[AISWorld] ISR Special Issue on Information, Technology, and the Changing Nature of Work

[Forman, Chris M]

Just as a reminder, the deadline for initial submissions for the ISR Special Issue on "Information, Technology, and the Changing Nature of Work" is June 30. A description of the special issue is included below: 

Special Issue Co-Editors

Chris Forman 	
Georgia Institute of Technology 	
chris.forman at scheller.gatech.edu

John Leslie King
University of Michigan
jlking at umich.edu

Kalle Lyytinen
Case Western Reserve University
kjl13 at case.edu

Focus

There is widespread belief and growing evidence that the nature of work is changing as a result of the application of information technology (IT) and, more broadly, the use of information and technology in human enterprise. The focus of this special issue is on work, including its content, coordination, organization, and sustainment over time in what has been historically called "livelihood" or "career." Work, which for a long time has been derivative of organizational decisions and actions, might be changing in ways that influence decisions and actions of organizations rather than the other way around. In particular, new patterns of digitally mediated collaboration may engender changes in the geographic distribution of work, while new forms of digitally mediated contracting make short hold-time collaborations a viable alternative to earlier models of long-term employment.

Information and technology have influenced the nature of work in traditional organizations, but another important development has been the rise of "open" behavior: open models of production (e.g., open source software), open sourcing of ideas (e.g., crowdsourcing and collective intelligence), and open access to information resources (e.g., open educational resources). This includes work among distributed individuals and organizations using technology-enabled platforms that facilitate "open" behavior.

This special issue of ISR is designed to stimulate new thinking and innovative research on the relationship among information, technology, and the changing nature of work. We invite papers that use a variety of investigative approaches, including strategic, organizational, behavioral, economic, and technical perspectives. The scope of the special issue is limited only by the relationship among information, technology, and work. Submissions should contribute significantly to understanding and planning for next steps in research. Ideally, papers published in this special issue will help guide research in this area for the coming years while simultaneously being relevant for policy makers.

Topics of interest include but are not limited to the following:

* "Open" strategies for organizing and sourcing of work, sourcing of ideas, and/or access to work resources
* Intertwining of virtual and physical elements of work
* Reorganization and redistribution of work with new digital technologies
* The future of professions, organizational tasks, and functions
* Changes in the organization of highly data- or knowledge-intensive work mediated by extensive digital capabilities (science, engineering, scholarship, data mining, etc.)
* New work regimes, pace, and temporal structuring of work
* New, technology-enabled models of matching talent and work and new methods of credentialing and assessing talent
* Rules, incentives, and participation in digitally mediated work
* Effects of design rules for games and competitions on the outcomes of work
* Organization of teams in new and emerging work regimes
* The use of social media in crowdsourcing and organizational collaboration
* Effects of job-hopping and short worker-firm collaborations on career patterns and firm boundaries and structuring
* New qualification norms and institutional forms of controlling work force
* "Big data" and data-driven enterprise as a means to learning and change work flow patterns
* New forms of individual and team-level work control
* Intellectual property in open environments and new work regimes

Timetable

June 30, 2013 		Initial full paper submission deadline
October 1, 2013 	First round review completed
November 2013 	Workshop for those authors who make it through first round
January 15, 2013 	Final papers due
March 15, 2014 		Final decisions made

Process

All submissions must be made through ISR's online submission system, which can be accessed at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/isr.

All submissions will receive an initial screening by the Guest and Associate Editors to determine which have a reasonable chance of acceptance; others will not be considered further.

Papers will undergo no more than two rounds of review (i.e., one revision); papers not accepted by the end of the second round will be rejected.

Authors of papers still under consideration must present their work at a meeting in November 2013 and must cover their own travel and lodging expenses. The meeting will provide feedback and insights regarding research and papers relevant to the special issue.

Authors must adhere to a strict schedule for submission and revision of papers as noted in the timetable. Papers that miss deadlines will be rejected.

Rejected papers can be submitted as regular submissions to ISR only if such an action is recommended in the Special Issue rejection letter. A recommendation to revise and resubmit as a regular ISR article will be undertaken only if the rejected manuscript possesses a strong likelihood of acceptance but either was deemed to be a poor fit with the theme of the Special Issue or required revisions that, while perceived to be feasible, are unlikely to be accomplished within the Special Issue's accelerated review schedule.