The role of mobile ICT in repair worker communities of practice

The article addresses the lack of focus, in the literature on work and communications technology, on the role played by communities of practice (CoPs) in mediating the impacts of technology change on work. It is argued that the particular characteristics of CoPs, the fact that they are regarded as an end in themselves by community members, make them a key part of the technology-organisation dialectic. By examining the role played by CoPs, it is possible to gain a better understanding of the relationship between work and technology - in particular the unintended consequences of technology change for work and, indeed, for CoPs themselves

Social, Organizational, and Technological Factors Impacting Clinicians’ Adoption of Mobile Health Tools: A Systematic Literature Review

Background: There is a growing body of evidence highlighting the potential of mobile health (mHealth) in reducing health care costs, enhancing access, and improving the quality of patient care. However, user acceptance and adoption are key prerequisites to harness this potential; hence, a deeper understanding of the factors impacting this adoption is crucial for its success. Objective: The aim of this review was to systematically explore relevant published literature to synthesize the current understanding of the factors impacting clinicians’ adoption of mHealth tools, not only from a technological perspective but also from social and organizational perspectives. Methods: A structured search was carried out of MEDLINE, PubMed, the Cochrane Library, and the SAGE database for studies published between January 2008 and July 2018 in the English language, yielding 4993 results, of which 171 met the inclusion criteria. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis guidelines and the Cochrane handbook were followed to ensure a systematic process. Results: The technological factors impacting clinicians’ adoption of mHealth tools were categorized into eight key themes: usefulness, ease of use, design, compatibility, technical issues, content, personalization, and convenience, which were in turn divided into 14 subthemes altogether. Social and organizational factors were much more prevalent and were categorized into eight key themes: workflow related, patient related, policy and regulations, culture or attitude or social influence, monetary factors, evidence base, awareness, and user engagement. These were divided into 41 subthemes, highlighting the importance of considering these factors when addressing potential barriers to mHealth adoption and how to overcome them. Conclusions: The study results can help inform mHealth providers and policymakers regarding the key factors impacting mHealth adoption, guiding them into making educated decisions to foster this adoption and harness the potential benefits

The imagined user in projects: Articulating competing discourses of space and knowledge work *

This paper articulates the role of the imagined user in the design choices of a higher education client with respect to a project to provide new workspaces for one of its divisions. The case study centres on the disagreements that occurred between different factions within the client organisation regarding the type of office space that was appropriate for its workforce. The paper examines the ways in which competing images of academic knowledge work and knowledge workers were conjured up in differently imagined users and deployed as persuasive user-stories in the design process. The analysis of the case uses the narratives of key project actors to identify the underlying discourses that were articulated to support particular imaginings of the user. The case shows how the successful deployment of discourses was tied up with the power wielded by particular actors at different times during the project. The paper suggests that the articulation of an imagined user implies that project actualities may be presumed as well as real and that discourse analysis provides a useful mechanism for understanding these imagined actualities

Why Does Technology Policy around Industry 4.0 Continue to Draw its Logic from 1960s Diffusion Models?

In this article we argue that established thinking around the slow adoption of industry 4.0 amongst small and medium manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) in the North Sea Region requires further reflection and re-formulation. It is argued that the diffusion metaphor presently shaping thinking around policy intervention overly focuses attention on firm characteristics and behaviour while focusing too little attention on the specific strategic economic context(s) within which firms make adoption decisions. This article highlights two contextual aspects that shape firm strategic choices: interpretative flexibility and uncertainty about further future technology change

Latour and Woolgar’s ‘cycle of scientific credibility’ as a basis for conceptualizing business school strategy

Drawing on contemporary and historical discourse around UK business schools and insights from the sociology of scientific knowledge, we argue that business schools should be understood and judged, not as they typically have been, as engines of knowledge production, but as engines of credibility production. Credibility, we argue, is central to the attractiveness of business schools to students and other key stakeholders and therefore credibility, and the mechanisms through which credibility are maintained, should be at the center of strategic thinking within business schools. We argue that over-reliance on funding from corporate sources can have profound consequences for the ability of schools to continue to produce credibility. This article focuses primarily on the experiences of business schools in the UK

Managing ‘A Little Bit Unsafe’: Complexity, Construction Safety and Situational Self-Organising

Purpose: To unpack the shared understandings of safety held by workers on large UK construction sites using a complexity lens, and so provide empirical support for the inclusion of situational self-organising within construction site safety management systems. Methodology: A social constructionist epistemology supports the discourse analysis of talk (semi-structured interview and conversational), text (safety management systems and documentation) and visual (safety related signage) data collection from five large (+£20m) UK construction sites. Findings: Construction workers readily understand safety to be an emergent phenomenon with the complex system that is the construction site. Contemporary safety management approaches struggle with this complexity, yet there is the potential to mobilise situational self-organising on sites to improve safety in practice. Research Limitations: Epistemological foundations mean no claim is made to generalisability as perceived by traditional positivistic parameters. The data is limited to large (+£20m) UK construction sites, however underlying construction management systems are common to the industry as a whole and can find fit with practitioner experiences and other empirical academic work from both the UK and other countries. Practical Implications: Situational self-organising of safety management within the construction workforce is proposed as a key contribution to a relevant, dynamic and effective SMS. Originality/Value: Data is analysed from a social constructionist perspective and considered through a complexity lens. This approach unpacks this data in an original way to seek synergy with existing adaptive safety approaches, specifically situational self-organising, and make recommendations for practice

