Diane E. Bailey

Diane E. Bailey

School of Information

1616 Guadalupe Ste #5.202

University of Texas at Austin

Austin, TX 78701-1213

Office: Rm 5.438 UTA

diane.bailey@ischool.utexas.edu

ph. 512.471.1626
(but ALWAYS better to email)

My UT Faculty Web Page

About Me

What I Study

I study how people use information and communication technologies (ICTs) in their everyday work and what happens when they do. I pay attention to people's interactions with technology as well as the social and organizational context of use. As a result, I am able to explore the interplay among work practices, technology affordances, and organizational structures (such as policies, routines, and divisions of labor). For example, I have documented with my colleagues how, over time, advances in simulation technology in automotive design shaped managerial misconceptions that ultimately facilitated the reorganization and global distribution of automotive engineering work. I publish my work in leading organization studies, information systems, and engineering journals.

How I Study

When I am in the field observing people at work, I employ techniques for data collection that borrow heavily from ethnography. In my analysis, I often diverge from traditional ethnography's focus on culture by turning my attention to structural attributes of behavior. To facilitate this approach, and to help me study workers who speak in technical jargon and who often employ multiple technologies simultaneously, I have developed a number of novel techniques for data collection and analysis. In particular, I pay close attention to my informants' use of work artifacts, be they physical or digital, and have crafted ways for weaving this use into the stream of ongoing behavior recorded in my field notes.

What and How I Teach

Within the iSchool, I teach courses in management of information organizations, administration,  technology and work, and understanding research (core course co-taught with Randolph Bias). In my courses, I engage students in experiential activities to prompt learning in the course of doing so that they might develop practical skills as well as accrue theoretical knowledge. I also engage students in their own research. With an expertise in organizational ethnography,I help students across disciplines design and carry out qualitative research studies, and, in particular, learn interviewing and observation techniques.

Research

I am currently working on, or have just completed, three large, collaborative, multi-year research projects that investigate the interplay between information and communication technologies (ICTs) and work.


Remote Occupational Socialization



I am very excited to have just received NSF funding (starting summer 2011) for this project with Paul Leonardi (Northwestern) and Bonnie Nardi (UC Irvine), a three-year $1.4M collaborative endeavor. We begin this work with the recognition that, in the wake of advances in information and communication technologies (ICTs), a growing number of people are "becoming" practitioners in their field despite being separated from a relevant occupational group or community of practice. In other words, increasingly, people are undertaking occupations absent day-to-day physical interactions wtih practicing others who can teach them, provide information to them, or model behavior for them. This new reality calls into question existing theories of socialization and learning practices that highlight the importance of collocated interaction and in situ knowledge transfer.

We call the process by which individuals learn work practices and how to "be" a practitioner under such circumstances remote occupational socialization. In the context of remote occupational socialization, advances in ICTs empower people and remove obstacles to their career aspirations. At the same time, ICTs open up the possibility for incredible transformations in how individuals come to learn an occupation and assume its identity. Additionally, by facilitating remote occupational socialization, advances in ICTs present the very real possibility that people will reinvent occupational identities, crafting altogether new ideas of what it means to work in a given field.

By exploring how individuals are socialized into new occupations in this new context, our work will investigate issues at the forefront of modern work in a digitized, highly interconnected world. Specifically, our work stands to unveil how ICTs help people transcend traditional geographic boundaries in the course of learning an occupation and, in doing so, transform our ideas of occupations for a new era, with broad social, cultural, and economic implications. By drawing on recent theorizing that suggests that ICTS may provide particular affordances for interaction that non-mediated contexts do not, we explore the possibility that remote occupational socialization may, in fact, help occupations to transform themselves. Overall, we aim to build theory about the mechanisms by which technology leads to occupational transformation and, in doing so, we aim to contribute to the discourse on effective socialization processes and the role of technology in social change.

Data Collection
We plan to study four occupations in which remote occupational socialization is occurring: graphic design (in Poland, India, and the US), automotive engineering (in India and the US), banking (in Brazil), and Internet entrepreneurship (in Mexico and the US). Our comparative, field-based research design, which will feature semi-structured interviews of remote workers and relevant others, will allow us to examine the interplay of organizational environments, socialization tactics, and ICT use. We will begin our fieldwork this fall with a trip to Amazonian regions of Brazil, where we will be joined by Professor Eduardo Diniz of FGV (Fundação Getulio Vargas), who has studied financial inclusion in the wake of Brazil's Bolsa Escola and Bolsa Familia programs. After that, we will proceed to Poland, India, Mexico, and the US.

Research Team
Our team has three PIs: Paul Leonardi, Bonnie Nardi, and me. Additionally, in Brazil, we will be joined by Eduardo Diniz of FGV. We expect to work with a number of doctoral students as well.


Funding

Our work is made possible by funding from the National Science Foundation under grant IIS-1111237. We thank William Bainbridge of the NSF for providing this support and for his enthusiasm for this work.

