MAKING MANAGEMENT MOBILE: Mats Edenius, Associate Professor Uppsala university Swedish IT-User Centre P.O. Box 337, SE-751 05 Uppsala, Sweden e-mail:
[email protected] Tel: +46 704 250762 (corresponding author)
Hans Rämö, Associate Professor Stocholm University, School of Business SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden e-mail:
[email protected] Tel: +46 8 620 00
Per Andersson, Associate Professor Stockholm School of Economics Center for Information and Communications P.O. Box 6501 SE-113 83 Stockholm, Sweden e-mail:
[email protected] Tel: +46 8 7369535
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MAKING MANAGEMENT MOBILE
Abstract The use of mobile phones has become increasingly widespread during the past two decades. Mobile phones have evolved from being used largely for oral communication and information transfer, to handheld devices also used for accessing emails and Internet sites, as well as retrieving and storing all kinds of digital data. Mobile phones are, in conventional research, said to compress time and space, and propel more efficient work processes and organizations. The aim of this paper is to report the finding of an explorative case study how senior managers use mobile communicators in their everyday working life according to new configurations of time and space. A case study based on semi-structured interviews (single events) with 16 top managers in a telecom company. Three different time-space configurations, related to mobile phones, are simultaneously evident in the managers´ everyday work. These configurations are related to different practices. Firstly: The managers are looking for meeting spaces, but finding themselves on the move. Secondly: The managers are in a mode of instant evaluation processes. Finally: The managers are implaced in meetings, and also in a space of communication. Findings illustrate how new practices and mobile information technologies live in symbioses that enable new time-space configurations to be reproduced. To understand mobile phone usage related to managers’ everyday work we should start an analysis of the practices that allow new configurations of time and space not only to be produced, but also reproduced.
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1. Introduction Mobile phones have evolved from being used largely for oral communication and information transfer, to handheld devices also used for accessing emails and Internet sites, as well as retrieving and storing all kinds of digital data. Expanding from being a mobile phone to becoming an integrated wireless digital service provider, have also influenced working practices in many domains of activities, particularly among people working outside the traditional office settings but also in more formal organizations. The perception of the working time and space has, for example, stretch well beyond the traditional office hours and space, into a global 24/7/365, increasingly covering any and all locations with mobile connectivity. Thus, we are increasingly moving away from the traditional, static office structure towards an increasingly mobile, independent and flexible manager and workforce, where multiple tasks can be worked on simultaneously, practices coordinated and synchronized in new ways. Mobile communicators have ”speeded up” different processes and made experiences becoming “instantaneous”. The mainstream research in this field describes the impact of using mobile phones in rather deterministic terms (Rettie 2005). However, the picture of modern mobile technologies is much more fragmented (Latour 1987, Orlikowski 1991). Arnold (2003), for example, not only highlights the difficulties to reach the “space of potentially independence”, but regard that mobile phones perform in Janus faced way; that is, in ways that are ironic, perverse and paradoxical. A degree of independence is, for example, facilitated only when the user is codependent, and the connection between self and Other must be maintained at all times, in all places, in synchronous time. Hence regardless if mainstream research in the information technology field views the technology as the key driver of new knowledge, new market structures, new organization settings, and new working models etc., such a straightforward casual relationship can be questioned. Hence, in this paper we argue that information technology should not be seen as a causal factor generating independency, efficiency, etc., but new practices and mobile information technologies form a duality and their meanings are mutually constituted and dialectically intertwined. 2. Aim The aim of this paper is to report the finding of a case study on how managers use mobile communicators in their everyday working life, according to how new practices and mobile information technologies are mutually constituted and dialectically intertwined. By drawing on a qualitative case study, the paper offers a discussion how new practices (routines) occur that enable new time-space configurations not only to be produced, but also reproduced. 3. Method In order to explore how top management uses their mobile phones in their daily work we have chosen to interview 16 senior managers in a leading telecommunication company. The interviews are stemming from one case study. The reason why we have chosen top managers is that they might be said to be avant-garde in designing, promoting and using such mobile devices, from whose experience others might learn. A series of interview questions was
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developed to explore mobile communication strategies and techniques used by top managers in their everyday managerial work. Each person was contacted by phone to set up a time to conduct the interview in their offices. Each interview took from 50 to 100 minutes. The survey questions were used as a guide for the conversation, rather than as a strict question and answer tool. In this way, the interviewer was able to structure the conversation in a way that obtained the most relevant information about the respondent’s use of mobile communicators. Each interview was recorded and each of these was later transcribed verbatim. In addition, notes were taken throughout each interview. The focus on how and why questions concerning the use of mobile applications among the managers in our focal, global organization made the case study approach a natural choice of method (Yin 1989). The how and why questions in focus addresses a contemporary set of events over which the investigator has little or no control, providing another strong argument for the use of the case study. This explorative case study uses interviews as the main source of data, but the preparatory stage involved multiple means of data collection, one of the criteria and characteristics of case study research. The complexity of the unit (i.e the management group) has been studied intensively. In this state of the knowledge building process, the case study is viewed as the most appropriate for exploration, classification and development of propositions for further research. 4. Empirical Themes In keeping with the approach of the study, the empirical examples should neither be taken to be a sample of practices that exhibit the most successful mobile management characteristics, nor to encompass a full picture of how managers using mobile phone technologies in everyday life. Instead, the examples are chosen as illustrations of a conspicuous pattern of an empirical material of everyday use of mobile communicators, particularly in a leading ICT Company.
