<i>Whatsapp</i>: A Boundary Object in The Mediation and Production of Boundaries in Organizations

Giacomin, Anny Karollinny Riva; da Silva, Alfredo Rodrigues Leite

doi:10.15728/bbr.2022.1465.en

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Article • BBR, Braz. Bus. Rev. 21 (6) • 2024 • https://doi.org/10.15728/bbr.2022.1465.en copy

Whatsapp: A Boundary Object in The Mediation and Production of Boundaries in Organizations

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

ABSTRACT

This study aims to analyze the ways in which WhatsApp mediates and inserts itself as a boundary object in the production of borders in the public organization Approve (fictional name). This research criticizes the predominant studies on boundary objects that fail to highlight the networks of relations that produce uses, the characteristics of objects, and boundaries as part of the boundary mediation process. We contribute to filling this gap by way of a qualitative study on WhatsApp using semi-structured interviews, observations, netnography, and data spiral analysis. Results evince WhatsApp as a boundary object that is inserted in productions with negative implications for people based on boundary mediation and produced in networks of relations that can use the application to produce and mediate boundaries.

Keywords:
WhatsApp; Boundary objects; Organizations; Communication.

WhatsApp in studies on the subject	BOs in studies on the subject	WhatsApp as a typical BO in Approve
A new way of communicating in different and unexpected contexts and meanings, expanding interaction in instantaneous times and spaces and without clear limits, (re)producing information from communication (Porto et al., 2017Porto, C. de M., Oliveira, K. E. de J., & Alves, A. L. (2017). Expansão e reconfigurações das práticas de leitura e escrita por meio do WhatsApp. In C. Porto , K. E. Oliveira & A. Chagas (Eds.),WhatsApp e educação: Entre mensagens, imagens e sons(pp. 113-128). EDUFBA. https://doi.org/10.7476/9788523220204.0007 https://doi.org/10.7476/9788523220204.00... ; Lapa & Girardello, 2017Lapa, A., & Girardello, G. (2017). Gestão em rede na primavera secundarista. In C. Porto, K. E. Oliveira & A. Chagas (Eds.),WhatsApp e educação: Entre mensagens, imagens e sons(pp. 29-48). EDUFBA. https://doi.org/10.7476/9788523220204.0003 https://doi.org/10.7476/9788523220204.00... ). A space rich in discoveries because of its interactivity within the heterogeneity of unknown people. Its use enhances the search for innovative alternatives in the use of the application, favoring the emergence of new cultural and spatial aspects (Oliveira, 2017Oliveira, C. A. de. (2017). Entre processos formativos e interativos: o WhatsApp como espaço significativo na orientação e formação. In C. Porto , K. E. Oliveira & A. Chagas (Eds.), WhatsApp e educação: Entre mensagens, imagens e sons (pp. 217-233). EDUFBA. https://doi.org/10.7476/9788523220204.0012 https://doi.org/10.7476/9788523220204.00... ). Its material structure informs if users are online, typing or recording messages, if the messages have been read, enables jumping from one interlocutor or group to another between distinct contents, and connects all or some of them via groups (Porto et al., 2017Porto, C. de M., Oliveira, K. E. de J., & Alves, A. L. (2017). Expansão e reconfigurações das práticas de leitura e escrita por meio do WhatsApp. In C. Porto , K. E. Oliveira & A. Chagas (Eds.),WhatsApp e educação: Entre mensagens, imagens e sons(pp. 113-128). EDUFBA. https://doi.org/10.7476/9788523220204.0007 https://doi.org/10.7476/9788523220204.00... ) It enables the expression of information and emotions by various resources, such as emojis (Primo et al., 2021Primo, A., Valiati, V., & Barros, L. (2021). Práticas conversacionais no WhatsApp: A interação em conversações paralelas. Comunicação & Sociedade, 43(3), 41-76. ). The scope of the connections it enables can involve the most diverse instances of life, including the organizational one and family and friendships (Matassi et al., 2019Matassi, M., Boczkowski, P. J., & Mitchelstein, E. (2019). Domesticating WhatsApp: Family, friends, work, and study in everyday communication. New Media and Society, 21(10), 2183-2200. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819841890 https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444819841890... ).	They enable the maintenance of simultaneous translations of the objectives of actors in multiple mandatory crossing points, which can be negotiated between different communities and without consensus to still cooperate in a broad environment (e.g., a country or a company) as they offer an immutable content between communities, which enables them to find common goals to relate between their borders (Star, 1988Star, S. L. (1988). The structure of ill-structured solutions: Boundary objects and heterogeneous distributed problem solving. In L. Gasser & M. N. Huhns (Eds.), Distributed artificial intelligence (pp. 37-54). Morgan Kaufmann. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-1-55860-092-8.50006-X https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-1-55860-092... ; Star & Griesemer, 1989Star, S. L., & Griesemer, J. R. (1989). Institutional ecology, ‘Translations’ and Boundary Objects: Amateurs and Professionals in Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, 1907-39. Social Studies of Science, 19(3), 387-420. https://doi.org/10.1177/030631289019003001 https://doi.org/10.1177/0306312890190030... ; Whitson, 2018Whitson, J. R. (2018). Voodoo software and boundary objects in game development: How developers collaborate and conflict with game engines and art tools. New Media and Society, 20(7), 2315-2332. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817715020 https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444817715020... ). Basic aspects of architecture (Star, 2010Star, S. L. (2010). This is not a boundary object: Reflections on the origin of a concept. Science Technology and Human Values, 35(5), 601-617. https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243910377624 https://doi.org/10.1177/0162243910377624... ): interpretive flexibility -groups can interpret them in different ways; material or organizational structure specific to its type - concrete or abstract; scale and scope suitable for use as BO - defined by unstructured, unstructured, tailored, or group uses, in which it is applied. Their temporality and ability to mediate boundaries favors collaboration between them. However, this capacity may be lost, producing heterogeneity and discontinuing interactions, which configure dysfunctions to be corrected (Carlile, 2002Carlile, P. R. (2002). A pragmatic view of knowledge and boundaries: Boundary objects in new product development.Organization Science,13(4), 442-455. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.13.4.442.2953 https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.13.4.442.29... ; Akkerman & Bakker, 2011Akkerman, S. F., & Bakker, A. (2011). Boundary crossing and boundary objects. Review of Educational Research, 81(2), 132-169. https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654311404435 https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654311404435... ; Whitson, 2018).	At Approve, people from several sectors and with different experiences and backgrounds (some of which do not even effectively know each other) use WhatsApp to cooperate in issues related to leisure, day-to-day issues, and work throughout much of their day. The application provides interactions between external internal heterogeneous boundaries. For example: when it was inserted in a network of relations between actors unknown to each other and spread throughout Brazil who cooperate in the translation of the common objective of enabling participation in public exams, sharing specific content on topics such as transportation and lodging, which permeate everyone (E8); or when it enables even people with difficulties to use technology to insert themselves in the translation of common goals by this route due to its ease of use (E9); or when it goes beyond the boundary of physical distances (E1; S12). The different interpretations regarding the use of the material structure of the application occurred in the reports by E2, E7, E10, and other members of Approve as they manifested different meanings about the behaviors when they came across different relationships in the network, including different ways of using or not using the stickers in the application to express humor, contrariety, fun, and irony and make jokes in a scope that includes relationships in and out of work and more formal or informal groups. The importance of these elements in the Approve networks was evident on the day the application stopped working as a BO and people had difficulties to relate, as reported by E3.