Advanced ICTs in Engineering Product Design

building structure, circuit, and car

Since 1999, I have been working with Steve Barley of Stanford on a large study of advanced ICTs in modern engineering work. We focused on three occupations: (1) structural engineers who design buildings, (2) hardware engineers who design microprocessor cores and their peripherals, and (3) automotive engineers who work in body design, safety and crashworthiness, and noise and vibration. The study is large in the sense that it has spanned 7 firms across 15 sites in 8 countries and featured a team of over 20 researchers. We conducted hundreds of hours of observation of working engineers, wrote reams of fieldnotes and collected more than a thousand work artifacts (e.g., screenshots, calculation sheets, digital files, and the like).

Our most recent focus examines how digital technologies made possible the global distribution of engineering work. For this research, our team traveled to engineering sites in the US, Mexico, India, Korea, Sweden, Germany, Australia, and (this summer) Brazil. Paul Leonardi, on the faculty of Northwestern, was a student researcher on this project and now leads our continued study of the global distribution of engineering work.

Publications

We publish our findings in a variety of journals, spanning the fields of information studies, organization studies, communication, engineering and education. Here is a list of our submitted and published work to date, with other papers underway:

  • Barley, W.C., Leonardi, P.M., and Bailey, D.E. Submitted. Engineering objects for collaboration: Strategies of ambiguity and clarity at knowledge boundaries. Human Communication Research.
  • Sandholtz, K. Conditionally Accepted. Standards, directives, and occupational norms: Disentangling the determinants of decoupled vs. tightly coupled compliance. Organization Studies, Special Issue on the Dynamics of Standardization.
  • Bailey, D.E. Leonardi, P.M. and Barley, S.R. Forthcoming. The lure of the virtual. Organization Science, Special Issue on Digital Innovation.
  • Bailey, D.E. and Barley, S.R. 2011. Teaching-learning ecologies: Mapping the environment to structure through action. Organization Science, 22(1): 262-285.
  • Leonardi, P.M. 2011. When flexible routines meet flexible technologies: Affordance, constraint, and the imbricaation of human and material agencies. MIS Quarterly, 35(1): 147-167.
  • Leonardi, P.M. 2011. Innovation blindness: Culture, frames, and cross-boundary problem construction in the development of new technology concepts. Organization Science, 22(2): 347-369.
  • Bailey, D.E., Leonardi, P.M., & Chong, J. 2010. Minding the gaps: Understanding technology interdependence and coordination in knowledge work. Organization Science, 21(3): 713-730.
  • Gainsburg, J., Rodriguez-Lluesma, C. and Bailey, D. E. 2010. A "knowledge profile" of an engineering occupation: Temporal patterns in the use of engineering knowledge. Engineering Studies, 2(3): 197-219.
  • Leonardi, P.M. 2010. From road to lab to math: The co-evolution of technological, regulatory, and organizational innovations in automotive crash testing. Social Studies of Science, 40(2): 243-274
  • Leonardi, P.M. 2009. Why do people reject new technologies and stymie organizational changes of which they are in favor? Exploring misalignments between social interactions and materiality. Human Communication Research, 35(3):407-441.
  • Leonardi, P. & Bailey, D.E. 2008. Transformational technologies and the creation of new work practices: Making implicit knowledge explicit in task-based offshoring. MIS Quarterly, 32(2): 411-436.
  • Gainsburg, J. 2007. The mathematical disposition of structural engineers. The Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 38(5), 477-506.
  • Gainsburg, J. 2007. Problem solving and learning in everyday structural engineering work. In R. A. Lesh, E. Hamilton, & J. Kaput(Eds.), Foundations for the Future in Mathematics Education (pp. 37-56). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
  • Gainsburg, J. 2006. The mathematical modeling of structural engineers. Mathematical Thinking and Learning, 8(1), 3-36.

Presentations

Here are some of the venues in which we have presented our work:

  • Digital Challenges in Innovation Research Workshop, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA (2008)
  • Academy of Management Annual Meeting, Organizational Communication and Information Systems (2007, 2004)
  • University of California Berkeley, Haas School of Business, Organizational Behavior and Industrial Relations Seminar (2006)
  • INFORMS Conference, Technology and Innovation Management, Pittsburgh, PA (2006)
  • 4S Conference, Pasadena, CA (2005)
  • Palo Alto Research Center, Palo Alto (2004)
  • MIT Sloan School of Business, Organization Studies Group, Boston (2004, 2000)
  • Davis Conference on Qualitative Research, Davis, CA (2004)
  • Organization Science Winter Conference, Steamboat Springs, Colorado (2003)
  • Royal Institute of Technology (joint with the Center for Advanced Studies in Leadership, Stockholm School of Economics), Kista, Sweden (2002)

Novel Methods

The study of engineers and engineering work has long evaded many social scientists in part because engineers speak technical jargon and employ sophisticated technologies. Early on in our research, I developed novel data collection methods for identifying and recording technology use in context and for preparing field notes. The methods are characterized by intense, grounded measurement coupled with rich narrative. Building on the work of social psychologist Roger Barker, I also developed methods for data analysis that helped us to make sense of the wealth of data that we collected. Overall, our methods resemble those of ethnography, but whereas ethnographers look for meaning and themes and seek to portray the insider's perspective, we often parse our fieldnotes into distinct units of analysis whose frequency can be counted and whose distributions can be analyzed. Thus, we often offer an etic rather than an emic analysis of action. The value of our approach is that it allows us to document actions precisely over time and space, which is difficult to achielve when analysis targets meanings and themes. We describe our methods in detail in our journal papers; see in particular Bailey and Barley, Teaching-Learning Ecologies.

