Off-campus Michigan Tech users: To download campus access theses or dissertations, please use the following button to log in with your Michigan Tech ID and password: log in to proxy server
Non-Michigan Tech users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this thesis or dissertation through interlibrary loan.
Date of Award
2013
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy in Rhetoric and Technical Communication (PhD)
College, School or Department Name
Department of Humanities
First Advisor
M A Brady
Abstract
In this project, I examine current forms of scientific management systems, Lean and Six Sigma, as they relate to technical communication. With the goal of breaking work up into standardized processes in order to cut costs and increase efficiency, Lean, Six Sigma and Lean Six Sigma hybrid systems are increasingly applied beyond manufacturing operations to service and other types of organizational work, including technical communication. By consulting scholarship from fields such as business, management, and engineering, and analyzing government Lean Six Sigma documentation, I investigate how these systems influence technical communication knowledge and practice in the workplace. I draw out the consequences of system-generated power structures as they affect knowledge work, like technical communication practice, when it is reduced to process. In pointing out the problems these systems have in managing knowledge work, I also ask how technical communication might shape them.
Recommended Citation
Schreiber, Joanna M., "SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AS ENFRAMING OR EMPOWERING: HOW LEAN AND SIX SIGMA DEFINE TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION", Dissertation, Michigan Technological University, 2013.