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Research Interests
Professor Barley's research focuses on
the social and organizational implications of technological change
and on the technical and professional workforce. He is currently
involved the following research projects:
The Effects of Communication Technologies on Availability (with
Debra Meyerson) Over the last several decades, people have become
increasingly concerned about their inability to manage the boundary
between work and family. During the same period of time the number
of communication technologies that people employ have expanded to
include email, voicemail, chat rooms, video conferencing and internet
messaging. Some people argue that these new technologies enable
us to juggle the demands on our lives more effectively. Others claim
that they are intrusive and are blurring the boundary between home
and work. Yet, few researchers have studied how these new communication
technologies are affecting our availability and our notions of what
it means to be accessible. Using data collected from communication
logs, interviews and observations, this study examines how communications
technologies affect the boundaries between work and the remainder
of our lives and how they shape our sense of what it means to be
accessible.
The Social Construction of Telecommuting (with Diane Bailey)
Since the late 1970's telecommuting has been viewed as a solution
to a number of social and organizational problems. The popular and
academic press has anticipated large increases in telecommuting
among the working population. Yet, data show that only a small fraction
of the workforce actually telecommutes with any regularity, although
a growing number of people are using computers to work from home
in the evening and in the early morning. This paper examines the
social history of telecommuting. The goal is unravel why telecommuting
has attracted so much attention and why it's promise has never been
fulfilled.
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