A new ’Landscape of Communication’ - New Technologies in Use in the Office

Abstract

Over the last decades a number of new technologies have been introduced in offices in the western world, ranging from the electric typewriter to e-mails and advanced photocopiers. This article presents a study of the changes in office technologies based on interviews with Danes who have worked in an office for more than 20 years. The most important changes seem to be connected to technologies, which have made it easier to produce, reproduce and change texts resulting in an increasing ‘textualization’ of both the formal and informal communication in organizations. Like the first mechanization of the office, what maybe can be termed the second technological revolution in the office ranging from the 1960s until today, made the flow of communication faster and cheaper. The study highlights the importance of mundane artefacts like correctable ribbon, which in studies of technological change at workplaces have been forgotten in the shadow of the personal computer, the mobile phone, the Internet and other more visible information and communication technologies. More precisely the most important changes seem to be connected to technologies which have made it easier to correct texts, not least the IBM Selectric typewriter with correctable ribbon, which were mentioned surprisingly many times in the interviews. Another important change has been e-mail. The intensive use of this technology has made a lot of informal communication in organisations increasingly formalized. The technological changes have among other things been important for a new distribution of the work in the office, where the managers and specialists of today in contrast to the office some decades ago write their texts themselves. The secretaries are no longer a kind of servants the same way they were, but have more independent tasks of their own. Theoretically the study is inspired by the works of Bruno Latour and includes classic actor-network concepts like obligatory passage point and inscription device.