Flexible Turtles and Elastic Octopi: Exploring Agile Practice in Knowledge Work

Abstract

This paper takes as its starting place the rich context of many knowledge workers today-highly distributed, increasing project focused, typically atypical days, infrastructural-and attempts to push past extant descriptions of their practices as 'flexible'. Using empirical data informed by a practice theory lens, we expand the understanding of flexibility with regard to work by augmenting how worker disposition, as well as the ability to engage with agility in dynamic circumstances, should be considered as a factor when examining and designing for this population. We make several contributions of interest to the wider CSCW community. First, we distinguish between those who showcase flexible practices and those who proactively orient around flexibility. We call this second group 'elastic workers'. Second, we raise new questions for us as scholars and designers keen to exploit the conceptual and pragmatic intersection of technology and work. These questions create opportunities to explore different methods for understanding complex phenomena such as flexibility, as well as understanding how we might design for this phenomenon with more foresight in the future.

Exploring the remote work challenges in the era of COVID-19 pandemic: review and application model

“…In this literature review, we limit the meaning of location to include rented or shared office spaces and homes, but not other areas like customer's office premises or branch offices (Larson et al, 2020;Ferrari et al, 2021). The second remote work characteristic is the time or work schedule, which is often flexible or atypical due to work-family balance constraints or the nature of work itself (Tausig and Fenwick, 2001;Erickson et al, 2019;Dilmaghani, 2021).…”

Gender Differences and Lost Flexibility in Online Freelancing During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…From at least the 1960s, scholars have been examining the working women's perspective by looking at the broader context in which they do paid and unpaid work, including the relationship of work in the public and private sphere (Hochschild and Machung, 1989;Gerstel, 2000;Morini, 2007;Balka and Wagner, 2020). Scholars have shown ways in which work and non-work times and effort are interwoven, with boundaries gradually blurring for those with flexible arrangements (Ciolfi and Lockley, 2018;Cousins and Robey, 2015;Erickson, et al, 2019;Humphry, 2014). Analyzing the role of gender in emerging forms of work seems even more relevant given that women have historically assumed a greater share of domestic responsibilities (Barulescu and Bidwell, 2013;Blau and Kahn, 2016;Wiswall and Zafar, 2018).…”

“…To better understand flexibility in online freelance work, we draw insight from other technology-enabled flexible working arrangements such as telework, telecommuting, nomadic, flextime, and flexplace: all important topics of scholarship since the 1990s (see Baltes et al, 1999 ; Sutherland and Jarrahi, 2017 ; Erickson et al, 2019 ). Building from these areas, scholars have identified potential advantages to flexible scheduling such as reducing work-family conflict ( Shockley and Allen, 2007 ); time and location independence ( Erickson and Jarrahi, 2016 ; Sutherland and Jarrahi, 2017 ; Erickson et al, 2019 ); and, allowing paid work to be combined with life circumstances that prevent regular work ( Silver and Coldschejder, 1994 ).…”

“…We pursue this work recognizing that the implications to workers and labor markets, due the global COVID-19 pandemic, are profound (Atkeson, 2020;McKibbin and Fernando, 2020;Stephany et al, 2020;Wenham et al, 2020). We also see this work as providing a window into one possible future of work, online freelancing, that is both fundamentally precarious and an increasingly common form of contemporary labor (e.g., Erickson et al, 2019;Harmon and Silberman, 2019;Jarrahi et al, 2020).…”

Flexibility Versus Routineness in Multimodal Health Indicators: A Sensor-based Longitudinal in Situ Study of Information Workers

“…For example, an over-reliance on habitual or routine behaviors may lead to ineffective decision-making, where intentions are overwhelmed by behavioral inertia and default responses [3,61]. In the workplace, inflexible routines are challenged by shifting task demands due to changes in projects, workflow, policies, or social dynamics, a pattern that is more likely to be the norm in the workplace of the future [48]. Routine behavior can reflect an individual s inflexibility and need for predictability, and uncertainty can lead to increased stress and anxiety [37,49].…”