Combining Technologies' Properties to Cope with Uncertainty: Lessons from the Military

This article investigates how teams aim at harnessing Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to coordinate under uncertainty. An explorative case study analyses the way NATO Special Forces use text-chat in Afghanistan. The findings suggest that team members combine basic material properties, knowledge processes and knowledge types to cope with various forms of uncertainty. Such combinations might trigger the emergence of unexpected biases which, in turn, generate mitigated final results. Building on the authors' findings, they develop a model of ICTs' uses based on the concepts of emergence and combination.