Characteristics of WhatsApp related to BOs and with negative impacts on people in the studies on the subject

WhatsApp as a BO involved in negative impacts on people at Approve

Capable of causing people to suffer for being unable to access the application, of harming work activities, and leading people to ignore others in the same room due to the attention given to it (Primo et al., 2021Primo, A., Valiati, V., & Barros, L. (2021). Práticas conversacionais no WhatsApp: A interação em conversações paralelas. Comunicação & Sociedade, 43(3), 41-76. ) People may have difficulties dealing with the pressures stemming from the relationships produced with it, such as the need to respond quickly to a message (Primo et al., 2021Primo, A., Valiati, V., & Barros, L. (2021). Práticas conversacionais no WhatsApp: A interação em conversações paralelas. Comunicação & Sociedade, 43(3), 41-76. ). Due to the negative impacts of the app, some people end up tinkering with its resources to manage the boundaries between presence and absence (Mols & Pridmore, 2021Mols, A., & Pridmore, J. (2021). Always available via WhatsApp: Mapping everyday boundary work practices and privacy negotiations. Mobile Media and Communication, 9(3), 422-440. https://doi.org/10.1177/2050157920970582
https://doi.org/10.1177/2050157920970582... ).

Approve evinced WhatsApp as a BO that also negatively impacts people by the way it mediates boundaries. For example, it relates to a culture of immediacy (E3); confusing being “online” and “being available at any time of the day” (E1); with a demand open to everyone who wants to “send a message to you” (E12); with the potentiation of anxiety in “attending to the other of the better and faster” (E9).

