Engineering objects for collaboration: Strategies of ambiguity and clarity at knowledge boundaries

Research suggests that boundary objects are useful for collaborations between members of distinct knowledge communities because their meanings are ambiguous. An objects' ambiguity allows people to construct meanings that are relevant to them personally, and, consequently, helps groups to avoid conflict. Drawing from the literature on strategic ambiguity, we suggest that individuals may create objects to strategically foster either ambiguous or clear meanings. Using ethnographic observations of automotive engineers from various design specialties, we document why individuals are motivated to create objects whose meanings are either ambiguous or clear, we illustrate the various design activities they engage in to achieve these two strategies, and we show when individuals are likely to enact one type of strategy over the other.