The goal of this pilot study is to examine how the pervasive use of information technologies (IT) in the real-estate industry changes the way people and organizations in that industry work. Real estate was chosen because it has already adopted many new technologies, but, as a transactional intermediary, will be greatly affected by the on-going shift to electronic transactions. The objectives of our overall study are: 1) to describe how the use of IT changes the ways individual knowledge workers conduct their work, 2) describe organizational changes related to the use of IT, and 3) describe how change in individual work changes organizational structures and processes. In this pilot study, we focus specifically on developing instruments and procedures for the first two objectives and the theoretical framework for objective 3. In particular, we conduct ethnographic studies of individual real estate agents and their adaptations to the introduction of IT and case studies and surveys of a sample of real estate agencies. This study will provide a deeper scientific understanding of how work and IT are interrelated and how organizations view information technology as enablers of business goals. Further, findings will illuminate issues regarding new forms of organization such as "companies of one" and virtual organization. In turn, these findings are expected to provide critical general knowledge for the design of IT in context. http://florin.syr.edu/~crowston/real-estate.html
