METHODOLOGICAL APPROACH FOR MOBILE STUDIES: EMPIRICAL RESEARCH CONSIDERATIONS Silvia Elaluf-Calderwood, Jan Kietzmann and Amarolinda Zanela Saccol Department of Information Systems - London School of Economics and Political Science. Email: {s.m.elaluf-calderwood, j.h.kietzmann}@lse.ac.uk Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos and Universidade de Sao Paulo. Email:
[email protected] Abstract: Studies about mobility and mobile interaction help researchers and practitioners in the social sciences to make sense of emergent working and living practices in an increasingly mobilised world. This paper aims to present a reflective analysis of the recommended methodological approaches for mobile studies based on three case studies. Following mobile workers across the different dimensions of time and space is a major challenge researchers have to face. The paper discusses these challenges, and highlights areas of interest for researchers interested in the study of mobility and mobile interaction. Keywords: Mobility, mobile technology, case study research, qualitative research methods, ethnomethodology.
1. Methodological approach adopted in mobile studies Mobile studies have reflected the emergent working practices in our increasingly mobilise world (Urry 2000; Sorensen, 2002). In this context, researchers have pursued new proposals for the study of mobility and mobile interaction by conducting various forms of fieldwork (Weilenmann, 2003; Laurier 2002). For this paper three case studies are discussed. Their respective contexts include the use of smart phones (a mix of a PDA and a mobile phone) by Account Managers in the banking sector, mobile workers employing SMS technology and highly mobile taxi drivers and their use of mobile phones for work. The underlying assumptions of these mobile case studies are focused on work-related mobility within the parameters of office-work and fieldwork. By moving away from static work environments, researchers encountered methodological difficulties associated with collecting data within highly mobile contexts. The obstacles identified include following the mobile device, following the user and following the mobile space, as well as the interrelatedness of these factors. Following mobile workers across the different dimensions of time and space are major challenge mobile researchers have to face. Following the data and following a device is nearly impossible in some mobile circumstances, which can largely limit the insights and value of fieldwork research. The paper discusses these challenges, and highlights areas of interest for those willing to study mobility and mobile interaction. We aim to provide some insights into methodological considerations that can be anticipated and must be acknowledged accordingly. 1.1 The case study consideration
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The three case studies adopt as main research paradigm an Interpretivist approach. Interpretative methods of research start from the approach that our knowledge of reality, including the realm of human action, is a social construction (Walsham, 1993; Bijker, 1993). The Interpretative approach tries to understand the world as it is, created by inter-subjective meanings in a social process. It tries to understand a social phenomenon from the perspective of participants in its natural setting. In an Interpretative study, the researcher does not try to impose his/her own previous understanding onto the situation. The three case studies presented in this article place a significant interpretative value on the narrative as expressed by the object of study (by whom is being interviewed and what is said in the context of study). The understanding of the differences between the living situation of the mobile user and the researcher’s hypothetical views is of paramount importance. Distinguishing between situated interaction in the world on one hand and interaction thought technologies on the other is at the heart of virtual environments and mobility studies (Luff and Heath, 1998). In the setting of mobile fieldwork settings, one method that can be used successfully to represent this interaction data is ethnomethodolody (Garfinkel, 1986). Recent researchers have been able to withdraw meaningful data using this methodology (Laurier, 2002; Weilenmman, 2003). Ethnomethodology assigns a contextual value to the details in the dialogues and narratives used by ordinary people in their everyday activities when making sense of the world around them. This is exactly what we aim to reproduce from our observations of mobile workers and their use of mobile technology. The three research experiences presented in the sequence have adopted the Case Study Method (Gomm, Hammersley and Foster, 2000). Benbasat (Benbasat, Goldstein and Mead, 1987) indicate this method as proper when the current theory about a subject is at an initial stage, when the actors’ experiences and views, as well as the context of action, are essential to understanding a social phenomenon. Therefore, case studies methods are very useful for studying mobility and mobile interaction, considering that these are emergent subjects in the Information Systems research field. In this paper one study relates to a single case study (within a Brazilian bank); the other two are reflections of numerous cases (SMS technology, spatially mobile workers). In all cases we have to pay attention to the field work preparation associated with collecting data within highly mobile contexts, which rely heavily on the use of mobile technology for work allocation and execution. Highly mobile contexts are defined for this purpose as working environments where work is spatially distributed outside the traditional office space (Hill and Ferris, 2003). Considering this reference to study mobility and mobile interaction, we present in the sequence the three empirical research experiences, each one
