Distributed cognition and organisational analysis

Distributed cognition provides a framework for examining collaborative systems with the aim of supporting systems design. The approach provides a theoretical basis for structuring the analysis of data from workplace studies within a problem-solving framework. Whilst the approach has been successfully applied in well constrained activity domains, well structured problems and highly organised infrastructures (‘closed’ systems), little is known about its application outside of these areas. In this paper, we explore how distributed cognition could be applied to less well-constrained (‘open’) settings, and where difficulties lie in its application. To demonstrate this, we present and critically reflect on data from a field study of a collaborative work system with relatively poorly constrained features. The findings suggest that the use of distributed cognition in an augmented form will be useful in the analysis of a wide range of activity systems in poorly constrained organisational settings.