Work language and information technology

The main part of this paper presents some empirical findings from two research projects on work language. One project investigated communication in a Danish car repair shop, the other communication in the Postal Giro Office in Stockholm, Sweden. We stress the heavy interdependence between communication and the working context: tasks, work organization, role, shared knowledge and values, and social relations. The last part of the paper sets up a list of demands that a theory must meet in order to provide a systematical basis for studying work language, and we indicate how knowledge about work language may be useful in selected areas of the field of informatics.