All Edge: Inside the New Workplace Networks

Clay Spinuzzi

ISBN 10: 022623696X / ISBN 13: 9780226236964

Published by University of Chicago Press, 2015

pp. 224. Seller Inventory # 26316680496

Synopsis:

Work is changing. Speed and flexibility are more in demand than ever before thanks to an accelerating knowledge economy and sophisticated communication networks. These changes have forced a mass rethinking of the way we coordinate, collaborate, and communicate. Instead of projects coming to established teams, teams are increasingly converging around projects. These "all-edge adhocracies" are highly collaborative and mostly temporary, their edge coming from the ability to form links both inside and outside an organization. These nimble groups come together around a specific task, recruiting personnel, assigning roles, and establishing objectives. When the work is done they disband and their members take their skills to the next project. Spinuzzi offers for the first time a comprehensive framework for understanding how these new groups function and thrive. His rigorous analysis tackles both the pros and cons of this evolving workflow and is based in case studies of real all-edge adhocracies at work. His provocative results will challenge our long-held assumptions about how we should be doing work.

About the Author: Clay Spinuzzi is professor of rhetoric and writing at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Tracing Genres through Organizations, Network, and Topsight.

Bibliographic Details

Title: All Edge: Inside the New Workplace Networks
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Publication Date: 2015
Binding: Hardcover
Condition: New