Method for Data Collection

The data sources that makes the body of empirical data has been collected by using several methods for data collection, e.g. interviews, observations, taking part in project- and user meetings and conducting logbooks. Table 2-1 depicts an overview of the data collection. The data collection has been categorized according to the different areas of interest (see 2.8.1), i.e. the learning track (LT), work practice track (WPT), and system track (AT). Although, being partly integrated it is relevant to acknowledge the data collection relative to the different tracks and different points in time.

Table 2-1 Data collection

Track1 Method for data

collection Respondent (informant)/object for study2

Time

(h) Recording Data collector3

WPT Interviews Management M1

Logistics L 2×2

Written notes Fen ST/WPT Development

log

Developer D1

Development process

N/A Written notes Fen ST/WPT Development

log Developer D1 System Version 0.1 System Version 0.2 System Version 1.0 System Version 1.1 System Version 1.2 System Version 1.3 System Version 1.4 System Version 1.5 System Version 1.6

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Track1 Method for data collection Respondent (informant)/object for study2 Time (h) Recording Data collector3 System Version 1.7

WPT/ST Users meetings Developer D1 Production Worker S1 Production Worker S2 Production Worker S3 Production Worker O1 Production Worker O2 Operations management OM1 Operations management OM2

12×2 Written notes Fen

WPT/ST Project group meetings Developer D1 Production Workers Operations management (OM1) Operations management (OM2) Management M1 Management M2

2×2 Written notes Aac

LT/WPT Interviews Production Worker S1 Production Worker S2 Production Worker O1 Production Worker O2 4×1,5 Tape recorder and transcripts Fen

Observations Production Worker S1

Production Worker O1 2×2 Written notes Fen Document

analysis

Documents used by production workers

N/A Written notes Fen LT/WPT/ ST Development log Developer D1 System Version 1.8 System Version 2.0

N/A Written notes Fen

LT/WPT/ ST System assessment Error management system

N/A Written notes Fen LT/WPT/ ST Project group meetings Developer D1 Production Workers Operations management (OM1) Management M1 Management M2

1×2 Written notes Aac

LT/WPT/ ST

Informal meetings

Company’s personnel N/A Written notes Fen

1 _{The column follows the structure depicted in Figure 2-4.}

2 _{All respondents (informants) are in the manufacturing company except for the Developer D1 who is I (the}

author of this thesis). Respondents have been assigned a code to make respondents’ contribution to the data collection transparent.

3 _{Fen – Fredrik Ericsson, the author of this thesis, Aac – Anders Avdic, fellow researcher at the department of}

2 Research Design

2.8.2.1 Development Log

One important data source is the development log. The development log is a tool to keep track of the system development process and the system versions. The log is written by me in the role of a developer (Developer D1) and I have continuously kept notes about how the development process and system progresses.

During the development of the system, I have at the same time kept notes by writing down distinguishing features of the system in relation to (a) errors found in prior versions, (b) changes requested by production workers identified during user meetings (see 2.8.2.3) and (c) errors or changes not corrected due to any aspects hindering it (found in prior versions). In practice I wrote text files (i.e. ReadMe files) for each version in a real time mode. The development log is a way to keep track of changes made in the system and what it was that brought about those changes.

Due to that the log is kept in a real time mode in a parallel manner when developing the system there is a risk in loosing aspects about the system. To assess that risk the log has been reviewed and revised in retrospective by reference to (a) the system itself in different versions and (b) the user meetings.

2.8.2.2 Interviews

I did interviews in two different situations: (a) to acquire data about the manufacturing company and its overall operations, and (b) to acquire data about production workers’ work practice.

Data about the manufacturing company and its overall operations is related to the cooperative effort in the project setting when assessing how information technology can support organizational performance improvements. Such assessment brought about the ideas and thoughts that are presented in this thesis. The interviews took place at two occasions and the respondents were two management representatives that gave statements about the company’s overall operations. These statements were recorded by taking written notes.