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of them focusing on these three different approaches: following the contextual space, following the actor and following the technology or the virtual space. 2. The study cases 2.1 Case study 1 - Following the contextual space: The spatial and time context of work This first case sources its data from spatially mobile workers. A spatially mobile worker is one who executes his work when travelling between two locations, or one whose work occurs temporarily at one location before he moves to another location. This context lends itself to a study of workers who dynamically redefine their workspace and move between various locations. Spatially mobile workers can be explained by theoretical work (Lee and Sawyer, 2002) that has tried to reconcile mobile work, time and space (Lee and Liebenau, 2000) in which new and old forms of work can be reflected upon. This theoretical framework can be applied to mobility studies (Weilenmann, 2003) within boundaries that refer to ethnographical or ethnomethdology research methods for the collection of data (Laurier, 2003; Luff and Heath, 1998 and 1999; Eost and Flyte; 1997). The main research objective is to understand how the mobile worker defines the categories for context of work and home as per using mobile technology in spatially mobile work. To reach the research goal, the observations in the case study focuses on London Black Cab drivers working with mobile devices that are used to allocated task work: driving passengers from one destination to other. The drivers interviewed work mainly in the Central London area and are loosely associated with radio taxi companies operating from centralized call centres. To collect data, one-to-one interviews are the primary source of information so far. Those interviews were conducted in diverse settings such as taxi ranks, taxi green sheds (used by drivers to have rest breaks) or public cafes and taxi call centre premises throughout London. For the interviews we based our perspective on the value of the drivers’ narrative and description. Hence the observations were made relying upon ethnomethodology (Garfinkel, 1986). Drivers were allowed to express as many ideas as they wanted regarding their work practices and the use of mobile technology. For analysis purposes a high level of importance was assigned to conversation analysis (Sacks, 1985) when building descriptive narratives based on the interviews. This type of analysis can be applied with reference to all spaces of conversational interaction. It is commonly pointed out that reflecting upon interviewed people might make them feel uneasy or distort a naturalist approach to the interview (when using tape recorders, or videos). However, this has not been a great problem in conversation analysis, since most drivers interviewed, if aware that they are
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being recorded got used to the idea, and stopped paying attention to the recording device some time into the interview (Denzin and Lincoln, 2003). According to privacy legislation, all participants in this project were warned of the recording methods to be used and provided consent for the recordings obtained. Along those interviews we found that drivers were comfortable talking about their family arrangements of their work schedules, allocations of work and anecdotic behaviour (story telling) of their shifts and/or rotas. This allowed the researcher to identify diverse narratives recorded in the dialogues; categories and methods that defined the drivers work in terms of time and space. Some of those categories are work allocation, duration, sequence, deadline, rhythm, cycles, etc. And some of those methods are using voice calls, SMS (text messaging), voice mail, etc. The researchers found that overall the driver’s concern is primarily about themselves and how they go about producing their own social order, which can be split between their work and home life. Fieldwork with drivers in London Underground through video recording (Luff and Heath; 1999) showed that as the recorded image shows only the driver, the recording does not involve awareness from other persons. Recordings only include communication with the control centre; hence researchers’ observations are properly focused on the underground train drivers’ activities. In the case of research involving taxi drivers we found that this interaction is different: there is communication with a call centre, passengers (boarding, travelling, alighting), and other vehicles. The taxi driver allocation of work is a product of the spatial position of their vehicles and hence the need to use other complementary methods such as video recording their actives during their working days can enhance the understanding of which one of the key elements are their use of mobile technology in the context of spatially mobile work. Another recommended field observation tool is the use of diaries (Laurier, 2003). In this case, a researcher would encourage drivers to keep diaries in which they record their activities during their working day. Nevertheless, it remains difficult to assess to what level drivers are able to record all significant information requested, including time, position, and activity executed. Distortions over observations due to lack of accuracy might surge if this method is used together with other ways of observing mobile workers. With the use of diaries, the accuracy of records is not something the researcher can control, however it should not distort the observation narrative (Denzin and Lincoln, 2003). Using location technology such as GPS as a spatial locator over time has been widely used by geographers and cartographers to determine the physical location of objects or people (Laurier, 2003). The drawback of this method of tracing spatially mobile workers is that even if it gave a good spatial explanation of the driver’s activity, it would remain impossible to determine what the driver is doing and the reasons behind the activity.
