the time required from participants by (1) drawing upon existing data within the organization that is generated through the regular course of professional practice, (2) employing a longitudinal design that facilitates data be collected during short periods of interaction over an extended period of time and (3) using this extended period of interaction to build longer-term relationships that participants can draw upon as a resource to benefit their own practice. There

are 1–2 primary participants within each of the regional offices of the firm. Each participant is involved with the study at various points and capacities over an eight-month period. This time frame is designed to capture two key events (1) sufficient time to observe the use of existing and the newly introduced knowledge management technologies and (2) sufficient time to observe the completion of one complete case per participant. Data collection is from three sources: (1) preexisting/automated data, (2) interview related data and (3) observational data. 1. Pre-existing / Automated. In order to minimize time demands of participants, the study is designed to draw upon data sources that are generated as part of the normal course of professional practice or automatically generated by the technologies employed. The former is sourced by drawing upon case files, as the collection of documents compiled as part of the development of the legal case. The focus of this study is on the changes in these documents over time as the lawyers interact with their clients and the available knowledge management technologies. This study is not concerned with the specifics details of individual cases; instead the focus of the analysis would be on changes/patterns that can be linked to the use of the knowledge management technologies. For example, the use of embedded web-links within documents, references to email communication, the use of online reference materials or the reuse of materials made available through the system from other offices would be typical indicators. Additionally, the knowledge management technologies automatically generate usage logs that can be reviewed without further involvement by the participant. Insights from these reviews can then be used to guide and focus ongoing interaction with participants, thus maximizing the use of any ‘face-toface’ interactions. 2. Interview Related Activities. A typical interaction with a participant would begin with an initial meeting to discuss the study and establish appropriate protocols (e.g. sign confidentiality and informed consent agreements), case selection (discuss specific cases meeting criteria of content, technology use and duration) and preferred level/form of interaction (daily/weekly; face-to-face meetings, email etc.). This would include a discussion of potential candidate cases for inclusion in the study (e.g. recently completed, ongoing or possible new cases). A general discussion of the participant’s use of the existing and/or new information technologies would also be conducted. Subsequent interaction would focus on identifying and securing access to appropriate case data and clarifying details related to those cases. The

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majority of the time demands placed on the participant would consist of interview related activities. The purpose of interviews would be to follow-up on issues arising from case file review and observations from meetings and ongoing practice. This would provide an opportunity to gain additional insights into professional practice and clarify points and interpretations. Interviews would be focused and brief, often with the questions provided to the participant in advance. Initially this would likely take the form of brief faceto-face meetings but would likely shift to phone and email conversations. Additionally, for key issues that span all participants, existing online survey technology (within the Firm) could be used, allowing the participant to complete the survey at their leisure. 3. Observation Related Activities. (a) Meetings. For ongoing cases, this would consist of observations during meetings with the client. (b) Ongoing Practice. The opportunity to observe and actively work with the participant would be invaluable. The form and time that this takes would be negotiated with the participant but would be akin to the established ‘articling clerk’ model. Investigating multiple cases was deemed appropriate because of the need to investigate the multiple factors identified in the KMS and professional literatures. This is done through an appropriate replication strategy where cases are varied based upon the culture of sharing, exposure to information technology and incentive structure. The head office and three regional offices were selected for this study since initial discussions with key informants in the organization identified that these sites varied upon these key factors. A culture of sharing refers to whether the lawyers in the office generally share their case information and files with each other. This would also be reflected in whether activities such as ‘dropping in for a chat’ are common or discouraged. Other activities such as hoarding of cases or other resources would also be indicative of whether there is an open culture of sharing or if it is an ‘each person for themselves’ environment. Experience with IT is an assessment of how familiar the lawyers are generally with information technology. Training, general availability of computers and use within the office, extent and complexity of the suite of applications available etc. would be indicators of this. From an incentive point of view there are professional and organizational conditions that are anticipated to affect incentives to share. Data collected on incentives was of a general nature in that no details of the amount of compensation received was collected, only the nature of the incentive structure under which individual participants operated was of interest. In addition to

drawing upon existing data maintained by the lawyers (e.g. case files) and the systems they use (e.g. system logs) data collection methods include observation of lawyers as they work on the individual cases under study and interviews guided by the subsequent genre analyses of the case files and the need to understand issues of sharing, incentives and technology use within the various regional offices.

