HCC: Large: Collaborative Research: Information Technology, Remote Socialization, and the Development of Occupational Identity

该项目将探索信息和通信技术(ICT)带来的远程社会化如何改变四个职业：平面设计、汽车工程、银行和互联网创业。在基于实地的比较研究设计之后，本研究将考察组织环境和社会化策略对ICT使用的影响，并考虑技术使用、社会化和工作性质变化的问题。在今天的工作场所中，职业成员在地理上相互分布的安排越来越常见。这一新的现实对强调搭配互动和就地知识转移重要性的现有社会化理论和学习实践提出了质疑。通过关注个人如何使用信息和通信技术学习成为职业成员意味着什么，这项研究将有助于形成一种新的社会化理论，指出个人可以使用的过程、做法和战略，即使他们远离他人工作，也可以成为职业的有效成员。最近的理论表明，信息和通信技术可以提供非中介(例如面对面)环境所不能提供的特殊互动条件，通过这一理论，它将探索远程社会化实际上可能有助于职业自身转型的可能性。其中一个目标是建立关于技术导致职业转变的机制的理论。职业技能对经济成功、社会进步和个人福祉至关重要。然而，许多职业似乎未能迅速适应科学、技术和政策的变化。职业未能改变和自我调整，以应对新的社会和技术压力，预示着美国公民技能下降会导致失业，并可能增加对其他国家的外包。这项研究将提供对技术支持的远程社交如何能够促进更快的职业转型的洞察。尽管多年来，与面对面的交流相比，信通技术中介的沟通被认为是贫穷的，但现在它已经有了相当大的发展，信通技术中介的沟通可能会为工人提供更多机会，让他们摆脱既定职业的惯性，并制定新的工作做法和战略，推动职业向前发展。此外，当务之急是，新的职业成员必须学会如何有效地获取他们在远程工作时所需的知识和技能，以便更好地履行他们的工作。这项研究将深入了解远程社会化和职业学习的有效做法，以便试图学习新工作做法和知识的个人将在其努力中取得成功。

This project will explore how remote socialization enabled by information and communication technologies (ICTs) is transforming four occupations: graphic design, automotive engineering, banking, and Internet entrepreneurship. Following a comparative, field-based research design, this research will examine the effects of both organizational environments and socialization tactics on ICT use and consider issues of technology use, socialization, and the changing nature of work. In today's workplaces, it is increasingly common to encounter arrangements in which occupational members are geographically distributed from one another. This new reality calls into question existing theories of socialization and learning practices that highlight the importance of collocated interaction and in situ knowledge transfer. By focusing on how individuals use ICTs to learn what it means to be an occupational member, this research will contribute to a new breed of theory on socialization that indicates the processes, practices, and strategies individuals can use to become effective members of an occupation even though they work remotely from others. By drawing on recent theorizing, which suggests that ICTs may provide particular affordances for interaction that non-mediated (e.g. face-to-face) contexts do not, it will explore the possibility that remote socialization may, in fact, help occupations to transform themselves. One aim is to build theory about the mechanisms by which technology leads to occupational transformation. Occupational skill is critical to economic success, social progress, and individual well-being. However, many occupations seem to be failing to adapt quickly to changes in science, technology, and policy. The failure of occupations to change and refashion themselves to meet new social and technological pressures portends job loss from reduced skill for American citizens, and potentially increased outsourcing to other countries. This study will provide insight into how technology-enabled remote socialization may be able to contribute to faster occupational transformation. Although, for many years, ICT-mediated communication has been seen to be impoverished when compared to face-to-face communication, but now that it has developed considerably, ICT-mediated communication may provide more opportunities for workers to break free from the inertia of established occupations and develop new work practices and strategies that move the occupation forward. Additionally, it is imperative that new occupational members learn how to effectively acquire the knowledge and skills they need to perform their jobs well when they work remotely from others. This study will provide insight into effective practices of remote socialization and occupational learning such that individuals who are attempting to learn new work practices and knowledge will be successful in their efforts.