796 research outputs found
The sociomateriality of organisational life: considering technology in management research
Drawing on a specific scenario from a contemporary workplace, I review some of the dominant ways that management scholars have addressed technology over the past five decades. I will demonstrate that while materiality is an integral aspect of organisational activity, it has either been ignored by management research or investigated through an ontology of separateness that cannot account for the multiple and dynamic ways in which the social and the material are constitutively entangled in everyday life. I will end by pointing to some possible alternative perspectives that may have the potential to help management scholars take seriously the distributed and complex sociomaterial configurations that form and perform contemporary organisations
Managing digital coordination of design: emerging hybrid practices in an institutionalized project setting
What happens when digital coordination practices are introduced into the institutionalized setting of an engineering project? This question is addressed through an interpretive study that examines how a shared digital model becomes used in the late design stages of a major station refurbishment project. The paper contributes by mobilizing the idea of ‘hybrid practices’ to understand the diverse patterns of activity that emerge to manage digital coordination of design. It articulates how engineering and architecture professions develop different relationships with the shared model; the design team negotiates paper-based practices across organizational boundaries; and diverse practitioners probe the potential and limitations of the digital infrastructure. While different software packages and tools have become linked together into an integrated digital infrastructure, these emerging hybrid practices contrast with the interactions anticipated in practice and policy guidance and presenting new opportunities and challenges for managing project delivery. The study has implications for researchers working in the growing field of empirical work on engineering project organizations as it shows the importance of considering, and suggests new ways to theorise, the introduction of digital coordination practices into these institutionalized settings
Interference effects in electronic transport through metallic single-wall carbon nanotubes
In a recent paper Liang {\it et al.} [Nature {\bf 411}, 665 (2001)] showed
experimentally, that metallic nanotubes, strongly coupled to external
electrodes, may act as coherent molecular waveguides for electronic transport.
The experimental results were supported by theoretical analysis based on the
scattering matrix approach. In this paper we analyze theoretically this problem
using a real-space approach, which makes it possible to control quality of
interface contacts. Electronic structure of the nanotube is taken into account
within the tight-binding model. External electrodes and the central part
(sample) are assumed to be made of carbon nanotubes, while the contacts between
electrodes and the sample are modeled by appropriate on-site (diagonal) and
hopping (off-diagonal) parameters. Conductance is calculated by the Green
function technique combined with the Landauer formalism. In the plots
displaying conductance {\it vs.} bias and gate voltages, we have found typical
diamond structure patterns, similar to those observed experimentally. In
certain cases, however, we have found new features in the patterns, like a
double-diamond sub-structure.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figures. To apear in Phys. Rev.
Technology and Sociomaterial Performation
Part 1: IS/IT Implementation and AppropriationInternational audienceOrganizational researchers have acknowledged that understanding the relationship between technology and organization is crucial to understanding modern organizing and organizational change [1]. There has been a significant amount of debate concerning the theoretical foundation of this relationship. Our research draws and extends Deleuze and DeLanda’s work on assemblages and Callon’s concept of performation to investigate how different sociomaterial practices are changed and stabilized after the implementation of new technology. Our findings from an in-depth study of two ambulatory clinics within a hospital system indicate that “perform-ing” of constituting, counter-performing, calibrating, and stratifying explained the process of sociomaterial change and that this process is governed by an overarching principle of “performative exigency”. Future studies on sociomateriality and change may benefit from a deeper understanding of how sociomaterial assemblages are rendered performative
Modeling Elasticity in Crystal Growth
A new model of crystal growth is presented that describes the phenomena on
atomic length and diffusive time scales. The former incorporates elastic and
plastic deformation in a natural manner, and the latter enables access to times
scales much larger than conventional atomic methods. The model is shown to be
consistent with the predictions of Read and Shockley for grain boundary energy,
and Matthews and Blakeslee for misfit dislocations in epitaxial growth.Comment: 4 pages, 10 figure
ASTERIX and 2.0 Knowledge Management : exploring the appropriation of 2.0 KMS via the Myth of the Gaulish village
International audienceKnowledge Management Systems (KMS) in companies have profoundly changed in recent years. They have become KMS 2.0 that aim to transform the firm and are driven by a new relationship to knowledge in line with 2.0 organisations. These 2.0 KMS have implemented modes of organisation that disrupt those that previously guided firms’ performance. This can sometimes lead to paradoxical organizational dysfunctions as witnessed by the difficulties faced by some traditionally hierarchical French companies. Through a case study of Constructor and a theoretical background on IS appropriation in organizations and myths in management, we show how the Asterix myth contributes to understanding how 2.0. KMS are appropriated in such companies. We find evidence of similarities regarding knowledge and Knowledge Management between the Asterix’ myth and the behaviours and practices concerning knowledge management within Constructor. As a result, the Asterix’ myth may be a relevant perspective for understanding the obstacles, advantages and appropriations of 2.0. KMS within French organizations
Sheared Solid Materials
We present a time-dependent Ginzburg-Landau model of nonlinear elasticity in
solid materials. We assume that the elastic energy density is a periodic
function of the shear and tetragonal strains owing to the underlying lattice
structure. With this new ingredient, solving the equations yields formation of
dislocation dipoles or slips. In plastic flow high-density dislocations emerge
at large strains to accumulate and grow into shear bands where the strains are
localized. In addition to the elastic displacement, we also introduce the local
free volume {\it m}. For very small the defect structures are metastable
and long-lived where the dislocations are pinned by the Peierls potential
barrier. However, if the shear modulus decreases with increasing {\it m},
accumulation of {\it m} around dislocation cores eventually breaks the Peierls
potential leading to slow relaxations in the stress and the free energy
(aging). As another application of our scheme, we also study dislocation
formation in two-phase alloys (coherency loss) under shear strains, where
dislocations glide preferentially in the softer regions and are trapped at the
interfaces.Comment: 16pages, 11figure
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