This document summarizes two ethnographically informed studies conducted as part of the MATURE and MIRROR projects. For MATURE, researchers conducted immersive field studies of seven organizations over three weeks to understand real-world knowledge maturing practices. For MIRROR, researchers spent four days immersed in a hospital to study the role of affective aspects in reflection and motivational barriers between individual, team, and organizational levels. Both studies found that ethnographic elements provided a richer understanding of motivational aspects but that future studies should include longer preparation phases and make productive use of narratives from the fieldwork.
3. Ethnographicresearch Immersionintothesocialenvironment Focuses not only on whathappens, but also whyandhow Challenge: traditional ethnographicresearchisbased on longperiodsof time As a consequence in CSCW andotherfields: Modifiedmethods, such as „rapid ethnography“ More focused, combinationofperspectives
6. ResultsandExperiences Results rich qualitative dataanalyzedwithstructuredtextanalysis in a collaborativeway Resultswereamalgamatedintostructuredpersonadescriptions Specificsections on motivational aspects Fedintousecasedefinitionprocess Experiences Empiricalgroundingledto a higherrichnessofunderstanding Particularlydevelopersformingpartoftheethnographicteamshasbeenveryuseful Formed a sharedunderstandingof real-worldproblems(7 out of 12 partnersparticipated)
7. Lessonslearnt Resultswerehighlydependent on priorsensitization futurestudiesshouldincludelongerpreparatoryphases Personashavebeenusefulatthebeginningoftherequirementsprocess But theyhavebeenreplacedbythedirectinteractionwith real targetusers
9. MIRROR EthnographicallyInformed Study Goal / Scope roleofaffectiveaspectsforreflection motivational barriers in thetransitionbetween individual, teamandorganizationallevel combinedwith a sensorbeltstudy onehospital Ethnographicteam 3 researchers, onewithpriorexperience in ethnographyanddomainexperience
10. Structure Fourdaysofimmersion in theworkpractice(fivepersonsobserved, bothnursesandphysicians) Analysis phase (fivedays) Onehourinterviews Presentedsensordataanalysis askedaboutinterestingeventsfromnotesin ordertogetthebroadercontext Results Analysis with a structuredtextanalysissimilartothemethodused in MATURE, but limited to a smallergroupofresearchers
14. Conclusions Ethnographicelementsyield a richerandmoreholisticunderstanding, particularlyfor motivational aspects Ethnographicteamsshouldbecomposedofbothexperiencedethnographersanddevelopers Prior trustrelationshipanddomainexperienceisbeneficialtocompensateforshortness Decidecarefully on thetime period Design processes should make productive use of narratives communicate efficiently experiences made during the ethnographic research narratives should be preferred over formal models or descriptions.
15. Outlook & Contact MATURE IP – http://mature-ip.eu Identifyingandovercomingbarrierstoknowledgematuring in organizations Christine Kunzmann Researcher @ FZI andKompetenzorientierte Personalentwicklung http://kompetenzen-gestalten.de contact@christine-kunzmann.de Andreas Schmidt Department Manager Scientific CoordinatorMATURE FZI Research Center for Information Technologies andreas.schmidt@fzi.de http://andreas.schmidt.name