Research methods for digital work and organization: Investigating distributed, multi-modal and mobile work

Digital work has become increasingly common, taking a wide variety of forms including working from home, mobile work, gig work, crowdsourcing, and online volunteeering. It is organizationally, interpretively, spatially and temporally complex. An array of innovative methodologies have begun to emerge to capture these activities, whether through re-purposing existing tools, devising entirely novel methods or mixing old and new. This volume brings together some of these techniques in one volume in an accessible sourcebook for management, business, organizational and work researchers pursuing projects in this field.
It presents a range of innovative methods which capture and analyse digitally-related work practices through reflexive accounts of real world research projects; provide an accessible sourcebook of these methods for the business and management research community, and elucidates the range of challenges such methods may raise for research practice. It outlines debates and recommendations, and provide further reading and information to support research practice. The book is organised in four sections that reflect different areas of focus and methodological approaches: working with screens; digital working practices; distributed work and organizing; and digital traces of work. It then concludes by reflecting on the methodological issues, research ethics, requisite skills, and future of research given the intensification of digital work during a global pandemic that has impacted all aspects of our lives.