Research Team

Over a dozen students and ten R&D members from General Motors Corporations worked with us on this project. We thank students Julie Gainsburg, Fabrizio Ferraro, Menahem Gefen, Mahesh Bhatia, Lesley Sept, Carlos Rodriguez-Lluesma, Jan Chong, Alex Gurevich, Daisy Chung, Will Barley, Vishal Arya, Aamir Farooq, Paul Leonardi and Kurt Sandholtz for their research assistance. We also are indebted to GM R&D personnel Hallie Kintner, Jan Benson, Bill Jordan, Susan Owen, Dan Reaume, Randy Urbance, John Cafeo, R. Jean Ruth, Mark Neale, and summer intern Mike Johnson.

Funding

Our work was made possible by funding from the National Science Foundation under grants CISE IIS-0070468, ITR- 0427173, and SBE-0939858/9. We thank Suzi Iacono of the NSF for her help, enthusiastic support and mentorship over the course of this large and ambitious project. We also thank Julia Lane of the NSF for providing our most recent support for our global research. General Motors Corporation supplied additional funding and has been a wonderful research partner by, for example, collecting data with us in the field, providing on-site internships for our students, and collaborating with us in numerous workshops and research design sessions. We thank David VanderVeen, Jan Benson, Bill Jordan and Hallie Kintner of General Motors for their superb support and guidance.

New ICTs and the Evolving Role of Reference Librarians



       

New information and communication technologies, by transforming how library patrons seek and find information, are engendering changes in the role of reference librarians. Four graduate students in the iSchool worked with me to explore these occupational changes by conducting field observations and interviews of reference librarians across ten libraries in central Texas spanning research university, community college, and public settings. The comparative design of this study allowed our team to consider the extent to which different settings provide librarians different kinds of opportunities to expand or otherwise modify their role in the wake of new ICTs and the new information-seeking practices that these technologies afford.

Our findings suggested that what we might term "traditional" reference questions (substantive questions about an area of knowledge) constituted less than a quarter of the questions that reference librarians on desk duty field across library type. Questions about technology constituted nearly a third of questions librarians field at the desk. Most technology questions were not about how to use electronic databases and search tools, which would reflect a substitution of the technology for the human guide. Rather, technology questions focused on issues of the mechanics of software and hardware not directly tied to information search (e.g., how to print or send email from a library computer). This poster contains some of our preliminary findings

Beyond the reference desk, reference librarians are performing an increasing number of duties. Our team explored the extent to which this set of duties varies by type of library and how, taken as a whole, these duties redefine what it means to be a reference librarian in the digital age.

We present our complete findings in this paper:

  • LeMaistre, T. Embry, R.L., Van Zandt, L.L., and Bailey, D.E. Role reinvention, structural defense, or resigned surrender: Institutional approaches to technological change in reference librarianship. Submitted to Library Quarterly.

Research Team

The iSchool students Tiffany LeMaistre, Rebecka Embry, Lindsey Van Zandt, and Daniel Acevedo worked on this project. This project was an outgrowth of a class project that Tiffany LeMaistre completed in my INF385T Technology and Work class; she was the lead student researcher on the project.

Funding

This project was made possible by funds provided by the UT Austin School of Information.

Ph.D. Students

I have had the great pleasure of advising wonderful students who have done and continute to do fascinating research.

Carlos Rodriguez-Lluesma (Stanford), 2009
Thesis: "Structuring Emotion: Emotion as an Interface between Work and Organizational Structure"
Assistant Professor, Managing People in Organizations, IESE Business School, Madrid, Spain

Ingrid Erickson (Stanford), 2008
Thesis: "The Role of Location in Virtual Social Interaction via Locative Technologies"
Associate Research Scholar, Center on Organizational Innovation, Columbia University, New York City, NY

Lynne Cooper (University of Southern California), 2008
Thesis: "Talking Risk: The Conception and Management of Pre-Quantitative Risk in Project Teams"
Senior Engineer and Knowledge Strategist, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, CA

Jan Chong (Stanford), 2007
Thesis: "Knowledge Sharing and Work Practice"
Member of Technical Staff, OnLive, Inc., Palo Alto, CA

Paul Leonardi (Stanford, Co-advisor with Steve Barley), 2007
Thesis: "Organizing Technology: Toward a Theory of Socio-Material Imbrication"
Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies and Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Science, Northwestern University, Chicago, IL
Dissertation Awards: Gerald R. Miller Outstanding Doctoral Dissertation Award, National Communication Association; William H. Newman Award for Best Paper Based on a Dissertation, Academy of Management (Finalist); Gerardine DeSanctis Dissertation Award, Organizational Communication and Information Systems Division, Academy of Management; W. Charles Redding Dissertation Award, Organizational Communication Division, International Communication Association (Honorable Mention).

