Imagine a day in the life of workers on a certain manufacturing floor. There is a flurry of activity amidst a deafening sound of machines. The tasks are constantly changing. As soon as the workers get used to making one product, a new kind has to be made. The product they are working on now is not the same as the one that was made the day before; in fact, three quite different products will have to be built before the day is through. Moreover, the machines that the workers have been using to build similar products have just been replaced by newer, more sophisticated ones. Workers have begun this day performing assigned tasks in their usual teams, but a customer's needs could easily require a sudden shift to other teams and tasks, and the workers will probably be asked to do overtime in order to meet the deadline.
This high-pressure, fast-paced scene is not fiction; it is typical in many work sites today. Circuit-board manufacturing is a case in point: As with many firms involved in emerging digital technologies, change seems to be the only constant. In this study, we examine how workers in a small company which manufactures circuit boards accomplish their tasks in highly fluid circumstances. We pay particular attention to the interactions of workers, who are operating computerized machines for assembling components on the circuit boards. We analyze workers' concerted actions supported by these machines and other objects in the work environment. The environment is teeming with material objects and inscriptions--words, numbers, and images[1]--all of which are contributing elements to the workers' activities. As will be seen, the tasks are accomplished when people make skillful use of these elements in their work.
Stasz (1994), in a review of research dealing with skill demands in the modern workforce, affirms that skills of workers have to be studied in context, from the perspective of people who actually perform various tasks in the course of their day. The present microanalytical study is part of a larger research project which employed an ethnographic approach--extensive videotaped observations and interviews--which provided overarching contextual information. The microanalytical method used here is drawn largely from the work of conversation analysis, which presents a theoretical foundation for understanding how talk-in-interaction is organized (c.f., Goodwin & Heritage, 1990). Through the study of ordinary conversation, analysts demonstrate how human activity is coordinated and how meaning and mutual understanding are achieved. Recently, researchers in this tradition have turned to the analysis of task activities in institutional settings such as courtrooms (Atkinson & Drew, 1984), classrooms (McHoul, 1990), and doctors' offices (Heath, 1992; see also Drew & Heritage, 1992, for an excellent collection). In our view, the close study of workplace interaction, especially during troubleshooting moments, can throw light on the kinds of skills workers actually employ in the midst of collaborative activities.
[1] Following Derrida (1977), we apply the notion of inscription, which is also used by Latour and Woolgar (1986) and Goodwin (1994) to refer to all marks--writing, graphs, numbers, blueprints, and images--that organize and represent material phenomena.