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This can be somehow balanced if the researcher gained access to drivers’ calls recordings, in which time and duration are recorded. Together with diaries and possibly some of the other methods discussed, this data can provide valuable insight into research of spatially mobile workers. External observations from the locations that the driver also uses to interact such as call centres or virtual spaces created by communicating with others are also needed to get an overall view of the spatially mobile driver activities. We found that the most difficult task so far has been to establish the difference between the static and virtual spaces taxi drivers move across when conducting work or other activities. This leads us to highlight the issues regarding the level of access a researcher can have to his/her subject of study. 2.1.1 Conclusions case study 1 To know where a driver is at a certain time does not give us the in-depth insight of other factors (e.g., mental calculations of routes, where to go, how to get there, and overall how the use of mobile technology works in favour or to a disadvantage of the worker). As stated, when collecting data regarding spatially mobile workers using mobile technology, it is not possible to rely upon one of two data collection methods for a good understanding of the issues relevant to this type of contextual work. However, we have to be wary that since we are trying to narrate within two major parameters such as time and space, some overlapping, contradictions or even loss of observations might be expected during the data collection. To identify the themes that recur in the spatially mobile worker over certain time and space is a major issue for researchers in this field, as it is not always possible to obtain information about all the activities the worker is engaged over a slot of time, or even if those events are cyclical and provide rhythms of their own to the workers activities. 2.2 Case study 2 – Following the mobile technology and mobile data In an effort to understand the potential impact of novel technological developments on organisational communication and cooperation, we embarked on two mobile telephony implementation cases that involved bluecollar workers from various industries. As mentioned earlier in this document, a case study research method was employed to develop a conceptual discussion of mobile work practices. In agreement with Benbasat (Benbasat, 1987), a case study is appropriate since theory and research are at their early, formative stages and since practical experiences and situated context are important. Clearly, this was the case for the respective participants and technology used. Multiple data collection methods were adopted, including documentation, observation (non-
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participative), semi-structured interviews and logs of any mobile communication available. A focus on documents and interviewees’ recollections on before-mobility and now will emphasise the principle of analysing the historical development of the activity. More generally, the multiple-case approach of looking at two organisations lends itself to internal (within-case) analyses of data to create initial assumptions about emerging schemes. Cross-case searches such as side-by-side comparisons of cases or of data sources will extend these initial assumptions and display patterns “through multiple lenses” (Eisenhardt, 1989). But here, too, different methodological approaches provide numerous challenges, as will be outlined in the following research cases. Workers from both cases cover hundreds of miles each day by travelling between customers’ sites. Their roles at these locations are mainly ensuring that the on-site equipment is in working order, repairing it if it is not and recording time-critical customer data. By and large, the data to be recorded is provided from a number of devices (e.g., meters) installed on the customers’ premises. Previous to the adoption of mobile technology, the workers relied on the perennial clipboard: data was recorded on paper and submitted to the office via fax at midday and at the end of the workday. Clearly, the problem of asynchronous data collection and transmission led to the use of outdated and inappropriate data for customers’ resource allocation and for the despatching of mobile workers. This problem triggered the implementation of the new mobile telephony system. In both cases, workers read the meters and entered the respective data into their mobile phone. The readings would then be transmitted to the main offices via SMS, at which point they would be received by the backend system and update the corporate database. Managers and clients could now view the data through a browser interface and make much more educated and time-critical decisions about resource allocation. The researcher set out to examine how such mobile work is carried out, and how this technology lead to novel work practices of the workers under scrutiny. What observations support how the use of this mobile technology system leads to a change of work-practices? This question and case description leads us back to the methodological considerations mentioned above. Even on a case-basis, how do we tell the full story of the individuals and organisations under investigation? More importantly, how do we interpret the phenomena that we observe in our fieldwork? Can we tell a full story by looking only at pieces? In co-located environments, this is already difficult. Distributed situations add more complexity to the study but mobile workers using voice and data-driven technology make research extremely difficult. In both cases, mobile workers relied on mobile phones and SMS to communicate with their peers and with their managers. The main difference is that through SMS, we now have access to a technology that leaves a trace; communication that maintains some degree of permanence. Voice calls are rarely ever monitored or recorded for future analysis; they occur mostly between two individuals who exchange (and remember) their content. Once
