Purpose -Shadowing is becoming an increasingly popular method in management and organization studies. While several scholars have reflected on this technique, comparatively few researchers have explicated the specific practices that constitute this method and discussed their implications for research on processes of organizing. The purpose of this article is to address these issues by offering a conceptual toolbox that defines shadowing in terms of a set of framing practices and provides in-depth insight into the methodological choices and challenges that organizational shadowers may encounter. Design/methodology/approach -In this article, the authors explicate the specific framing practices in which researchers engage when taking an intersubjective approach to organizational shadowing. To demonstrate the value of viewing shadowing as framing, the paper grounds the theoretical discussion in actual fieldwork experiences, taken from three different ethnographic studies. Findings -Based on a systematic and critical analysis of fieldwork experiences, the paper argues that organizational shadowing is constituted by three interrelated framing practices: delineating the object of study; punctuating the process/flow of a given organizing process; and reflecting on the relationship between researcher and the object(s) or person(s) being observed. These analytical constructs highlight specific activities with which shadowers are confronted in the field, namely foregrounding and backgrounding particular aspects in defining a given object of study, trying to keep this object in focus as the fieldwork unfolds, and making decisions about the degree to which the relationship with shadowees should be taken into account in understanding this object. Originality/value -This article provides an in-depth reflection on the subtle practices that constitute organizational shadowing. It offers a useful conceptual toolbox for researchers who want to use this method and demonstrates its operational value to help them understand how knowledge construction is the outcome of a coconstructive process that depends on a series of decisions negotiated in ongoing interactions with the actors under study.

This article develops the concept of multilevel contradictions in organizing processes, from the perspective of cultural-historical activity theory. In most activity theory-based scholarship, systemic contradictions are collapsed into a singular, generic construct, and the generative force of the different levels of contradictions in socio-organizational relations is overlooked. In contrast, we explicate when, how and why four distinct layers of contradiction precipitate one another, provoke distinct epistemic actions from different sets of organizational actors, and catalyze the development of organizing processes.

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in practice-based studies of organizational change. Most of this research does not explicitly consider the tension between situated and sociohistorical practices that are central to the transformation of work practices associated with an episode of change. In our study of the impact of off-the-shelf three-dimensional rendering software on the daily practice of architects in a small, highly regarded firm, we explore the incompatibility between these different levels of practice. By building on the concept of contradiction drawn from activity theory, we identify patterns of challenges, reenactments, and enactments through which situated change simultaneously reproduces and questions institutionalized practices.

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Dossier : Migrations conceptuelles. D'où viennent les concepts de la communication organisationnelle ?140 Résumé Tant dans la manifestation concrète du phénomène que dans la manière de les appréhender conceptuellement, les chercheurs interpellés par les technologies dans les organisations ont été confrontés à la fois à de nouvelles questions et à de nouveaux courants d'analyse au cours des deux dernières décennies. Dans un premier temps, nous envisageons les approches des TIC en organisation mobilisant la théorie de la structuration. Dans un deuxième temps, nous précisons en quoi la théorie de l'activité, qui présente des filiations avec les courants d'analyse précédents, a cherché à dépasser certaines de leurs limites. Nous envisagerons en conclusion les pistes ouvertes par des travaux récents relatifs aux technologies, pour considérer leur contribution à la compréhension de l'articulation technologieorganisation et cerner ainsi plus avant les caractéristiques de la communication organisante dans les organisations contemporaines. Mots clés : TIC; organisation ; approche communicationnelle ; théorie de la structuration ; théorie de l'activité AbstractResearchers interested in technologies have been confronted, over the last two decades, to difficulties in apprehending their research object, as well as to the arrival of new conceptual frameworks to study them in organizations. Among them, Giddens' structuration has inspired numerous researchers. We examine the studies issued from this tradition and see how activity theory provides means to overcome some of the limitations identified from structurationnal analyses of technology. We conclude by proposing research avenues to better apprehend the technology-organization relationship.