The front reception desk is manned by a council receptionist and one or two members of the planning department. Focus is on this distributed 'receptionist as a hub' and its role in facilitating communication between clients and the back office of the planning department (and vice versa). Clients present themselves face-to-face or contact the council via the telephone.
Currently there is very little representation of the work carried out at the reception desk. Phone messages and other notes may be taken and passed into the back office but this is done in an ad hoc rather than routinised manner. Where the contacts at the reception have implications for planning applications various artefacts (letters, forms, drawings, plans etc.) may be collected or amended at this point before being placed with planning applications in the back office. The lack of representation of the activity has negative implications in the recording and assessment of the work carried out.
The reception desk serves as a distributed 'reception as a hub' in the council between the back office and clients. Communication modes are indicated by the arrows. Communications can occur via the telephone or face-to-face. The general receptionist deals with telephone calls to the central council number. Face-to-face inquiries may be dealt with by the planning receptionists, or initially by the general receptionist before being passed on to the planning receptionists.
The central role of the reception is one of coordination between the back office (internal to the organisation) and clients (external). Coordination is achieved interactively with clients and the back office personnel. For example, when a client telephones in, the general receptionist may attempt to elicit the details of who the caller wishes to speak to in the planning department and put them through to that person. When this is not possible, they may try to work out who to put the caller through to by, e.g. speaking to the planning receptionist or putting the caller on hold and calling the back office. The planning receptionists are always on hand to assist the general receptionist. They also deal with the majority of face-to-face cases, assisting in form filling, checking and providing advice. It is common for them to nip into the back office to speak with other personnel, who for example, may be dealing with the case in question, or hold knowledge or expertise on the matter. Back office personnel also sometimes come to the front desk as required or requested to deal with clients.
Intra and inter-organisational interaction on the telephone or face-to-face between clients and council workers managed through a reception desk.