5. Compressing Time and Space – Everyday When asking managers at the ICT Company how they internalize new forms of ICT in their everyday work, all stressed their dependency on their hand-held communicators (i.e. their mobile phones with email, Internet and other ICT capabilities). The mobile phone and other forms of information technology are increasingly living in symbiosis with being and working as a manager. The managers say they use the mobile communicators to communicate, to receive information, to improve their knowledge and manage different activities. All interviewees are equipped with contemporary models of handheld mobile communicators. They use it for sending mail, making phone calls and organizing different activities. The managers generally receive 20-70 mails and make at least 10-50 phone calls a day. Frequent traveling and extensive meetings are scheduled and coordinated by using the communicator, rather than with the help from a secretary. The mobile communicator makes it possible to stretch out the working days and synchronize different processes. It could be said to lie at the heart of what using mobile communicators is all about. As one manager said: I think we can increase do things more efficiently due to the mobile phones. I can receive a question at 10 pm and respond to it immediately. Otherwise we had to
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stretch the time... I can work at airports and I can get information about when my plane departs and from which gate… I can get information about everything. The managers have their mobile communicators switched on day and night, though on silent mode during night. They use their mobile communicators and its services almost at every time and every moment. They say that they work a lot and have long working days in high tempo. It is striking that the managers frequently link the high tempo to the use of information technologies. As a manager expressed it: Yesterday, I had at least 70 calls, in and out; there’s a counter on the phone… Since May 6 last year [approx. a year ago] when the phone’s call counter was reset, I’ve had 400 hours of calls; 150 hours in and 250 hours out – and now a customer is calling! The interviewees point at the coordinative capability of mobile communicators. The interviews with the managers also remind us in line with the generally accepted truth that information technology, when implemented in organizations, speeds up business processes and saves time. Several managers pointed out a rapid development in the way they communicate: I have worked at [the ICT Company] for 18 years, there has been tremendous development. There is a heck of a lot to do today, you can communicate globally, and send e-mail and such things. The communication speed is very high. The intensity of the managers’ work seems extraordinarily high. The assumption that mobile communicators ”speed up” different processes, and such experiences become “instantaneous”, is attributable to a number of factors. Perhaps the most well-known epithet is “compression” of time and space (as popularized by Harvey, 1990). Linked to how the managers at the ICT Company use their mobile communicators, compression could be seen in several ways. The most obvious example is perhaps how mobile communicators – as many information technologies – mean “death of distance” and “presence-availability” (Lash and Urry, 1994). The managers become, for example, less sensitive to international time-zone differences. Another far less noticed aspect is that information technology also compresses time and space due to how information is represented on the screen or the display. Storing the phone calls (representations), the e-mail, the SMS text, etc. makes it possible to get control. It becomes easy to pick up relevant addresses and find out who in the network it is worth spending time to send e-mail to. And thanks to the structure it becomes easy to find the right number in the phone list, the most relevant e-mail, SMS text, and people who will potentially answer your mail or phone call. Representation as categorizing is closely linked to abbreviations that economize space and time, in two ways: by close packing and by reduction of size and space, together with an ambition to reach an exhaustive description. Thus, we get “knowledge at a glance” and make things happen at a higher speed. In other words, the way information is represented in the mobile communicator strengthens mind and body to handle more information. The interviewees, for example, synchronize their outlook calendar with their mobile communicator. The managers could be said to be implaced by the outlook calendar in time and space. Hence, this kind of implacement makes it possible to be almost fully occupied by constantly attending different meetings. The colleagues then just glance through the calendar and within a second they find some “free” space to reserve for a meeting. The interviewees also glance through their e-mail inboxes and make similar decisions about who
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to call, or look at the calendar to make a reservation, etc. This is also what the interviewees say is going on in the organization. This could be noticed at the same time as it is discernible generally how mobile communicators have improved time management in terms of new opportunities for interaction, and above all that more time is used for communication (cf. Gant and Kiesler, 2001). The above findings have regarded the mobile communicators and their implications in quite instrumental terms. The argumentation and illustrations hitherto follow the vein that information technology changes working practices, which are changing time and space configurations (i.e. compressing time and space). Next comes a section which describes how new practices can be related to the use of mobile communicators and new time and space configurations.