Monique Lambert
(Co-advisor with Ray Levitt, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering), 2005
Thesis: "Greater-Than, Equal-To, or Less-Than the Sum of the Parts: A Study of Collective Information Processing and Information Distribution in Real-Time Cross-Functional Design"
Medical Ethnographer, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Palo Alto, CA

Julie Gainsburg (Co-advisor with Jim Greeno, School of Education), 2003
Thesis: "The Mathematical Behavior of Structural Engineers"
Associate Professor, Department of Secondary Education, California State University, Northridge, CA

Awards and Honors

Research Awards and Honors

  • Best Published Paper, Organizational Communication and Information Systems, Academy of Management Meeting, San Antonio, 2011, for paper (with Paul M. Leonardi and Jan Chong) titled, "Minding the Gaps: Understanding Technology Interdependence and Coordination in Knowledge Work."
  • Best Paper Proceedings and Cross-Divisional Paper, Organizational Communication and Information Systems, Academy of Management meeting, San Antonio, 2011, for paper (with William C. Barley and Paul M. Leonardi) titled, "Engineering Objects for Collaboration: Strategies of Ambiguity and Clarity at Knowledge Boundaries."
  • Best Paper Proceedings, Management and Organizational Cognition Division, Academy of Management Meeting, Honolulu, 2005, (with C. Rodriguez-Lluesma), "How is knowledge present in action? Exploring three knowledge distinctions".
  • Best Paper Proceedings, Technology and Innovation Management Division, Academy of Management Meeting, New Orleans, 2004, (with J. Gainsburg), "A profile of knowledge use in technical work".
  • Best Paper, Organizational Communication and Information Systems, Academy of Management Meeting, Toronto, 2000, for paper (with P. Hinds) titled, "Virtual teams: Anticipating the impact of virtuality on team process and performance."
  • Best Paper (Publication Award), 1998 IEEE Transactions Engineering Management Society, for paper titled, "Comparison of manufacturing performance of three team structures in semiconductor plants."
  • Invited Participant, National Academy of Engineering and DFG-German Research Association's First German-American Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, Dresden, Germany, 1998.
  • National Science Foundation CAREER Program Award, Design, Manufacture, and Industrial Innovation Division, 1997.
  • Invited Participant, National Academy of Engineering, First Annual Symposium on Frontiers of Engineering, 1995.
  • Doctoral Dissertation Award, Institute of Industrial Engineers, 1995.
  • Graduate Fellow, Semiconductor Research Corporation Education Alliance, 1993-1994.
  • President's Fellow, University of California, Berkeley, 1989-1992.

Teaching Awards and Honors

  • 2011 Invited to join the inaugural cohort of the Society for Teaching Excellence, UT Austin.
  • 2010 Nominated University Professor of the Year by students of the iSchool, UT Austin.
  • 2001 Undergraduate Teaching Award, MS&E Department, Stanford University.
  • 1999 Faculty Teaching Award, IEEM Department, Stanford University.
  • 1997 Alpha Pi Mu and Omega Rho Award for Excellence in Teaching and Dedication to Students, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Southern California.
  • 1995 and 1996 Outstanding Teaching Award for Industrial and Systems Engineering, School of Engineering, University of Southern California.

Journal Publications


For a short list (no abstracts) of my publications, please see my CV on the next tab.

  • Bailey, D.E., Leonardi, P.M., and Barley, S.R. Forthcoming. The Lure of the virtual. Organization Science, Special Issue on Digital Innovation.
Abstract: Although organizational scholars have begun to study virtual work, they have yet to fully grapple with its diversity. We draw on semiotics to distinguish among three types of virtual work (virtual teams, remote control, and simulations) based on what it is that a technology makes virtual and whether work is done with or on, through, or within representations. Of the three types, simulations have been least studied, yet they have the greatest potential to change work’s historically tight coupling to physical objects. Through a case study of an automobile manufacturer, we show how digital simulation technologies prompted a shift from symbolic to iconic representation of vehicle performance. The increasing verisimilitude of iconic simulation models altered workers’ dependence on each other and on physical objects, leading management to confound operating within representations with operating with or on representations. With this mistaken understanding, and lured by the virtual, managers organized simulation work in virtual teams, thereby distancing workers from the physical referents of their models and making it difficult to empirically validate models. From this case study, we draw implications for the study of virtual work by examining how changes to work organization vary by type of virtual work.


  • LeMaistre, T., Embry, R.L., Van Zandt, L.L., and Bailey, D.E. Forthcoming. Role reinvention, structural defense, or resigned surrender: Institutional approaches to technological change in reference librarianship. Library Quarterly.
Abstract: In a comparative field study of ten libraries, we show how technological advances in electronic and digital resources have led to an onslaught of technology questions at the reference desk, while prompting new and challenging work away from the desk. Libraries in our sample varied in their approaches to dealing with technological change, with institutional factors appearing to strongly shape their choice. Large, four-year academic libraries adopted a role reinvention approach that reduced reference librarians’ desk hours and permitted librarians to follow creative, often technical, pursuits. Small, four-year academic libraries took a structural defense approach that maintained the sanctity of the reference desk as the locus for substantive reference questions. Two-year academic and public libraries followed a resigned surrender approach under which reference librarians staffed busy desks, inundated with patron requests to aid with computer equipment. We discuss the implications of each approach for the work of reference librarians.


