Toward a Processual Understanding of How Collaborative Groups Deal With ICT Interruptions: An Interpretive Study

Presenter

Prof. Suprateek Sarker

Abstract

Contemporary knowledge workers collaborating in hybrid work environments need to frequently deal with ICT interruptions. This can potentially lead to disruptions in the collaboration process, particularly in synchronous collaboration contexts. How do knowledge workers deal with such interruptions to ensure the seamless continuation of their collaboration? Past studies, for the most part, suggest that interruptions are likely to negatively affect the process of group work; yet, we see that, in many instances, knowledge workers continue to collaborate seamlessly despite receiving ICT interruptions and even attending to them. In other words, ICT interruptions do not always discernibly affect the collaborative process. In this paper, sensitized by concepts from Goffman’s work, we offer an understanding in the form of a process model of how group members can seamlessly handle ICT interruptions, avoiding and, in certain cases, recovering from serious disruptions in the collaboration.

Biography

Suprateek Sarker (“Supra”) is Rolls-Royce Commonwealth Commerce Professor (Information Technology) at the McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia. Professor Sarker holds an Honorary Professorship of Business Information Systems at the University of Sydney Business School, Sydney, Australia. He was formerly the Philip Kays Distinguished Professor of Information Systems at Washington State University and the Microsoft Chair of Information Systems at the Copenhagen Business School. He serves on the editorial boards of a number of leading academic journals, including Information Systems Research (as senior editor), Journal of MIS (as a member of the board of editors), and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management (as an editorial board member). He is also a past editor-in-chief of Journal of the AIS and Journal of Information Technology Case and Application Research, and a past senior editor of MIS Quarterly and Decision Sciences Journal.