Ordering Work

Abstract

Within complex organizations, people are members of various and sometimes conflicting subgroupings. Texts function between and across these various subgroupings to simultaneously bridge the gap between them (and thus allow joint work to be done) and yet maintain existing structures of power and territory. This study reports observations of blue-collar laboratory technicians using work orders written by engineers. It identifies work orders as a genre that both triggered and concealed the work of the technicians, allowing it to disappear into the work of the engineers. This study has implications for our understanding of the role texts play in coordinating joint work and for our understanding of what it means for texts to be perceived as generic. In particular, it emphasizes the political aspects of genre as form of social action, an aspect previous research and theory have tended to neglect.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
2000-04-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088300017002001
Open Access
Closed

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (18)

  1. Pedagogy
  2. Written Communication
  3. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  4. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  5. Written Communication
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  1. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  4. Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  6. Written Communication
  7. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  8. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  9. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  10. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  11. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  12. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  13. Journal of Business and Technical Communication

Cites in this index (7)

  1. Written Communication
  2. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  3. Written Communication
  4. Written Communication
  5. Technical Communication Quarterly
Show all 7 →
  1. Written Communication
  2. Written Communication
Also cites 6 works outside this index ↓
  1. 10.1207/s15327884mca0404_6
  2. Genre knowledge in disciplinary communication: Cognition/culture/power
  3. When old technologies were new: Thinking about electrical communication in the late ninet…
  4. 10.1080/00335638409383686
  5. Genre analysis: English in academic and research settings
  6. What engineers know and how they know it: Analytical studies from aeronautical history
CrossRef global citation count: 48 View in citation network →