  • Bailey, D.E. & Barley, S.R. 2011. Teaching-learning ecologies: Patterned flows of explicit knowledge at work. Organization Science, 22(1): 262-285.
Abstract: Although organizational theorists have long argued that environments shape organizational structures, they have paid little attention to the processes by which the shaping occurs. This paper examines these processes by showing how environments shape teaching and learning activities which, in turn, shape structure. Observational field data from structural engineering groups in three firms and hardware engineering groups in three firms revealed that the two occupations exhibited different patterns of learning episodes and different distributions of actors across those episodes, or what, following the work of Roger Barker, we call two distinct teaching-learning ecologies. After detailing the differences in the two ecologies, we show how these differences emerged from patterns of behavior that were influenced by unique sets of environmental and technological constraints. By demonstrating how actions transform environmental constraints into organizational structure, this paper indicates how research on individual learning in organizations can speak to larger concerns in organizational theory. Moreover, by adopting a synthetic and pragmatic approach to individual learning as a social activity the paper highlights the role of teachers in workplace learning and casts doubts on the existence of a universal model of how individuals learn at work.


  • Bailey, D.E., Leonardi, P.M., & Chong, J. 2010. Minding the gaps: Understanding technology interdependence and coordination in knowledge work. Organization Science, 21, 3, 713-730.
Abstract: In this paper, we broaden the concept of interdependence beyond its focus on task to include technology, defining technology interdependence as the extent to which the organization’s tasks require its technologies to work with one another. With technologies increasingly aiding knowledge work, understanding technology interdependence may be as important as understanding task interdependence for theories of organizing, but to date most technology studies examine one technology at a time. We develop concepts and methods for investigating interdependence among multiple technologies. We define a technology gap as the space in a workflow between one technology and a second technology wherein the output of the first technology is meant to be the input to the second one. Using data from a study of two engineering occupations (hardware engineering and structural engineering), we analyzed engineers’ gap encounters (episodes in which a technology gap appeared in the course of action) and found striking differences across occupations. Hardware engineers crossed gaps via “bridges” that automated transfers between technologies. Structural engineers, by contrast, allowed gaps to persist even though traversing gaps consumed significant time and effort. Differences in the ways that engineers interpreted and managed technology interdependence across the two occupations helped explain differences in how interdependence was manifested. By minding the technology gaps that individuals traverse, we uncovered a different way of conceptualizing task-technology fit that considers the full host of workplace technologies. Our findings make clear that theories of interdependence should simultaneously account for interdependence among workers, among technologies, and between workers and technologies.

  • Gainsburg, J., Rodriguez-Lluesma, C. and Bailey, D. E. 2010. A "knowledge profile" of an engineering occupation: Temporal patterns in the use of engineering knowledge. Engineering Studies, 2(3):197-219.
Abstract: Each engineering occupation is distinguished by the body of specific knowledge it has built up over time. Some scholars argue that the instrumentality of this historically established knowledge in the solution of everyday design problems renders formal education more important than experience. Other scholars counter that engineering work primarily demands practice-generated knowledge that individuals construct in the course of everyday activities. We address this argument by documenting the frequency with which engineers apply different types of knowledge, with different derivations. Adopting a behavioral perspective, we isolated 1072 episodes of knowledge use in our field observations of structural engineers. From these episodes, we constructed a ‘knowledge profile’ that indicated that two-thirds of the knowledge engineers employed was practice generated. The profile also revealed temporal patterns in the frequency with which the engineers used each knowledge type. Knowledge profiles like the one we constructed should help differentiate among engineering occupations, thereby serving as the foundation for conceptualizing occupations in a world of ‘knowledge work’. In addition, knowledge profiles can help university engineering education programs better target and mirror the knowledge demands of the profession.

  • Leonardi, P. & Bailey, D.E. 2008. Transformational technologies and the creation of new work practices: Making implicit knowledge explicit in task-based offshoring. MIS Quarterly, 32, 2, 411-436.
Abstract: Studies have shown the knowledge transfer problems that arise when communication and storage technologies are employed to accomplish work across time and space. Much less is known about knowledge transfer problems associated with transformational technologies, which afford the creation, modification and manipulation of digital artifacts. Yet, these technologies play a critical role in offshoring by allowing the distribution of work at the task level, what we call task-based offshoring. For example, computer-aided engineering applications transform input like physical dimensions, location coordinates, and material properties into computational models that can be shared electronically among engineers around the world as they work together on analysis tasks. Digital artifacts created via transformational technologies often embody implicit knowledge that must be correctly interpreted to successfully act upon the artifacts. To explore what problems might arise in interpreting this implicit knowledge across time and space, and how individuals might remedy these problems, we studied a firm that sent engineering tasks from home sites in Mexico and the U.S. to an offshore site in India. Despite having proper formal education and ample tool skills, the Indian engineers had difficulty interpreting the implicit knowledge embodied in artifacts sent to them from Mexico and the U.S. To resolve and prevent the problems that subsequently arose, individuals from the home sites developed five new work practices to transfer occupational knowledge to the offshore site. The five practices were defining requirements, monitoring progress, fixing returns, routing tasks strategically, and filtering quality. The extent to which sending engineers in our study were free from having to enact these new work practices because on-site coordinators acted on their behalf predicted their perceptions of the effectiveness of the offshoring arrangement, but Indian engineers preferred learning from sending engineers, not on-site coordinators. Our study contributes to theories of knowledge transfer and has practical implications for managing task-based offshoring arrangements.