6. Learning New Practices – New Routines and New Time and Space Configurations By using mobile communicators, managers organize their daily work in ways that can be characterized by time blocks and work operations moving in a constant flow that needs to be managed not only effectively, but also with ever-increasing speed and efficiency. The time arrow is linear and progressively forward-directed. The importance of the stationary place has, in many ways, been forced to give way to a flow-directed space where effectiveness and rationality of the work tasks are the guiding stars. Consequently, based on the interviews, it is possible to discern some characteristics about managers working with mobile communicators; below are some different traits/vignettes that have emerged from the interviews that shed light on new learning practices and new time and space configurations from using mobile communicators.
7. Looking For Space To Be At, But Becoming ‘On The Move’ The organizational members are indeed implaced in space in a productive way, but not implaced in place – they are rather implaced “on the move”. They have learned to be on the move. The working schedule for each working day includes continual use of mobile communicators to communicate with peers and to coordinate activities. There is, however, also an expectation that you are accessible during off-hours and off-days. The actual working time is, on average, typically far longer than the 07.30-17.00 schedule indicates. In the morning, the mobile communicator sets the agenda and which “posts” they are assigned to at a certain point in time over the day. One characteristic is, however, managers’ frequent encounter with impromptu situations. Whereas ‘schedulers’ – electronic notepads (outlook calendars) or diaries – create an expected order of procedure for the day, users of mobile communicators have to rely more on the ability to handle unexpected incidents that cannot formally be handled according to schedule. Their work is becoming increasingly varying, intensive, and unpredictable, with less feeling of a sense of accomplishment at the end of the day. However, parallel with all the impromptu situations, the managers are almost fully occupied with participation in meetings. One manager alluded humorously to John Cleese’s words, when saying: “I can’t go to meetings ‘cause I’m always in meetings!”. Another manager explained the situation in the following sober way:
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I had a meeting in the morning and then a second one, followed by discussion about our forthcoming financial report, and then I’d a meeting downtown with some bank representatives, because we’re dealing with M/A issues too [mergers & acquisitions], and then I’d had four more meetings, and… The numbers of meetings differ of course, but it is not unusual to participate in 6-10 meetings a day. It could be said that the mobile communicators both are related to generating impromptu meetings, and to administrating and coordinating different meetings. Some managers’ even said that they primarily used their mobile communicators to administrate meetings. I would say that the most important are calls for meetings; acceptance of appointments, or rescheduling appointments; there are lots of such issues. That’s the most important, I would say, because when I travel, it’s a question of attending meetings, and you need to know details about the meetings; that’s what this tool has done for me.
However, this circumstance seems not to have helped them to full extent. Rather the opposite seems true. The number of meetings seems to have become too many, frequently grouped too closely together and sometimes quite unnecessary according to the managers’ working tasks (a theme discussed later on). Some of the interviewees express this phenomenon by saying that they felt bustled about. However, the mobile communicator, partly, helped them out of this dilemma, as in the following case: Before, you needed to be there on time, otherwise the work couldn’t be started. And then you went home when the rest went home, because there was no point in staying. That’s not the situation today. This new mobile technology has wiped out much of the traditional office hours. You can start before anyone else has arrived, because you can call them up and discuss over the phone. It has become accepted to be in constant state of “on the move” between different more or less planned meetings and being in different impromptu meetings. The mobile communicator has both been used as a tool to administrate the meetings, generating planned as well as impromptu meetings. The managers seem to strive for consistency, predictability and implacement, but the present illustrations show that the managers are frequently “on the move”, occupied in a lot of meetings, proceeding at high speed, and filling their working time with supposedly productive time. Compression of time and space could be said to mean movement in time and space. By alluding to the words of Castell (1996), the promised coordinative possibilities of creating a space of flows by using mobile technology has been offset by the handheld communicators coordinating capacity of arranging an increasing number of physical (impromptu) meetings in space of places.