7.3. Genre analysis The genre analysis focuses on the case file produced during professional practice. Case files are maintained as part of the lawyer’s responsibility to their client and profession and have a critical role in case development and in the accounting practices of the firm. The lawyer is expected to track their work practice in detail for billing purposes and must therefore record both billable and non-billable activities. Lawyers are assessed both on performance of billable and non-billable time. Empirically, it is these case logs and case details that serve as the basis for the genre analysis. The case file can be considered a genre system which is a logical extension of the communicative genre concept [19] so the genre analysis consists of an assessment of the changes in purpose, content, participants, form, time, and place. Genre systems are sequences of interrelated communicative actions that can be used as a means of structuring the six dimensions of communicative interaction: purpose – socially recognized purpose; content – expectations about what it contains; participants – who initiates and to whom it is addressed; form – expectations about media, structuring devices and linguistic elements; time – temporal expectations; place – where, location and place expectations [19]. Indications of norms and interpretive schemes are assessed through interviews with lawyers and other informants with knowledge of the preparation of legal documents (e.g. legal librarian). Genre rules can provide key insights into professional practice and by considering changes in the genre system over time, an assessment of the interplay between the document management system and such practices can be obtained. Furthermore, since these insights are about what lawyers do and how they use technology to do it, it is possible to connect such genre analysis to assess the reciprocal impact of professional practice on the technology and the technology on the key metric of billable hours. By recognizing the role that genre systems can play in professional practice and by examining changes in the six dimensions of communicative interaction insights can be garnered into the role of information

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AGENCY

STRUCTURE

technologies and other media in developing the case file over time. This interplay between the technology, people and the organization can be diagrammed as shown in Figure 4. In this figure we see one characterization of how this interplay could occur in practice. It is argued that such analysis over time provides useful insights into the reciprocal nature between the agency and structure issues upon which this study is based.

Conflicting Incentives Competitive Non-sharing Culture Time-based Billing Genres of Organizational Communication Technologies-in-practice

Facilities

Norms

DM functionality Manage docs Search capability Security

Cultivate clients IT Skepticism Develop own Not clear how to use practice area DM for legal practice

Interpretive Schemes

Lawyers use DM minimally and perfunctorily

Figure 4. Limited enacted by lawyers

use

technology-in-practice

8. Conclusion We have illustrated how recent theorizing on the connection between people, technology and organizations offers a framework in which the genre perspective of communicative action can be incorporated. Using this model, we have illustrated how professional organizations represent an underresearched and ideal context in which to conduct investigations using this framework. Finally, we have shown how a longitudinal study of the interplay between a document management system and the professional practices of lawyers in a multi-site law firm illustrates the use of the framework and demonstrates how the analytic lens of genre systems can be usefully applied to the legal case file. This research contributes to our understanding of professional practice by directing our attention towards genre systems as a useful analytic tool for investigating the nature of what professionals do in their daily work lives. By applying the framework which links technology-in-practice to genres, knowledge management researchers can further their

understanding of both the knowledge management practices and the interplay of those practices with the technologies employed. Ultimately, this focus on what is actually done with the technology in practice can provide new insights into the value provided by information technology. Finally, the legal context may offer an excellent environment in which to conduct empirical investigations owing to the availability of data created in practice and ability to connect genre and technology use to the key organizational metric of billable hours. The extreme time pressures combined with the need to log individual activities and associate those activities with work for specific clients makes a law firm an ideal context in which to explore the use of technologies since such use is difficult to mandate and must therefore integrate or improve existing practice. This paper contributes to the extant genre research by directing our attention to the resource aspects of genres (e.g. through the media). The framework presented highlights the connection between genre and technologies-in-practice. An example drawn from an ongoing research project is used to illustrate how this framework can be employed to guide the design of studies investigating the interplay between professional practice and their use of information technologies.

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