  • Bailey, D.E. and Barley, S.R. 2005. Return to work: Toward post-industrial engineering. IIE Transactions 37(8): 737-752.
Abstract: Industrial engineering was originally founded as a discipline that focused on the study and design of work. Yet, today the field has largely distanced itself from this early concern. This paper tracks the decline of work studies in industrial engineering and explores the question of why the discipline lost its concern for work and, ultimately, its ability to speak to the kinds of social and economic changes that it was created to address. Our reading of historical documents and our analysis of data collected from nine industrial engineering departments from their founding to the present day reveal that changes in industrial engineering were tied to trends in society, to shifts in sources of funding, and to the field’s concern with its own status. The decline of work studies in industrial engineering is especially problematic because the nature of work has dramatically changed over the past 50 years, as we outline in this paper. The upshot is that industrial engineering now finds itself unable to speak about the organization of work and the design of modern work systems. We explain why the time has come for the field to rekindle its interest in the nature of work and the particulars of the workplace and we suggest several paths for proceeding in this direction.

  • Hinds, P.J. and Bailey, D.E. 2003. Out of sight, out of sync: Understanding conflict in distributed teams. Organization Science 14(6): 615-632.
Abstract: The bulk of our understanding of teams is based on traditional teams in which all members are collocated and communicate face to face. However, geographically distributed teams, whose members are not collocated and must often communicate via technology, are growing in prevalence. Studies from the field are beginning to suggest that geographically distributed teams operate differently and experience different outcomes than traditional teams. For example, empirical studies suggest that distributed teams experience high levels of conflict. These empirical studies offer rich and valuable descriptions of this conflict, but they do not systematically identify the mechanisms by which conflict is engendered in distributed teams. In this paper, we develop a theory-based explanation of how geographical distribution provokes team-level conflict. We do so by considering the two characteristics that distinguish distributed teams from traditional ones: Namely, we examine how being distant from one's team members and relying on technology to mediate communication and collaborative work impacts team members. Our analysis identifies antecedents to conflict that are unique to distributed teams. We predict that conflict of all types (task, affective, and process) will be detrimental to the performance of distributed teams, a result that is contrary to much research on traditional teams. We also investigate conflict as a dynamic process to determine how teams might mitigate these negative impacts over time.

  • Bailey, D.E. and Kurland, N.B. 2002. A review of telework research: Findings, new directions, and lessons for the study of modern work. Journal of Organizational Behavior , 23(4): 383-400.
Abstract: Telework has inspired research in disciplines ranging from transportation and urban planning to ethics, law, sociology, and organizational studies. In our review of this literature, we seek answers to three questions: who participates in telework, why they do, and what happens when they do? Who teleworks remains elusive, but research suggests that male professionals and female clerical workers predominate. Notably, work-related factors like managers’ willingness are most predictive of which employees will telework. Employees’ motivations for teleworking are also unclear, as commonly perceived reasons such as commute reduction and family obligations do not appear instrumental. On the firms’ side, managers’ reluctance, forged by concerns about cost and control and bolstered by little perceived need, inhibits the creation of telework programmes. As for outcomes, little clear evidence exists that telework increases job satisfaction and productivity, as it is often asserted to do. We suggest three steps for future research may provide richer insights: consider group and organizational level impacts to understand who telework affects, reconsider why people telework, and emphasize theory-building and links to existing organizational theories. We conclude with lessons learned from the telework literature that may be relevant to research on new work forms and workplaces.

  • Dessouky, M.M., Verma, S., Bailey, D.E., and Rickel, J. 2001. A methodology for developing a web-based factory simulator for manufacturing education. IIE Transactions , 33(3): 167-180.
Abstract: Historically, manufacturing engineering education has focused on teaching mathematical models using simplifying assumptions that can mask the realities of complex manufacturing systems. Recent pedagogical approaches to manufacturing education have focused on developing a more holistic view of the manufacturing enterprise. In this paper, we describe the contents and development methodology of a Virtual Factory Teaching System (VFTS) whose aim is to provide a workspace that illustrates the concepts of factory management and design for complex manufacturing systems. The VFTS is unique in its integration of four domains: web-based simulations, engineering education, the Internet, and virtual factories. Evolutionary development of the VFTS is accomplished by separating the simulation model from the graphical interface and user interaction.