8. To Be In A Mode Of Instant Evaluation Processes In Time And Space The speed of information exchanges today drives the nonstop mentality that has made multitasking a necessity. The managers could find themselves in a multitude of spaces and times which interpenetrate and permeate their daily lives. Today’s managers have become
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increasingly involved in frequent browsing of the inbox and incoming phone calls in a constant evaluation and classification of the incoming messages. It’s about everyday decisions. A decision could be to inform someone that you’re 15 minutes late for a meeting, or that you can’t attend, because you’re caught in another meeting. Such information makes things roll. To be a top manager is to be almost fully occupied with making judgments and making evaluations. It could be said that different managers’ cognitive capacities are highlighted according to new time and space configurations. The managers have learned to evaluate in a space of race for time. However, this seems not to be an uncomplicated process. As one manager described it: The drawback is that you’ve to take the active decision not to check incoming messages. On average, I receive 70 mails a day and if my computer is switched off, they all come to my mobile. It’s convenient when you’re traveling, when making an intermediate landing, you can check your important e-mails. In that situation, I can call or reply to an email, that’s a good function. Otherwise, you just are postponing your problems. The numbers of email you receive each day will not disappear, but stacks up, and you’ll get twice as much to do the next day. The managers have to make their own decisions about wehther they should answer a phone call and if they should respond to an incoming mail immediately or not. Nobody else makes the decision for them. This situation differs from what it used to be. As said by a manager: Some years ago, you wrote a draft, which you gave to a secretary, who wrote and corrected the text, and it came back and you read it, corrected it, well it was a pretty long process before that letter was sent to someone outside and formulations were altered. Today it’s an email; and Beep, it’s away without anyone seeing it, maybe also to an external party. The number of phone calls and incoming mail is large. The managers are forced to prioritize in time and space, but how do they prioritize? When my boss calls, then you take the call, always. You know it’s pretty important and you take the call. Otherwise calls go to your voice-mail and you sort them out. I might get 20 calls and 10 SMS per day What’s happening in the meeting room depends on who’s receiving the call. If it’s someone important for the meeting, everything stops. If it’s someone less important, then the meeting goes on. It’s a question of hierarchy, and perhaps also about how loudly they’re talking (laughing). Sorry, but I have to answer this phone call – it is the fifth time it rings, yes, I suspect it must be something important… By splitting the world into ”this and that”; by doing this the managers bring into consciousness the constituent parts of the phenomenon they are interested in. In other words, getting to know how to handle mobile phones entails learning (routines) to make competent
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use of the categories and the distinctions in that domain (cf. Townley, 2002). By dividing their incoming calls and messages the managers can maintain a vision, get control, and ascribe significance to certain aspects of the world. The interviews indicate that the managers either prioritize in ranks (space), or in time (“fifth time it rings, I’ll answer”). However, what happens if the prioritizing division is lost? So is also vision, and control. When the manager gets an anonymous phone call or mail, they got confused and said that they did not answer such a message or phone call. It is always possible to see who is calling, you get a kind of ranking list according to your phone book, but there are also some calls where I can’t see who is calling, people with a hidden number…usually I don’t care to answer such calls at all. The managers have learned to be in a steady mode of instant evaluations. They will find themselves in an analytical space of distinctions, generating compression of time and space.
9. To Be Implaced In Meetings, But Being In A Space Of Communication It is getting to be a common occurrence at meetings to leave the mobile communicator turned on, but turned to the silent mode during presentations. Nowadays, interrupting meetings by mobile phones or mobile communicators going off is still an offence (at least in the company we studied), but having it on silent mode – or even checking and writing messages at a meeting – is no longer impolite nor rude. We could say that this is the rational result of being occupied in different meetings, but “being on the move” and confronted by forthcoming situations and problems to deal with. What does this mean in terms of space and place configurations? It does not matter if you are not listening (you have made your decision), but you are not supposed to interfere or interrupt your colleagues in place. When we’re having our executive meetings, our phones are silent, not switched off. If someone’s saying “let’s switch off our phones”, then I’ll switch mine onto silent mode, because I want to see if, for instance, my kids are calling – if something’s happening,. There are situations when you have your phone switched on. You don’t need to answer all the calls, definitely not in meetings. Then you’re using the list of priorities you have in your head. The managers are also aware of that the receiver of a call might be sitting in a meeting. I would say that SMS is a sort of non-intrusive way of communication, when I know the other party’s having a meeting, and then I’ll send him an SMS, which can be read during a meeting The managers may also regard the meeting as a possibility to communicate with other participants of the meeting: When you’re in negotiations you might send a message to each other in the same room asking, for instance: “shall we accept this”, and sometime I contact people outside the room to check up important issues.
