VOSS: Constructing and Modifying Meaning in Complex Projects

Montana State University, Bozeman MT

Investigators

Abstract

This small-scale feasibility demonstration of a multi-method research design combines sociological and technical approaches to understanding boundary-crossing work. Building on three foundational theoretical threads ?( 1) Mead?s symbolic interactionism, (2) the use of artifacts as boundary objects to support innovative work, and (3) Bourdieu?s practice theory, it deepens and extends theoretical insights into the creation and sustainment of meaning?and related communication breakdowns?among distributed actors jointly engaged in developing innovative complex products and services. The research focuses on virtually organized networks of collaborators on innovative work, advancing novel concepts to concrete products and services, which are often characterized both by lack of a single governance office and an absence of shared understanding at the outset of the work-to-be-done. It builds on previous field investigations by project team members at The Aerospace Corporation, a federally funded research and development center; employs rich social theories to inform grounded and formal theorizing; and uses simulation technologies to represent and generalize an emerging theory of communication breakdowns in large virtually organized innovation programs from the rich, empirical setting originally studied to the broader class of problems that it represents. This collaboration across disciplines and across governmental and academic institutions will produce: (1) Deepened descriptions and understanding of cross-boundary communication patterns; (2) A formal theory of the accumulated consequences of communications in an extended virtually organized network, identifying points of leverage in preventing communication breakdowns; and, (3) Paper(s) and presentation(s) describing the research findings, including preliminary validation of the theory, to be shared at interdisciplinary conferences and in governmental, nonprofit, and industry workshops focused on improving communication processes across organizational boundaries. Addressing challenges in sustaining meaning in virtually organized efforts is critical to timely, accurate production of novel goods and services in many contexts. This project?s research products can advance productivity on virtually organized national and international technological and humanitarian programs that undertake development and delivery of new, complex products and services, as well as lay the foundation for more extensive mixed-method approaches to understanding virtually organized work