Genre Systems: Structuring Interaction through Communicative Norms

By JoAnne Yates, Wanda J. Orlikowski. 2002

406 citations recorded by the source corpus.

In this paper we demonstrate that teams may use genre systems-sequences of interrelated communicative actions-deliberately or habitually, to structure their collaboration. Using data over a seven-month period from three teams' use of a collaborative electronic technology, Team Room, we illustrate that genre systems are a means of structuring six dimensions of communicative interaction: purpose (why), content (what), participants (who/m), form (how), time (when), and place (where). We suggest that researchers and users may benefit from explicitly recog nizing the role genre systems can play in collaboration and from examining changes in these six dimensions accompanying changes in electronic technology.

Subfields: Language and Linguistics, Literature and Literary Theory, Human-Computer Interaction

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/30f8df849ad28f46431c6f18c425ef58d64938e9

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Language and Linguistics

1. Sarah Kaplan
2. Jennifer A. Howard-Grenville
3. JoAnne Yates

In Literature and Literary Theory

1. Sarah Kaplan
2. Jennifer A. Howard-Grenville
3. JoAnne Yates

In Human-Computer Interaction

1. Jennifer A. Howard-Grenville
2. Sarah Kaplan
3. JoAnne Yates

Citations in the corpus

• Strategy and PowerPoint: An Inquiry into the Epistemic Culture and Machinery of Strategy Making (2011, background): “It is the most recent iteration in a long tradition of business presentation technologies (Yates and Orlikowski 2002).”
• The PowerPoint Presentation and Its Corollaries: How Genres Shape Communicative Action in Organizations (2004, background): “…of what communities do and do not do (purpose), what they do and do not value (content), what different roles members of the community may or may not play (participants), and the conditions (time, place, form) under which interactions should and should not occur (Yates and Orlikowski, 2002).”
• The Persistence of Flexible Organizational Routines: The Role of Agency and Organizational Context (2005, background): “Social expectations provide answers to questions of who performs a routine, what comprises the routine, and how, why, and where it is performed ( Yates and Orlikowski 2002 ).”