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The compression of time would largely not be possible if it were not possible to communicate during meetings. The managers participating in different meetings do not have to be very much engaged in the meeting as such, the managers can always be connected and compress their time. New virtues have appeared that re-crystallized what an ordinary meeting is all about and how to behave in a meeting. New learning has taken place that makes it possible to communicate in new ways. The managers are indeed implaced with their bodies, but occupied by being in the space running non-stop. Conventional virtues, i.e. to show other people that you are interested in what they are saying etc, are getting weaker. At the same time, new virtues turn up, that say that you should communicate in a non-intrusive way by sending SMS, you should answer calls of higher rank or someone (known) who has tried to get through several times. Consequently, the managers attend numerous meetings, planned and unplanned. However, physical presence in a meeting may not only include temporary absence – when dealing with other matters on the mobile communicator – but also informal, under the tabletop, electronic conferencing with other participants over details in the meeting. 10. Analysis – Three Different Openings For Further Research The empirical material let us draw some tentative conclusions and inspire for further research settings/focus. Building on the three previous points drawn from the empirical study, we elaborate on a set of issues for deeper analyses: In the first of our themes above it is argued that organizational members are implaced in space in a productive way, but not implaced in place – they are rather implaced “on the move”. They have learned to be on the move. This phenomenon could be deconstructed and linked different types of modalities. Kristoffersen and Ljungberg (2000: 41) put forward three different types of modalities that that seems be congruent with is illustrated above; They distinguish between travelers that perform activities while moving between different locations (meetings) usually inside a vehicle, wanderers that perfom activites while moving between different locations, and visitors that perfom activities at different locations (cf. Valiente 2007). In the case of our management group, we can see that being a visitor is not the only way to participate and communicate during meetings, i.e. members of the meeting to a lesser extent need to go to one specific place for important meetings, but can to some extent also communicate and take decisions on important content while moving. In the second of our themes it is argued that the managers have learned to be in a steady mode of instant evaluations. They will find themselves in an analytical space of distinctions, generating compression of time and space. One of the interviewees says; “I don’t care to answer such calls at all.” One intriguing question is to illuminate what kind of opportunities the mobile phone generate regarding how the bosses and managers might be able to delegate different issues. They are indeed encapsulated in an analytical space, but the mobile phones also make it possible to “forward” different information, to be in a position of a middleman. This might also be a “vantage point” to exercise power in more active way, to demand fast communication, and demand almost instantaneous decisions by other colleagues. Hence, the mobile phone and wireless e-mails make possible also the mobilization or exclusion of many “others” in decisions (e.g using the “cc” function), both during and between meetings.
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The third theme illustrates that meetings may not only include temporary absence – when dealing with other matters on the mobile communicator – but also informal communication with other participants over details in the meeting. This draws attention to important shifts in temporality dimensions of communication made possible by new wireless applications. In other words, and relating to our example, concurrent communication is made possible. If we view this type of temporality in communication in terms of the three general notions of time in enterprises - synchronization, coordination, and sequencing - these notions can be applied to illustrate temporality shifts as a consequence of the use of the wireless applications (Sztompka, 1993). For example, management meetings and decision processes require certain moments and elements of synchronization between people, and between people and machines/artefacts within and between enterprises. The greater the interdependence of actors (here: enterprises), the greater the necessity for temporal synchronization. Important things need to be communicated concurrently between often large numbers of people. The case indicates that the use of new wireless applications can have effects on such synchronization processes. Decisions and communication processes are related and interdependent, and need to be coordinated to lead to a common goal. The mechanisms by which such interdependencies are handled are shown to be affected by the use of new technologies, whether such coordination involves direct interaction between actors or not. In addition, decision process in meetings in an enterprise setting most often involves a logic where certain activities or events follow one another in sequences. These sequences relate the individual decisions/actions within a time order, and to phases or stages in an overall process. Sequencing is dependent on coordination because coordination between different sequences in different meetings and communication processes often involves more than one actor, and coordination within a sequence in enterprise settings is often affected by unforeseen conditions. Wireless technologies can have effects on this temporality notion of these communication processes in enterprises. 11. Concluding Remarks This paper presents an empirical material of the emerging use of mobile communicators among top managers in a leading ICT Company. The paper shows that the increasing use of mobile communicators facilitates an organization of everyday management practices that becomes less fixed in time and place, e.g. when communicating and coordinating meetings and other everyday activities. Findings illustrate how new practices and mobile information technologies live in symbioses that enable new time-space configurations to be reproduced. What practical implications might come from this study? To understand mobile phone usage related to managers’ everyday work we should start an analysis of the practices, new routines, virtues linked to different temporalities that allow new configurations of time and space not only to be produced, but also reproduced. The empirical case helped us draw some tentative conclusions and inspire for further research.
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