  • Bailey, D.E. 2000. Modeling work group effectiveness in high-technology manufacturing environments. IIE Transactions, 32:361-368.
Abstract: Existing models of work group effectiveness have been tested in low-technology manufacturing settings, but not in a high- technology one. Typical features of high-technology environments - substantial automation, computerized scheduling systems, complex production processes, capital-intensive production, high-cost equipment, and high product value - render them significantly different from their low-technology counterparts. The increased use of work groups and teams among high-technology manufacturers raises the question of whether existing models can be generalized to these settings. In this paper, data from 89 groups in the semiconductor manufacturing industry are used to create predictive models of group productivity, job satisfaction, and perceived performance. External variables (such as conflict with supervisors and engineers) are found to be more predictive of productivity, while internal variables (such as conflict among group members) are more predictive of satisfaction. These results highlight the importance of fostering the work group's interaction with external technical support personnel when designing and managing successful work groups in high-technology workplaces.

  • Bailey, D.E. 1999. Challenges of integration in semiconductor manufacturing firms. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management,46(4): 417-428.
Abstract: Manufacturing efforts to reduce time to market often adopt a concurrent engineering approach that focuses on coordination and integration among engineering, production, and marketing functions. Technological complexity in the semiconductor industry requires an extension of this paradigm to include multiple engineering groups and a strong production maintenance department. Through interviews with employees drawn from engineering, production, maintenance, marketing, and other departments at three semiconductor plants, organizational problems are uncovered that inhibit successful integration within firms in this industry. Ideas for overcoming these problems are given with suggestions for future research.

  • Bailey, D.E. 1998. Comparison of manufacturing performance of three team structures in semiconductor plants. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 45(1): 1-13.
Abstract: Manufacturing programs aimed at improving performance often feature employee teams that address production problems at the shop-floor level. According to cognitive models of participation, performance under such programs is improved via the better utilization of skills and knowledge that occurs as employees are allowed greater decision making in their tasks. We examine the cognitive-model premise in a high-technology industry where improvement-team programs are on the rise. We study three types of improvement-team programs among a sample of eight manufacturing sites. The programs feature continuous improvement teams (CIT’s), quality circles (QC’s), or self-directed work teams (SDWT’s) and vary in the amount of decision-making power, skill attainment via training, and skill use granted to employees. A quantitative analysis of performance reveals that CIT programs were associated with the highest direct and indirect productivity, two metrics that were available for each firm. QC and SDWT programs should not be dismissed, however, as they may lead to improvements in quality metrics, as we note in suggestions for future research. Qualitative data gathered in site visits suggest that poor implementation and failure to integrate production programs with engineering departments are two factors that inhibit program success.

  • Kurland, N.B. and Bailey, D.E. 1999. Telework: The advantages and challenges of working here, there, anywhere, and anytime. Organizational Dynamics, 28(2): 53-68.
Abstract: None.

  • Bailey, D.E., Settles, F.S., and Sanrow, D. 1999. Applying continuous quality techniques to a research environment. Quality Management Journal, 6(2): 62-77.
Abstract: Quality management is now a common theme in manufacturing and service environments. But quality management in the realm of industry and academic research has received far less attention. In this article, continuous quality improvement techniques are applied to the research process for an industrial consortium, whose member companies sponsor academic research in semiconductors. First, research quality is defined, based on input from industry representatives and academic researchers affiliated with teh consortium. Interviews revealed that the two constituencies have somewhat differing views regarding the nature of research quality. Second, concerns of both parties were combined to arrive at a five-part definition that covers: (1) applicability to industry; (2) significance and originality of the work; (3) pedagogical value; (4) goal achievement and thorough documentation; and (5) publications. Third, a plan is presented for controlling and improving research quality over time. Key to the plan is the incorporation of a systems view of quality that leads to controla and improvement procedures for each project phase, and that includes in its coverage all personnel involved in the research process. Although the results are specific to the environment studied, the methodology has potential for use in university research and industrial R&D settings, and thus facilitates the extension of quality concepts to the research domain.

  • Dessouky, M., Bailey, D., Verma, S., Adiga, S., Bekey,G., and Kazlauskas, E. 1998. A virtual factory teaching system in support of manufacturing education. Journal of Engineering Education, 87(4): 459-467.
Abstract: To accommodate increasing product specialization, modern factories are increasingly becoming more flexible. A large measure of this flexibility is achieved via the integration of the various components of the manufacturing system (e.g., design, production, purchasing, etc). To be successful in this new manufacturing environment, an engineering college graduate must understand the total business process from design to production to delivery in order to develop a holistic view of manufacturing systems. Yet, traditional pedagogical tools are ill-equipped to develop this holistic view in students. In this paper, we describe a Virtual Factory Teaching System, VFTS, that is under development. The intent of the VFTS is to provide a tool for university instructors to illustrate the concepts of factory management and design as applied in a realistic setting. The focus of this paper is to present our pedagogical approach of the VFTS, the development of the prototype and its use in a senior-level industrial engineering class.

