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Becoming a Swarm Catalyst

Becoming a Swarm Catalyst

Juhana Kokkonen, Sami Paavola, Yrjö Engeström
Copyright: © 2013 |Volume: 3 |Issue: 1 |Pages: 14
ISSN: 2155-6393|EISSN: 2155-6407|EISBN13: 9781466631793|DOI: 10.4018/ijkbo.2013010104
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MLA

Kokkonen, Juhana, et al. "Becoming a Swarm Catalyst." IJKBO vol.3, no.1 2013: pp.57-70. http://doi.org/10.4018/ijkbo.2013010104

APA

Kokkonen, J., Paavola, S., & Engeström, Y. (2013). Becoming a Swarm Catalyst. International Journal of Knowledge-Based Organizations (IJKBO), 3(1), 57-70. http://doi.org/10.4018/ijkbo.2013010104

Chicago

Kokkonen, Juhana, Sami Paavola, and Yrjö Engeström. "Becoming a Swarm Catalyst," International Journal of Knowledge-Based Organizations (IJKBO) 3, no.1: 57-70. http://doi.org/10.4018/ijkbo.2013010104

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Abstract

This article analyzes the problems of bringing in social media in a traditional, hierarchical organization. Difficulties rise from the contradiction between the bureaucratic approach of an organization and the collaborative community approach connected to social media. A change in the role of a developer is analyzed through a case study. The data was collected in a co-development process of a work unit at a Finnish University of Applied Sciences. The method of this study is analytic autoethnography, which proved to be a valuable tool for capturing a long-term development process and the changing role of the developer inside the organization. A new change agent, a swarm catalyst, is introduced at the end of the article. The initial characteristics of a swarm catalyst are based on the experiences of various, iterative developmental experiments. A swarm catalyst operates within an organization as an autonomous developer, and as a negotiator between the traditional organization and decentralized developmental swarms.

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