Unpacking the digitalisation of public services: Configuring work during automation in local government

The digitalisation of public services involves not only the transformation of the relationship between public service providers and clients, but also the transformation of public administration work. While most studies of digitalisation of the public sector have focused on the practical outcomes for the quality of public services and the quality of public administration work, none have unpacked , or theorised, how these changes actually come about in practice. This paper fills this gap by drawing on a study of the in-house adaptation of a digital automation tool (an RPA) by a Swedish local authority. In the article, we pay attention to what we, inspired by Donna Haraway and Lucy Suchman, call ‘configuring work’, i.e. the weaving together of the affordances of the technology, materials, discourses, roles and power structures. The contribution of the paper is two-fold. First, the paper demonstrates empirically how the digitalisation of a public service took place through an emergent, relational process that involved both the social and the material. Second, by adopting the the idea of ‘configuring work’ and paying attention to the effects of this, we show that the digitalisation process was successively shaped by the particular vested interests, ethics, discourses and the algorithmic materialities that comprised it. This helps us discuss the reason for why, in extant literature, digitalisation threatens the professional autonomy of the public administrators as well as why it may reduce service quality. Finally, we suggest how some of these issues may be addressed in future research

BIM in Europe: innovation networks in the construction sectors of Sweden, France and the UK

European countries are developing or implementing policies that promote or require the use of Building Information Modelling (BIM) and give BIM a central role in strategies for national sector-level transformation. It is necessary to understand BIM as a systemic innovation that is enacted and adopted by firms, projects and users but also by national actors. The Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) approach has shown how the evolution of innovations can be understood in terms of networks in which actors mobilise and combine technical and social resources in order to perform activities – the Actors-Activities-Resources (ARA) model. A comparative study of BIM adoption in France, Sweden and the UK was undertaken using data from independent country-specific research projects and a pooled desktop study. A grid was developed based on the ARA model that provided a framework to inform data collection and analysis salient for explaining the extent, processes and type of adoption of BIM in each country. Similarities between countries included: the importance of large and international firms in the innovation network; and project types (non-residential public buildings and either complex or repetitive building types). Differences were found in, for example, the activities and national institutions of architecture and the policy positions and mechanisms of government actors. The analysis highlights both the value and some limitations of a country-level focus and provides a basis for thoroughgoing network analysis

Sociotechnical Factors Affecting Patients’ Adoption of Mobile Health Tools: Systematic Literature Review and Narrative Synthesis

Background: Mobile health (mHealth) tools have emerged as a promising health care technology that may contribute to cost savings, better access to care, and enhanced clinical outcomes; however, it is important to ensure their acceptance and adoption to harness this potential. Patient adoption has been recognized as a key challenge that requires further exploration. Objective: The aim of this review was to systematically investigate the literature to understand the factors affecting patients’ adoption of mHealth tools by considering sociotechnical factors (from technical, social, and health perspectives). Methods: A structured search was completed following the participants, intervention, comparators, and outcomes framework. We searched the MEDLINE, PubMed, Cochrane Library, and SAGE databases for studies published between January 2011 and July 2021 in the English language, yielding 5873 results, of which 147 studies met the inclusion criteria. The PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) guidelines and the Cochrane Handbook were followed to ensure a systematic process. Extracted data were analyzed using NVivo (QSR International), with thematic analysis and narrative synthesis of emergent themes. Results: The technical factors affecting patients’ adoption of mHealth tools were categorized into six key themes, which in turn were divided into 20 subthemes: usefulness, ease of use, data-related, monetary factors, technical issues, and user experience. Health-related factors were categorized into six key themes: the disease or health condition, the care team’s role, health consciousness and literacy, health behavior, relation to other therapies, integration into patient journey, and the patients’ insurance status. Social and personal factors were divided into three key clusters: demographic factors, personal characteristics, and social and cultural aspects; these were divided into 19 subthemes, highlighting the importance of considering these factors when addressing potential barriers to mHealth adoption and how to overcome them. Conclusions: This review builds on the growing body of research that investigates patients’ adoption of mHealth services and highlights the complexity of the factors affecting adoption, including personal, social, technical, organizational, and health care aspects. We recommend a more patient-centered approach by ensuring the tools’ fit into the overall patient journey and treatment plan, emphasizing inclusive design, and warranting comprehensive patient education and support. Moreover, empowering and mobilizing clinicians and care teams, addressing ethical data management issues, and focusing on health care policies may facilitate adoption