Data about production workers’ work (work practice) was collected by interviewing production workers in the manufacturing company. The production workforce consists of setters and operators. I interviewed two setters and two operators. I wanted to have both groups of workers represented to grasp what is going on in the workplace, i.e. I selected the production workers due to their roles in the production workforce. The aim of the interviews was to collect data about setters’ and operators’ work practice and how they view learning and acquiring of work knowledge relative to their work tasks. I conducted the interviews by asking ‘open’ questions around different areas about their work, learning and acquiring of work knowledge. It was important to set up the aim of the interviews in advance due to the open character of the interview situations. The aim of the interviews was to get an understanding of (a) setters and operators work practice, (b) how they work and perceive their immediate surrounding to be set up in terms of artifacts and activities and fellow workers and (c) how they learn their work and account for themselves and fellow workers in problem solving and other learning related activities.

A typical start up question was to ask workers to describe a day at work and from there complete with follow up question to account for the learning and work knowledge aspects articulated in the aim of the interviews. The motives to do the interviews in an open character is: (a) that having a strict questioning and answering mode narrows the scope in how the respondents talk about their work and (b) that talking about learning and knowledge is integrated in how the respondents perceive their work. I found it important that production workers talked about these things in their own words. How production workers talk about learning and acquiring of work knowledge should be done in terms given by their own practice (conditions of the practice). Trying to make sense of learning and knowledge in

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practice requires sensitivity for the situation that brings that knowledge and learning into being (cf. Wyssusek et al., 2002).

The interviews were recorded by using a tape recorder. A negative aspect in using a tape recorder is that the respondents may feel awkward in being recorded (Repstad, 1999). To avoid such awkwardness is impossible but by assuring confidentiality (not possible to trace records to an unique respondent) and that know one but me have access to the tapes are measures that have been taken to minimize that aspect. The interviews were transcribed word by word. The motive for doing that is due to the interviews’ open character in making each interview unique in itself although having the same subject.

2.8.2.3 User Meetings

Several user meetings have been arranged during the system development process. In the beginning only setters and operations management attended to these meetings. Later on, also operators joined these meetings. The setters and operators were selected by operations management and management on the basis of what they thought their attitude would be towards the project. The choice to only have setters attending the meetings in the beginning was made by operations management and management. They wanted to start up the process in a small-scale. Operations management and management also believed that setters were the main group in the workforce to have and ‘see’ value from having the system. This belief came to change as the development process progress.

Production workers and operations management representatives and I (in the role as a developer) took part in the user meetings. The aim of these meetings was to account for (a) how the system appear and behave on workers’ (users’) command (users testing the system) and (b) usage situations in daily work (how the system is to be used in practice). I called for and lead the meetings. All meetings were set up in similar way by having the same meeting agenda to account for how the development process progress in a transparent manner.

Meeting agenda:

• Goal of the meeting (set up in advance)

• System version

• Reflections before the meeting (by the developer)

• The meeting itself

• Reflections after the meeting (by the developer)

The goal of each meeting was set up in advance and is related to the overall aim of the meetings. It was also important to acknowledge the system version under scrutiny.

Before the actual meeting took place, I reflected upon aspects related to the meetings. Such a reflection is way to capture important ideas and thoughts from a developer’s point of view in making it a forum for the developer to assess issues in relation to the goal of the meeting.

The meeting itself is the discussion taking place among the attending parties. It covered aspects related to the things that were set up to be discussed. I asked questions and raised topics related to those things. The meeting was also an opportunity for the attending parties to raise questions and issues they find important to acknowledge in the development process.

After the meetings took place I reflected upon aspects related to the outcome of the meetings.

This way of organizing meetings have similarities with group interviews. Group interviews are a way to study how people behave and act in interaction with each other (Repstad, 1999). An important aspect in group interviews is that the people who take part in such activity share a common frame of reference. Further, it is important to not turn the situation into a situation where people exercise power and control over each other (ibid). A

2 Research Design risky feature in doing this is that of reinforcement of arguments, i.e. peoples’ opinions about something are reinforced by position and/or by fellow workers. In the user meetings, I have not seen any direct evidence of that and this is probably due to that parties attending the meetings are more belong to production than management (or any other group in the organization for that matter).