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an SMS is sent from a mobile worker to the office, it enters a database system that relies on its ability to record, and to remember the data it receives. Not only does this system remember the data transmitted from the meter that was read, but it also stores data about the sender and the time of transmission. In combination with the knowledge of the particular reader’s whereabouts, it also has the ability to store location-sensitive data of the mobile worker (if he sends the data as required – at the time of reading the meter). Meter reading, entering data into the phone and sending these events to the company’s backend server comprise the core of these individuals’ work. Depending on the reading and the data, the server would then carry out a number of responses: either it would send an SMS message back to the worker, relay a message via email to a manager or simply record the event for future data analysis. In addition to these phenomena, particular pieces of equipment in the field were equipped with sensors and autodialers. Under certain conditions, the autodialer would send a message to the above-mentioned database and to the mobile worker assigned to its territory. In many occurrences during our fieldwork, an engine would call the worker and order him to come to fix it or send an SMS to convey that everything was ok. Clearly, this communication, too, shapes the work of mobile employees. Again, it is very clearly traceable through records of the autodialer and in the database. As expected, mobile workers do not exclusively rely on SMS messages sent from pieces of equipment and sent to the office; they send messages to one another and make numerous voice-based calls to their colleagues, managers, family and friends. At the same time, the workers received phone calls not only from artefacts but also from other humans. Supervisors would call to validate that certain jobs had been carried out, to check how long it would take the worker to reach the next site, and in most cases to direct the worker to different, perhaps new sites. Other conversations were about work in general. In addition to work related conversations, a high number of private calls would be made or received. In some of cases, the worker used the mobile phone handset to talk, in others it was connected to the handsfree set mounted to the truck’s dashboard. In some cases, the private handset conversation would last three minutes and be summarised in one sentence, in other cases the worker would talk for three minutes and take ten minutes to explain the nature and content of the call. 2.2.1 Conclusion case study 2 Researchers trying to make sense of mobile phenomena will most likely observe situations in which some mobile occurrences are clearly of a temporary nature (e.g., workers talk on the phone), while others are more reproducible (e.g., SMS logs show exact event details, emails sent to managers from the backend system in response to a reading are logged etc.). Very clearly, all these events are part of our field data; they provide valuable
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insights into how mobile workers carry out their daily tasks and into the emergence of work practices. When the time comes for we researchers to make sense of the data we collected in the field, the question emerges as to how we combine the very detailed and accurate records from data communication with our transcriptions of our incomplete exposure to some conversations and our often anecdotal accounts that form the other part of empirical fieldwork data. How do we combine our analyses if our empirical data is traceable to varying extents? How do we incorporate data that is of varying degrees of permanence? How do we weight different data categories; or do we? This paper provides no answer to these questions; on the contrary, it is its intention to prepare mobility researchers for methodological challenges in the face of continuously changing technology and an increasing coexistence of easily available data logs and ambiguous voice-centred communication with no level of permanence. 2.3 Case Study 3 – Following the actor trying to understand the hosting process of mobile technology The following case study aims to understand the hosting process of mobile and wireless Information technologies. This objective considers the concept of Hospitality proposed by Ciborra (Ciborra 1999 and 2002). According to that concept, Information Technology is like an ambiguous stranger that we host. “Hospitality is a human institution: it is about being receptive and adopting; managing boundaries between what or who is known and what or who is unknown” (Ciborra, 2002). When we allow the technology to remain in our territory, we can discover it as a friend or as an enemy. It can bring us a lot of advantages and desirable changes or instead a lot of problems. In the same way, some people host and use mobile technology intensively while others resist its use, for instance, because they believe that technology invades their privacy or is too difficult to use. This research tries to understand these issues, questioning which are the main elements involved in the hosting process of mobile technology in organisations and how these elements are interrelated. This case study has been done within a Brazilian bank. This is a medium organisation in Brazil (with assets around US$ 2 billion). The bank operates in the corporate sector, having as clients mainly middle and big enterprises. We are studying the application of a smart phone (a device with PDA and Cellular phone functionalities) to access the bank’s Information Systems. Mainly supervisors and account managers use this technology during their work at clients’ sites. This organisation was selected because it is a heavy adopter of Information Technology, and it was a pioneer in the use of mobile/wireless technology in Brazil. The banking sector historically invests the largest amount of money in IT in Brazil. The research has considered the principles for conducting interpretative field studies in the IS area proposed by Klein and Myers (Klein and Myers, 1999).
