ABSTRACT
This chapter suggests that studies of work practices in organizations would benefit from conceptual clarification. The chapter reviews of studies across disciplines as diverse as organization studies, sociology, communication, computer-supported cooperative work, management, information systems, and science studies has surfaced a number of common characteristics that can be said to define a work practice. It organizes review around three central questions: what are work practices, role do work practices play in the process of organizing and how can scholars build theory from empirical studies of work practices. The chapter suggests several ways in which the concept of work practice can be clarified to provide coherence for communication researchers. Institutional theory may help expand studies of work practices in organizations because its specification of institutions that transcend specific practice helps to locate and situate work practices in a broader normative order. Finally, it provided a number of suggestions on how to build theory from empirical studies of work practices.
