Center for Organizational Research (COR)

You are invited…

COR/Informatics Seminar

Speaker: Janet Vertesi

Sociologist of Science and Technology

Princeton University

Date: Friday, June 9, 2017

Time: 2:00pm

Venue: DBH 6011

Refreshments to follow immediately after in the 5th Floor lobby

Talk title: “Organized Science: Social Organization and Scientific Work at NASA.”

Abstract: How does social organization affect the conduct and practice of science? To explore this question, I present empirical data from a comparative ethnographic study of work on two NASA robotic spacecraft mission teams. While the robots appear to be singular entities operating autonomously in the frontiers of space, decisions about what the robots should do and how they accomplish their science are made on an iterative basis by a large, distributed team of scientists and engineers on Earth. As spacecraft team members negotiate among themselves for robotic time and resources, their sociotechnical organization is paramount to understanding how decisions are made, which scientific data are acquired, and how the team relates to their robot. Describing the contrasting organizational practices, interaction rituals, and forms of talk by means of which decisions are made and consensus is achieved on both missions, I explore how sociotechnical organization presents implications for team solidarity, data sharing, and scientific results.

Bio: Janet Vertesi is a sociologist of science and technology at Princeton University. She has worked with NASA’s robotic space missions as an ethnographer for over eight years, including the Mars Exploration Rover mission, the Cassini mission to Saturn, and a planned mission to Europa. Author of the forthcoming “Seeing Like a Rover: How Robots, Teams and Images Craft Knowledge of Mars” (University of Chicago Press, 2015), she is also an active member of the Human-Computer Interaction community, with publications at ACM CHI, Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, and Ubiquitous Computing. Vertesi is a Fellow of the Center for Information Technology Policy and an advisory board member of the Center for Data & Society.

Dear colleagues,

You are cordially invited to join us for the Center for Organizational Research End-of-Year Event.

This will be an opportunity to connect with old friends and meet new colleagues.

COR Small Grants recipients will be announced and briefly present their research projects.

Friday, June 9

12:30-2:00

SBSG 1200

Lunch will be provided.

Please RSVP by June 5 to cor@uci.edu.

We hope to see many of you before we disperse for the summer!

A talk of interest to COR community….

Friday Informatics Seminar

Speaker: Jeanette Bloomberg

Principal Research Staff Member

IBM Almaden Research Center

When: Friday, May 26, 2017

Where: DBH 6011

Talk: 2:00pm

Refreshments to follow immediately after in the 5th Floor lobby

Talk title:   “Organizational Analytics: The Promise of (Big) Data, Machine Learning, and Predictive Analytics ”

Abstract: The business press summons organizations to manage their data as a strategic resource, helping to guide such decisions as how best to market to customers, adjust inventory, or balance skill portfolios. Organizations (including civic and not-for-profit) are implored to embrace the promise of (big) data, machine learning, and predictive analytics lest they get left behind. In this talk I will explore some of the issues facing organizations that take up this challenge by drawing upon examples from recent research that focuses on the production of organizational data and the in situ consumption of analytics. I will discuss how different knowledge traditions and practical concerns of variously positioned organizational actors shape the meaning of the analytics and influence the ways in which they can be acted upon. I will conclude with some thoughts about whether the current technological environment of cloud computing, machine learning, and predictive analytics present! !s new worries and/or possibilities for harnessing technology for human betterment.

 

Bio: Jeanette Blomberg is Principal Research Staff Member at the IBM Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California and adjunct professor at Roskilde University in Denmark. Jeanette is known for her research on ethnography in design processes as outlined in two recent publications Positioning Ethnography within Participatory Design and Reflections on 25 Years of Ethnography in CSCW. In her recent book, An Anthropology of Services, she investigates how services are being conceptualized today and the possible benefits of taking an anthropological perspective on services and their design. Currently her research is focused on organizational analytics where she considers the linkages between human action, digital data production, data analytics, and business or societal outcomes. Prior to assuming her current position, Jeanette was a member of the Work Practice and Technology group at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC), Director of Experience Modeling research at Sapient!! Corporation, and Industry-affiliated Professor at the Blekinge Institute of Technology in Sweden where in 2011 she was awarded an honorary doctorate. Jeanette has received numerous IBM technical achievement awards and recently was honored with induction into the IBM Academy of Technology. Jeanette received her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Davis where she also was a visiting professor and lecturer in cultural anthropology and sociolinguistics.

Talk of interest to COR community….

Taekjin Shin

Assistant Professor of Management

San Diego State University

Tuesday, May 16

12:30-1:30

SSPB 4250

“How Demographic Change in CEO’s Education Background Affected Corporate Strategy”

Using data on  CEOs  who  ran  large  U.S. corporations  from 1985 to 2005, we show that CEOs who earned an MBA before the 1970s actively pursued a diversification strategy. Responding to changes in business education  in the  1970s,  the  next  cohort  of  CEOs  abandoned diversification in acquisitions.

If you would like to meet with Prof. Shin on May 16 please email Marilu Daum daumm@uci.edu