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The data collection techniques employed include interviews with key-users of the mobile/wireless technology, managers and IT technicians as well as other actors involved in the hosting process of the technology. We interviewed fourteen people in total, from the bank’s Headquarter in Sao Paulo and from a branch in a capital in the south of Brazil. Each interview lasted around one hour, some of them lasted around one hour and a half. Following the recommendations of Walsham (Walsham, 2003), the interviews were not recorded, instead the researcher took notes of the conversation, and immediately after each meeting she transferred the notes to an electronic document, where field notes were also registered. The researcher visited the bank’s headquarter in Sao Paulo four times and the branch in the south of Brazil three times. At the same time, documents about the enterprise were collected, including the manual of the mobile information system (targeted at users of the mobile/wireless device), folders about the characteristics of the enterprise, its market and products, e-mails from clients and video recordings. Besides that, an interview was conducted with an external expert in the Brazilian banking sector, which provided an external view of the case and its various contextual properties. There are also a lot of secondary documents about the bank in the Brazilian press that were collected. However, we had difficulty with collecting data by following the user. Weilenmann claims that the study of mobility could demand to follow the user in the field, to observe how the mobile technology has been actually used in a natural setting. We were not able to do that. The nature of the work of the Account Managers implies confidentiality during the interaction and negotiations with the clients, in the field. Account Managers visit their clients in their companies; it was impossible for the researcher to follow them as this was seen as a breach of banker-client confidentiality that would have negative effects on their activities. We were just able to observe the use of the mobile/wireless device during the interviews. Several users kept their devices switched on and sometimes they excused themselves for having to answers calls or short messages (SMS, email) during the conversation. Some of them, when asked about the way that they use the technology, showed us how they use it by operating the device in front of us. That was the way we observed the use of the technology. We recognize that this brought limitations to the data collection. The observed use was stationary, and not “on the go”; and it was impossible to observe the actual use of technology in the field, as a tool used for daily activities. 2.3.1 Conclusion case study 3 Considering the case presented, we propose some questions regarding the characteristics of some types of mobile work that are very interesting for research, as the case of Account Managers in the banking sector. The most important question is: How to manage privacy and confidentiality challenges when researching and observing work?
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We think that the most important question regarding “following the user” is: how to manage to not severely disturb the user, or to preserve the features of confidentiality of a work happening in the field? An Interpretative approach relies on the assumption that the data is constructed through the interaction between researchers and participants (Klein and Myers, 1999). This means that the researcher will always, in some way, intervene in the context and subjects been studied. How to deal with these implications when we face issues related to privacy and confidentiality in the context of study of mobility? The case presented and the questions proposed highlight the difficulties faced when studying mobility. These limitations could be related to researching several kinds of mobile workers, such as, for instance, health care professionals attending to patients in the field, due to the very confidential feature of individual health information. 3. Acknowledgements As shown in the three case studies on this article, mobile studies present a methodological challenge when addressing empirical research. The challenge is not a theoretical one, but a practical one. Further research and completion of the current case studies will enhance our knowledge in this area. Jan Kietzmann and Silvia Elaluf-Calderwood would like to acknowledge the support provided by the Mobility Group at the Information Systems Department at the LSE. Amarolinda Zanela Saccol would like to acknowledge CAPES (Ministry of Education –Brazil) for the scholarship received during her Visiting Student Programme at the London School of Economics. References Avgerou, C. (2001). The significance of context in information systems and organizational change. Info Systems, 11: 43-63. Benbasat, I., Goldstein, D.K.; Mead, M. (1987). The case research strategy in studies of information systems. MIS Quarterly, 11 (3): 369-386. Bjiker, W. (2001) Understanding Technological Culture through a Constructivist View of Science, Technology and Society, in Cutcliffe, S.H. & C. Mitcham (eds.) Visions of STS: Counterpoints in Science, Technology and Society Studies. New York: State University of New York Press: 19-34. Ciborra, C. (1999). Hospitality and IT. PrimaVera Working Papers Series – University of Amsterdam: 1-15. Ciborra, C. (2002). The labyrinths of information: challenging the wisdom of systems. New York: Oxford Press.
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