The Appropriation Paradox: Benefits and Burdens of Appropriating Collaboration Technologies

Abstract

We report on a preliminary study of information-sharing practices within software teams. We identified behavioral and technological misalignments in the sharing of information between individuals. Individuals appropriate different collaboration technologies to mitigate these misalignments. We also discovered that appropriation at the individual level makes it difficult to share information at the team level. We refer to this as the paradox of appropriation. Theoretical and design implications drawn from our findings will be discussed.