Exploring the Temporal Nature of Sociomateriality from a Work System Perspective

This paper uses work system theory (WST) to explore the temporal nature of sociomateriality. It summarizes concepts related to WST and sociomateriality, and notes sociomaterial aspects of WST. It uses static and dynamic views of a work system to examine six examples that can be classified in one of three time frames, minutes-to-hours, days-to-weeks, and months-to-years. The result is a straightforward interpretation of systems and related events across all of the time frames, which exhibit different types of phenomena related to adaptations, workarounds, emergence of informal work patterns, and sequences of formal projects. After approaching sociomateriality from a perspective not usually associated with that genre, this paper concludes that ambiguity about the intended time span of assertions related to entanglement and inseparability should be remedied. At minimum, it should be clear whether these phenomena occur instantaneously or in time spans of minutes-to-hours, days-to- weeks, or months-to-years

Don’t throw rocks from the side-lines: A sociomaterial exploration of organizational blogs as boundary objects

Purpose Social media such as blogs are being widely used in organizations in order to undertake internal communication and share knowledge, rendering them important boundary objects. A root metaphor of the boundary object domain is the notion of relatively static and inert objects spanning similarly static boundaries. A strong sociomaterial perspective allows the immisciblity of object and boundary to be challenged, since a key tenet of this perspective is the ongoing and mutually-constituted performance of the material and social. Design/methodology/approach The aim of our research is to draw upon sociomateriality to explore the operation of social media platforms as intra-organizational boundary objects. Given the novel perspective of this study and its social constructivist ontology, we adopt an exploratory, interpretivist research design. This is operationalized as a case study of the use of an organizational blog by a major UK government department over an extended period. A novel aspect of the study is our use of data released under a Freedom of Information request. Findings We present three exemplar instances of how the blog and organizational boundaries were performed in the situated practice of the case study organization. We draw on literature on boundary objects, blogs and sociomateriality in order to provide a theoretical explication of the mutually-constituted performance of the blog and organizational boundaries. We also invoke the notion of ‘extended chains of intra-action’ to theorise changes in the wider organization. Originality/value Adoption of a sociomaterial lens provides a highly novel perspective of boundary objects and organizational boundaries. The study highlights the indeterminate and dynamic nature of boundary objects and boundaries, with both being in an intra-active state of becoming, challenging conventional conceptions. The study demonstrates that specific material-discursive practices arising from the situated practice of the blog at the respective boundaries were performative, reconfiguring the blog and boundaries and being generative of further changes in the organization

Enacting Accountability in IS Research after the Sociomaterial Turn(ing)

Sociomateriality represents an emergent philosophical stance that instantiates an ontological turn towards relationality and materiality in information systems (IS) research. As an emergent perspective or way of seeing, sociomateriality has significant implications for researchers and the practices they employ. If we accept that the ontological, epistemological, and methodological assumptions we enact in our research shape the realities we perceive and create, questions around researchers’ accountability for the realities they produce need to be addressed. The sociomaterial turn(ing) in IS challenges our deeply held assumptions about what constitutes reality. What are these challenges, and how are they being addressed in sociomaterial research? And what implications for accountability in IS research more generally does a turn towards relationality and materiality hold? The objectives of this editorial are: (1) to sensitize IS researchers, irrespective of their ontological and epistemological persuasions, to the field’s turn(ing) toward relationality and materiality; (2) to provide insight into the practices of data generation, analysis, and presentation through which this turn(ing) is being enacted in sociomaterial theorizing; and (3) to contemplate the implications of this turn(ing) for the accountability of IS research more generally

Between Movement and Platform : Exploring the Sociomateriality of Accountability in Platform Organization and its Performative Consequences