*Characteristic of the use of WhatsApp* based on studies on the subject**	Production of BOs in networks of relations in studies on the subject	WhatsApp as a BO of the networks of relationships in Approve that use it in the production of boundaries
It coexists with life in the organization and in a networked society as a whole, modifying each other by providing communication in the personal and group sphere with multiple more superficial and ephemeral possibilities of interactions and interpersonal connections, marked by more physically distant people in groupings that can be (re)organized quickly between functional and hierarchical boundaries in organizations (Carvalho & Fort, 2017Carvalho, A. P. P., & Fort, M. C. (2017). Conexões virtuais e desconexões presenciais: A comunicação via WhatsApp em ambientes corporativos. Comunicação & Inovação, 18(36), 37-50. https://doi.org/10.13037/ci.vol18n36.3814 https://doi.org/10.13037/ci.vol18n36.381... ). It can insert itself into the division of existing groups and/or the creation of new ones when people who avoid participating in the reference conversation in a group interact in parallel conversations (Primo et al., 2021Primo, A., Valiati, V., & Barros, L. (2021). Práticas conversacionais no WhatsApp: A interação em conversações paralelas. Comunicação & Sociedade, 43(3), 41-76. ), using the functionalities of the application to build segmentations between different contexts (Mols & Pridmore, 2021Mols, A., & Pridmore, J. (2021). Always available via WhatsApp: Mapping everyday boundary work practices and privacy negotiations. Mobile Media and Communication, 9(3), 422-440. https://doi.org/10.1177/2050157920970582 https://doi.org/10.1177/2050157920970582... ) and shape the extent and forms of conversation - including politics - among themselves (Zhu et al., 2022Zhu, Q., Esteve-Del-Valle, M., & Meyer, J. K. (2022). Safe spaces? Grounding political talk in WhatsApp groups. New Media and Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448221136080 https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444822113608... ). During the 2022 presidential elections, it configured a vital and politically charged medium that could divide groups of friends, family, and professionals at work and created other groups with these elements (Pereira et al., 2022Pereira, G., Camargo, I. B. B., & Parks, L. (2022). WhatsApp disruptions in Brazil: A content analysis of user and news media responses, 2015-2018. Global Media and Communication, 18(1), 113-148. https://doi.org/10.1177/17427665211038530 https://doi.org/10.1177/1742766521103853... ).	A more relational and ANT-aligned emphasis (Callon, 1984Callon, M. (1984). Some elements of a sociology of translation: Domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St Brieuc Bay. The Sociological Review, 32(1), 196-233. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.1984.tb00113.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.1984... ; Latour, 1987Latour, B. (1987).Science in action: How to follow scientists and engineers through society. Harvard University Press., 1996Latour, B. (1996). On interobjectivity. Mind, Culture, and Activity, 3(4), 228-245. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327884mca0304_2 https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327884mca0304... , 2005Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network theory. Oxford Press University.; Law, 1992Law, J. (1992). Notes on the theory of the actor-network: Ordering, strategy and heterogeneity. Systems Practice, 5(4), 379-393. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01059830 https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01059830... ) recognizes that networks of relations in which inserted objects are produced may be boundary ones and attest to the symmetry between human and non-human actors as they share agency (Lainer-Vos, 2013Lainer-Vos, D. (2013). Boundary objects, zones of indeterminacy, and the formation of Irish and Jewish transnational socio-financial networks.Organization Studies,34(4), 515-532. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840612467159 https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840612467159... ). It lies within the network of action flows marked by the relations between object, technology, and human action (Mello Filho & De Araújo Júnior, 2021Mello Filho, L. L. de, & De Araújo Júnior, R. H. (2021). Objetos de fronteira: Um diálogo entre a ciência da informação e a ciência de dados.Encontros Bibli: Revista Eletrônica de Biblioteconomia e Ciência Da Informação, 26, e77247. https://doi.org/10.5007/1518-2924.2021.e77247 https://doi.org/10.5007/1518-2924.2021.e... ).	The networks in which the application is inserted at Approve produce it as capable of creating borders as it mediates them and facilitates a double movement in the network, for example: - when a new group was created with dissident members of a previous group who continue to interact in both, but in the new one they discuss and define what posts from a member in the previous group they should ignore and about what contents they will or will not comment, establishing boundaries to the dialogue within difference, producing more difference; - when a new server joined the group and it daily sent images and morning greetings containing motivational and/or effect phrases, some responded to the messages, others, disgruntled, complained about it in a smaller, more restricted group in the application and threatened to leave the larger group. In fact, three left the group for what they called “too many ‘good mornings’”; - When a political post was made mocking a presidential candidate, two people opposed it by considering it a provocation and three left the larger group for what respondents called a “distorted notion of what respect and limit is. This has made people think that they can say what they want, when they want, the way they want, and that respect it us accepting it without getting upset” (E4).

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