I recorded the meetings by taking written notes. After the meetings the notes were reviewed and, if necessary, rewritten and completed and arranged according to the meeting agenda. In that way, all recordings from the meetings are organized in a similar way.

2.8.2.4 Project Group Meetings

As in the case of user meetings, project group meetings have been arranged during the system development process. The difference between user- and project group meetings is that the project group meetings took place in a more ‘formal’ project setting. Attending parties at these meetings was I in the role of developer and researcher, production workers-, operations management-, and management representatives.

The aim of these meeting was to: (a) inform about the current status of the development process, (b) demonstrate the system and (c) decide about the future course of action in the process. On an overall level, the project group meetings function as a decision support forum regarding the system, usage situations and changes in the work situation among production workers the system brings about and the effect learning and acquiring of work knowledge among production workers have on the company’s business. These aspects have continuously been the subjects of discussion during the project group meetings.

I called for and lead the meetings. I distributed information about the meeting to attending parties in advance. The information served as basic data for decision-making. I put together the information and forwarded it to a company representative who in turn distributed the information to other parties. The ones to attend these meetings, was decided in a cooperative effort by operations management, management and me.

2.8.2.5 Observations

I also observed production workers’ work as a complement to the interviews to capture their work in a real world situation. Two of the workers, that I earlier interviewed, were observed, one setter and one operator. The observations were open and active. I walked alongside, respectively, a setter and an operator. The aim of the observations was to study how the workers act and behave in their ‘natural’ working environment. Observations are a good way to study how people act in their natural environment (Repstad, 1999).

I kept field notes from the observations. These notes were written down after the observations. I did not want to obstruct the observations by at the same time observe and write notes. Writing field notes during the observation or having any other recording equipment may obstruct the situation by making the situation more out of the ordinary than it already is by having an observer (Repstad, 1999). This procedure relies on the observers’ memory and there is a risk in losing vital data. I have handled the risk of losing data by having access to the workers on a ‘daily’ basis (when needed).

2.8.2.6 Document Analysis

Production workers use different documents in their work. These documents are instructions workers use when they do things at work and forms workers fill in to report errors on machinery and equipment. Such documents are important to acknowledge in trying to understand production workers’ work situation.

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2.8.2.7 Informal Meetings

The data is collected during approximately two years. During that time, informal meetings5 and communication took place. Informal meetings are meetings not taking place in a formal setting. In action research, communication with practitioners is not always restricted to solely formal situations. Informal communication is intuitive and important when trying to understand and get a feeling for the company’s operations and to get close to the company’s personnel. Informal meetings provide a proximity to the studied phenomenon and information and knowledge of how to interpret the empirical data. On some occasions, I have documented these informal meetings by taking written notes (if considered important).

2.8.2.8 System Assessment

A part of the development process has been to review the company’s current information systems/technology architecture to assess similarities in and to align the system to existing information systems and technology. The aim of such assessment is to account for (a) in what ways other systems can be said to support learning and acquiring of work knowledge among production workers and (b) to make use of existing data sources residing in other systems.

I studied systems residing in the production workers’ context of work and systems that were discussed during the user- and project group meetings, i.e. systems that came into mind when discussing the system. One such system is an error management system handling maintenance and repairs of machinery and equipment. I studied the system on two levels (a) data sources and (b) usage situations. I studied data sources by looking at common characteristics in the data sources in the error management system relative to the data sources found in the system facilitating learning and acquiring work knowledge. I studied usage situations by looking at why, where and when it is used and by whom it is used. By studying the system on these levels make way for a possible integration between the error management system and the system on a data source- and usage level. In that sense, the error management system may become handy to ‘further’ facilitate learning and acquiring work knowledge among production workers.