The Product of Availability: Understanding the Economic Underpinnings of Constant Connectivity

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In this text, the authors examine interview content related to how service providers view their availability to customers. They observe that providers view immediate and on-demand access to their time as part of the “product” being sold, and conclude that models of computer-mediated work should take this into account as part of the ecosystem of work: that there is an intricate relationship between economic livelihood and “always-on” working style.

There are four prevailing lenses that have been used to examine availability in the workplace. The first is a view of technological capacity, or how there is a link between computing availability and time-based impacts on organizations and individuals. The next is a set of cultural evolutionary perspectives, which view technology as a form of efficiency improvement. Social normative and interpersonal perspectives view time-based work as socially defined and negotiated; psychological and individual-trait perspectives show how “workaholism” impacts the nature of work and views on productivity. These lenses do not consider the way “economic conditions play a role in current practices of availability in contemporary workplaces.”

The authors examine their previous research from other projects, and find four presentations of availability related to the economic nature of work.

Service providers are selling their availability, and are aware that being quick in response is a one-sided relationship that is part of a perceived value exchange. The next is creeping availability, where technology has slowly reinforced the idea that availability is important and normalized. The next is introducing availability, where companies begin including on-demand availability as a strategic differentiator. The last is rationalized availability, as some have decided that being always available is positive.

The authors briefly describe the relationship between availability and Goffman’s views of impression management and being on and off stage. They conclude that this is one of the core contributions of the work: that it “suggests ways to assess an organization from multiple angles.”