TY  - JOUR
AB  - Purpose– Both task‐based and work‐oriented research approaches have proved their value in information science research. A task is a workable analytical unit of human activity, which brings the level of explication close enough to cater for individual actions and their consequences. Similarly, work and work roles have been effective concepts at explicating the broad patterns of professional information activity. Major issues of the existing approaches are the difficulty of conceptualising the contexts of tasks and the relatively high level of abstraction of a work level scrutiny. The purpose of this paper is to discuss how the concepts of “work”, “work role” and “task” might be integrated into a common research agenda. It is suggested that the explication of work and work roles might serve in providing additional understanding on the formation of the purposes, meanings and values, which guide the shaping of the activities conceptualised as tasks.Design/methodology/approach– The issue is discussed in general with a reference to an empirical study of information work of archaeology professionals informed by the notion of work role.Findings– It is suggested that the broader notions of work and work roles are useful concepts for explicating the context of more specific tasks.Research limitations/implications– The suggested approach brings together task and work–work role‐based research and provides a basis for exploring human information activity from a broader perspective than before and thus improving the general understanding of why and how information is used as it is used.Practical implications– The study provides an approach to conceptualise the ways how people work with information and lays the ground for improving information management and organisation practices.Originality/value– There has been little prior discussion about integrating the task and work‐based approaches. The paper suggests that the explication of work and work roles might serve in providing additional understanding on the formation of the purposes, meanings and values, which guide the shaping of the activities conceptualised as tasks.
VL  - 64
IS  - 6
SN  - 0022-0418
DO  - 10.1108/00220410810912406
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410810912406
AU  - Huvila Isto
PY  - 2008
Y1  - 2008/01/01
TI  - Work and work roles: a context of tasks
T2  - Journal of Documentation
PB  - Emerald Group Publishing Limited
SP  - 797
EP  - 815
Y2  - 2024/05/07
ER  -