What is it about?
We examined different teams of scientists trying to work together: Astronomers, Neuro-Biologists and Physicists working together with Computer Scientists to create a new technology. This type of interdisciplinary teamwork was more challenging than you might think, because these are very different areas of science, with different assumptions.
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Why is it important?
We studied some of the things that can help people from different areas work together, both in the same organization, and across different organizations. As work becomes more distributed, these are challenges any organization might face, whether in-house or with partner organizations. We found that one thing that can help these kinds of cross-border teams work together better is having a teammate with a foot in both worlds, like a computer scientist who studied physics as an undergraduate. They help to translate perspectives and language. There were also useful technological fixes that made it less necessary to communicate directly - once more of the pieces of the technology were developed, the teammates could stay on their "own side" and develop things that way.
Perspectives
Zack: The most challenging aspect of this research was the project size, because when I started my research, there were already hundreds of adopters of Grid Computing. I spent several years examining this community to try and understand the dynamics. Erica: I love that we were able to examine the real interdisciplinary teamwork challenges with an evolving technology. Grid Computing was a precursor to Cloud Computing, so we were really seeing the seeds of a revolution.
Erica Coslor
University of Melbourne
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Boundary Objects and the Technical Culture Divide: Successful Practices for Voluntary Innovation Teams Crossing Scientific and Professional Fields, Journal of Management Inquiry, July 2018, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/1056492618783875.
You can read the full text:
Resources
Boundary Objects: Transcending the Global-Local Split
Diagram of global-local properties of boundary objects and role of "tacking back and forth" between the shared use and local site use.
Boundary Objects and the Technical Culture Divide: Successful Practices for Voluntary Innovation Teams Crossing Scientific and Professional Fields
This paper examines the creation and stabilization of early-stage boundary objects by voluntary teams spanning divergent professional and scientific fields. Cross-disciplinary collaborators can share similar goals, yet nonetheless face frictions from differences in professional expertise, practices and technical systems. Yet if boundary objects help to span disciplinary divides, the same challenges are likely to hinder initial boundary object development. Comparative ethnography of three projects adapting Grid computing technology to fields of science highlights challenges for boundary object creation, including a “mindset shift” before the technology could stabilize. Enriching our knowledge of boundary object beginnings, we find successful stabilization requires both appropriate localization and further resources, which enable the simultaneously global-local nature of boundary objects. This essential feature is understudied in management research. Developing the boundary object concept on its own terms enhances empirical and theoretical application, particularly when researchers prefer one main theory of objects, rather than a “pluralist” approach.
Contributors
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