There is a growing literature on the subject of interruptions by management and information systems scholars. This writing views interruptions as disruptive and negative, raising concerns about lowered productivity and time use. Defined as “a synchronous interaction which was not initiated by the subject, was unscheduled and resulted in the recipient discontinuing their current activity,” interruptions are treated as single, isolated events that need to be managed.27 Studies in this vein typically quantify them in order to evaluate the cognitive cost of interruptions and fragmented work. Research is then directed toward improving the design of technological interfaces, such as e-mail filtering software, in order to assist employees.
There are a number of problems with this mechanistic approach. First, there is an underlying assumption that interruptions divert employees’ attention away from their “real” work. Accordingly, interruptions should be either minimized or, at the very least, the impact of them minimized. Second, employees are largely viewed as passive in the face of these interruptions. Their only response is to attend to the call for their attention. In sum, ICTs are viewed as exogenous, and distinct from the normal dayto-day operation of organizations.
By contrast, I treat technology as integral to doing work: organizational practices are mutually shaped with machines.28 Such human-machine interactions crucially depend on the locally contingent meanings that people attribute to them and, therefore, the way workers interpret these “interruptions” from multimodal media is key. Knowledge workers now inhabit an environment where ICTs are ubiquitous, presenting simultaneous, multiple and ever-present calls on their attention. These mediated interactions can no longer be only framed as sources of constant interruptions that fragment and squeeze time.
This became apparent to me in the course of my own study, which is therefore worth expounding at some length. The research was carried out over a number of years, and it convinced me that the nature of knowledge work itself is changing as workers navigate the media-rich ecology of contemporary ofice life. As there is still a dearth of empirical research on these issues, I will report on my findings here.
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