Digital platforms represent a growing disruptive phenomenon. Platforms are engaging since they trace peers, consumers, and citizens, organize social movements, manage distributed innovation, and aid in the governance of cities in terms of distributed agency and autonomy. As different tracing and evaluative infrastructures form and disclose new forms of interaction and trust, platforms give shape to new subjectivities, properties, and relative positions that have not hitherto been defined. This dissertation investigates the emergence of this phenomenon, the accounting practices and infrastructures that underpin this new form of organizing, and possible consequences in terms of accountability that arise in platform organizing. This doctoral dissertation aims to contribute to the understanding of how and where accountability is performed in platform organization. The dissertation draws on different sources from a spiral case study to provide a body of empirical evidence about platformization and accountability. In terms of the approach, the dissertation works under what Orlikowski & Scott (2014) describe as the “broad banner of sociomateriality,” a perspective where materiality is seen as constitutive of all organizational practices. Thus, the dissertation introduces a practice theoretical approach focusing on practice as sociomaterial configuring. The empirical context of the first two papers is sharing economy practices and platforms in Finland. The first paper examines how disruptive activities emerge, while the second considers platform-mediated peer trust in the light of “nordic exceptionalism” and high trust societies. The empirical context of the third paper is Open Innovation platforms. This paper develops a performative theory of openness. Drawing on interview and ethnographic data from an empirical case study of the Smart and Wise City Turku spearhead project, the fourth paper explores the tendency in smart cities initiatives to invest in ICT as a means to “wire up” and make technology “do political work” (Woolgar & Neyland, 2013, p. 17). The paper’s central theoretical concept of “thinking infrastructure” highlights how new accounting practices (e.g., on digital platforms) operate by disclosing new worlds where the platforms and the users discover the nature of their responsibilities to the other. When a platform performs accountability, it enables new modalities of distributed agency and distributed authority. When someone or something does not count on a platform, one needs to think critically about the boundaries, constraints, and exclusions that operate through the particular sociomaterial practice of platformization. Through the four empirical research papers and a kappa, this dissertation contributes to understanding how, where and when accountability is performed in platform organization. The findings highlight the sociomateriality of accountability in platform organization and its performative consequences.Digitala plattformar representerar ett växande disruptivt fenomen. Plattformar är intressanta eftersom de gör allt från att spåra användare, konsumenter och medborgare, organisera sociala rörelser, hantera distribuerad innovation och hjälper till att styra städer. När olika spårande och evaluerande digitala infrastrukturer formar och avslöjar nya former av interaktion och tillit, ger plattformar form åt nya subjektiviteter, egenskaper och relativa positioner som hittills inte har definierats. Denna avhandling undersöker uppkomsten av detta fenomen, redovisningspraxis och infrastrukturer som ligger till grund för denna nya form av organisering och möjliga konsekvenser i termer av ansvarsskyldighet som uppstår på plattformar. Det övergripande syftet med denna doktorsavhandling att bidra till förståelsen av hur och var ansvarsskyldighet utförs i plattformorganisation. Avhandlingen bygger på olika källor från en spiralfallsstudie och tillhandahåller en mängd empiriska bevis i relation till begreppen plattform och ansvarsskyldighet. Avhandlingen placerar sig under det som Orlikowski & Scott (2014) beskriver som "sociomaterialitetens breda baner", ett perspektiv där materialitet ses som konstituerande för alla organisatoriska praktiker. Således introducerar avhandlingen ett praktikteoretiskt förhållningssätt som fokuserar på praktiken som sociomateriell konfiguration. Den empiriska kontexten för de två första artiklarna är delningsekonomi och plattformar i Finland. Den första artikeln undersöker hur disruptiva aktiviteter uppstår, medan den andra betraktar plattformsförmedlad tillit i ljuset av "nordisk exceptionalism". Den empiriska kontexten för den tredje artikeln är plattformar för öppen innovation. Denna artikel utvecklar en performativ teori om öppenhet. Med utgångspunkt i intervjuer och etnografiska data från en empirisk fallstudie av spjutspetsprojektet Smart and Wise City Turku undersöker den fjärde artikeln smarta städer och trenden att investera i IKT som ett sätt att "koppla upp" och få teknologi att "göra politiskt arbete” (Woolgar & Neyland, 2013, s. 17). Artikelns centrala teoretiska koncept "tänkande infrastruktur" belyser hur nya redovisningsmetoder (t.ex. på digitala plattformar) fungerar genom att avslöja nya världar där plattformarna och användarna upptäcker arten av deras ansvar gentemot den andra. När en plattform fördelar ansvar möjliggör den nya modaliteter för distribuerad handlingskraft och distribuerad auktoritet. När någon eller något inte räknas på en plattform, måste man tänka kritiskt på de gränser, begränsningar och uteslutningar som verkar genom den speciella sociomateriella praktiken plattformisering. Genom de fyra empiriska forskningsartiklarna och en kappa bidrar denna avhandling till att förstå hur, var och när ansvarsskyldighet uppstår i plattformsorganisation. Resultaten belyser den sociomateriella ansvarsfördelningen i plattformsorganisation och dess performativa konsekvenser

Boundary objects, power, and learning: The matter of developing sustainable practice in organizations

This article develops an understanding of the agential role of boundary objects in generating and politicizing learning in organizations, as it emerges from the entangled actions of humans and non-humans. We offer two empirical vignettes in which middle managers seek to develop more sustainable ways of working. Informed by Foucault’s writing on power, our work highlights how power relations enable and foreclose the affordances, or possibilities for action, associated with boundary objects. Our data demonstrate how this impacts the learning that emerges as boundary objects are configured and unraveled over time. In so doing, we illustrate how boundary objects are not fixed entities, but are mutable, relational, and politicized in nature. Connecting boundary objects to affordances within a Foucauldian perspective on power offers a more nuanced understanding of how ‘the material’ plays an agential role in consolidating and disrupting understandings in the accomplishment of learning

A Typology for Organizational ICT Practice

This paper sets out a typology for organizational ICT practice in order to derive a more holistic perspective of sociomateriality and its constituent elements (i.e. humans, objects, and practice). Seminal literature by Parsons and Bourdieu is combined with sociomateriality literature in order to offer insights into the factors that need to be investigated when conducting research into organizational ICT practice. The outlined typology is evaluated through an empirical case study of a connected health ICT project to show how the dimensions of the typology come together and contribute to a better understanding

Introduction to special issue: The sociomateriality of information systems: current status, future directions

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Is Work System Theory a Practical Theory of Practice?

This paper describes an exploration of whether ideas related to pragmatism, practical theory, and practice theory provide potentially useful directions for extending work system theory (WST), which is an outgrowth of an attempt to develop the work system method (WSM), a flexible systems analysis method for business professionals. After summarizing WST’s basic premises and its two central frameworks, this paper uses a positioning map to explain reasons for considering relationships between WST and a number of topics related to practical issues and practice theory. Based on that positioning map, the subsequent sections discuss relation-ships between WST and UML, Goldkuhl’s workpractice theory, and the more general notion of practice theory. A concluding section briefly addresses a set of questions related to whether WST is a practical theory of practice. This paper\u27s comparisons of WST with the three theoret-ical perspectives for describing and understanding systems could be a step toward greater practical application of IS research related to the nature and evolution of activities, processes, routines, and practices involving the use of technology in organizational settings