Mobility at work

  • Authors:

  • Jan Kietzmann;Kirk Plangger;Ben Eaton;Kerstin Heilgenberg;Leyland Pitt;Pierre Berthon

  • Affiliations:

  • Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, 500 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6C 1W6;Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, 500 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6C 1W6;Department of Informatics, University of Oslo, P.O. Box 1072, Blindern, 0316 Oslo, Norway;Faculty of Education, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, Burnaby, BC, Canada V5A 1S6;Beedie School of Business, Simon Fraser University, 500 Granville Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6C 1W6;McCallum Graduate School of Business, Bentley University, Waltham, MA 02452, USA

  • Venue:
  • The Journal of Strategic Information Systems
  • Year:
  • 2013

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Abstract

Innovations in mobile technology shape how mobile workers share knowledge and collaborate on the go. We introduce mobile communities of practice (MCOPs) as a lens for understanding how these workers self-organize, and present three MCOP case studies. Working from contextual ambidexterity, we develop a typology of bureaucratic, anarchic, idiosyncratic and adhocratic MCOPs. We discuss how variations in the degree of organizational alignment and individual discretion shape the extent to which these types explore and exploit mobile work practices and approach organizational ambidexterity. This article concludes with important strategic implications for managing mobile work and practical considerations for identifying, creating, and supporting MCOPs.