  • Cohen, S. G. and Bailey, D.E. 1997. What makes teams work: Group effectiveness research from the shop floor to the executive suite. Journal of Management, 23(3): 239-290.
Abstract: In this article, we summarize and review the research on teams and groups in organization settings published from January 1990 to April 1996. The article focuses on studies in which the dependent variables are concerned with various dimensions of effectiveness. A heuristic framework illustrating recent trends in the literature depicts team effectiveness as a function of task, group, and organization design factors, environmental factors, internal processes, external processes, and group psychosocial traits. The review discusses four types of teams: work, parallel, project, and management. We review research findings for each type of team organized by the categories in our heuristic framework. The article concludes by comparing the variables studied for the different types of teams, highlighting the progress that has been made, suggesting what still needs to be done, summarizing key learnings from the last six years, and suggesting areas for further research.

  • Bailey, D.E. 1997. Manufacturing improvement team programs in the semiconductor industry. IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing, 10(1): 1-10.
Abstract: Increasing numbers of semiconductor manufacturers are implementing improvement programs at their manufacturing sites (fabs). Yet despite their rising popularity, little attention has focused on the impact of a program’s design on its overall effectiveness. This research examines the improvement programs established at ten fabs. A categorization scheme classifies programs according to their use of one of three types of teams: continuous improvement teams (CIT’s), quality circles (QC’s), and self-directed work teams (SDWT’s). Results from 188 operator surveys and over 150 interviews with fab employees (including managers, engineers, technicians, supervisors, operators, and representatives from human resources and quality departments) indicate that a number of programs suffer from weak implementation and disorganized management. The failure to carefully design and implement a program is reflected in employee perceptions of the program’s effectiveness. Perceptions of CIT programs are found to be significantly lower than those of QC or SDWT programs, both of which feature higher degrees of autonomy and training. Results also highlight a nearly universal failure to integrate production team programs with engineering and maintenance functions. To help improve future programs, design implications and aspects of effective team programs are noted. Special attention is paid to program selection, goal design, organizational support, engineering integration, information systems, and empowerment semantics.

  • Bailey, D.E. and Adiga, S. 1997. Measuring manufacturing work group autonomy. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 44(2):158-174.
Abstract: The increasing use of autonomous work groups in manufacturing industries has been accompanied by a growing confusion over exactly what group autonomy connotes. Our intent in this paper is to provide clarity to the quantitative measurement of work group autonomy. An examination of classic case studies from the group literature reveals how group autonomy has been conceptualized over time, while highlighting the absence of more modern-day concerns in areas such as equipment maintenance and quality improvement. In attempting to objectively assess the degree of autonomy held by work groups both in the classic studies and in a modern high-technology industry, we find that the existing measurement instrument fails at the latter. A new more finely grained measuring instrument is introduced that covers decisions in the areas of methods, scheduling, task allocation, resource allocation and management, goals, and boundary management. Items on the instrument address topics in performance evaluation, training, equipment maintenance, group membership, and production, among others.

Bio

Diane E. Bailey is Assistant Professor in the School of Information at the University of Texas at Austin, where she studies technology and work in information and technical occupations. With an expertise in organizational ethnography, Professor Bailey primarily conducts large-scale empirical studies, often involving multiple occupations, countries, and researchers. She publishes her research in top organization studies, engineering, and information studies journals. Professor Bailey has won teaching awards at UT Austin, Stanford University, and the University of Southern California. Her research has won best paper awards, a dissertation award, and an NSF CAREER award. Professor Bailey holds a Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of California at Berkeley.

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What's Going On

(last updated 11/14/2011)

Here at the iSchool, we are excited to have launched the Information Work Research Group. We're looking for strong doctoral student applicants.


I gave an invited talk on technology and the future of work at Erasmus University as part of the Dutch week on "New Ways of Working."


I was invited to join the Society for Teaching Excellence, a UT organization that honors and promotes junior faculty teaching.


A paper I wrote with Paul Leonardi (Northwestern) and Jan Chong (OnLive, Palo Alto) won the 2011 AOM/OCIS Best Published Paper Award. See more under my publications tab.


In October I went to Brazil, where Eduardo Diniz (FGV, Sao Paulo) and I interviewed remote bankers as part of a $1.4M NSF award that Paul Leonardi, Bonnie Nardi (UC Irvine), and I won. Read more under my research tab.

Paper Updates

(last updated 11/14/2011)

My paper with Paul Leonardi and Steve Barley (Stanford) on simulation technologies and work organization will appear in a  special issue of Organization Science on digital innovation.

I also have recent OS papers with Steve Barley on teaching and learning ecologies and Paul Leonardi and Jan Chong on technogy interdependence.

My paper with Tiffany Le Maistre, Rebecka Embry, and Lindsey Van Zandt (UT Austin students) on technology-induced role transformation in reference librarianship will appear in Library Quarterly.

My paper with Will Barley and Paul Leonardi on boundary objects is under revise & resubmit at a communications journal.

Paul Leonardi and I submitted a paper that extends the social networks literature by showing how engineers share the work of brokerage by articulating sparse and dense networks to generate and implement good ideas.