Elaine K. Yakura

Charting Time: Timelines as Temporal Boundary Objects

This article investigates the use of visual artifacts to represent time. Timelines, or “Gantt charts,” are widely used for scheduling, budgeting, and project management, and they are woven into the...

Billables: The Valorization of Time in Consulting

This article describes the transformation of time into money in information technology consulting work. Using data collected through participant observation, this article illustrates the valorizati...This article describes the transformation of time into money in information technology consulting work. Using data collected through participant observation, this article illustrates the valorization of time, whereby time is transformed into units of value, known as billables. Focusing on the process of valorization provides new theoretical insight into the social construction of time as money. Routine billing practices help sustain the taken-for-granted equivalence of time and money, but these practices are strongly influenced by a variety of normative and situational factors. Billables are used by consulting firms to measure performance and control work, but the evidence presented here suggests that time-based measures of work and value can be somewhat arbitrary.

What's Wrong with the Pipeline? Assumptions about Gender and Culture in IT Work

In scholarly and practical discourse, the under-representation of women in technology and science is often attributed to a shortage of women “in the pipeline.” In this essay, we analyze this dominant metaphor and argue that it imposes an appealing but simplistic symbol onto a labor market filled with exceptions and divergences. Further, it calls attention to a normative “flow” rather than lived work experiences. We suggest the pipeline metaphor be augmented with a focus on the layers of culture surrounding IT work. Research on culture change suggests that significant systemic interventions are required; organizations must achieve a critical mass in the number of women before change can occur. Without systemic change, short-term strategies will not make the crucial difference in the numbers of women in IT.

Visualizing an information technology project: The role of powerpoint presentations over time

Using longitudinal field data, this paper examines the changing role of visual powerpoint media over the course of a large, multi-year information systems project in a regional U.S. bank. Existing research has generally focused on visual representation of relatively static objects in medical, scientific and engineering contexts, but projects are an inherently dynamic collection of activities-distributed over time and space-that progress through a beginning, middle and end. This analysis of the visual presentation material used in an IT project highlights the abstract nature of the referent (the project). The dominant presentation technology in use in this project was the powerpoint presentation; this paper analyzes the changes in the presentations over time, and inscription and conscription at different stages of the project.

How did mathemathematics and accounting get so many women majors?: what can IT disciplines learn?

Enrollment of women in Information Technology (IT) disciplines is shrinking. Disciplines that were traditionally male, mathematics and accounting, have succeeded in gaining equal numbers of male and female students. This paper looks at the changes in these two disciplines to see whether similar changes might be used to attract and retain women students in IT disciplines. An overview of the gender transformation of Math and Accounting provides a list of shared strategies used to attract women. A comparison of the three disciplines provides insight for attracting women to IT.

Visual Elements in the Discourse on Information Technology

Discourse is critical to organizations as well as to information technology in a variety of ways, as the literature attests (Alvesson and Karreman 2000; Beech 2000; Benders et al. 1998; Button and Sharrock 1995; Oswick et al. 2000; Rachel and Woolgar 1994). But there is an interesting new catch: the ways we talk about technology, and the content of the technology itself, are increasingly multimodal,involving graphical as well as textual elements (Kress et al. 1997).

Support Structures for Women in Information Technology Careers

This paper examines issues of support for women with Information Technology (IT) careers. Interviews of 38 women with careers in information technology sectors of different industries lasted about 90 minutes and consisted of open-ended questions regarding aspects of their careers and career paths. Research on the lack of women in STEM disciplines focuses mainly on undergraduate education and attracting women to STEM disciplines, focusing on ‘filling the pipeline.’ This research seeks to understand what it takes to have a successful, satisfying career, especially areas of support for women that may influence their success in IT careers. Knowing this may give women help in planning their careers and navigating a male dominated industry.

Visual elements in the discourse on information technology

Over the past 20 years, the field of information systems has grown dramatically in theoretical diversity and global reach. This growth is reflected in the language that policy makers and organizational stakeholders use when they talk about their IT plans. As information technology penetrates further into organizational and global life, it becomes ever more important to articulate assumptions embedded in the discourse. This will help to clarify the complex and yet conceptually improvised or pasted-up worldview that becomes embodied in systems. The assumptions point to particular domains of discourse. The discourse sets up conventions and boundaries. It thus shapes what can or cannot legitimately be talked about, researched, addressed, or solved within the scope of IT. A number of practical and theoretical topics are discussed in detail, including: *Globalization, development, and space; *Mobilization of power; *ERP systems; *IS planning and projects; *Critical research and the study of discourse; *Public institutions; *Analytical frameworks. This book contains the selected proceedings of the Working Conference on Global and Organizational Discourse About Information Technology, sponsored by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) and held in Barcelona, Spain in December 2002.