Making work visible

This chapter represents an adopt a view of representations of work whether created from within the work practices represented or in the context of externally based design initiatives as interpretations in the service of particular interests and purposes, created by actors specifically positioned with respect to the work. It argues the importance of deepening the resources for conceptualizing the intimate relations between work, representations and the politics of organizations. It then aims to a design practice in which representations of work are taken not as proxies for some independently existent organizational processes, but as part of the fabric of meanings within and out of which all working practices the own and others' are made. The sense in which it rings true is particularly remarkable, the large and growing body of literature dedicated to work-flow modeling, business process re-engineering and other methods aimed at representing work in the service of transforming it.