Symbolic Processes in the Implementation of Technological Change: A Symbolic Interactionist Study of Work Computerization

Prasad, Pushkala

doi:10.5465/256817

Cited by 88 publications

(127 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…Thus, an emergent process perspective focuses primarily on the embedded and dynamic meanings, interests, and activities that are seen to produce an ensemble of technological relations (Kling, 1991;Markus and Robey, 1988). Scholars working from this perspective sought to explain how the particular interests and situated actions of multiple social groups shaped the designs, meanings, and uses of new technologies over time (Ciborra and Lanzara, 1994;Fulk, 1993;Heath and Luff, 2000;Prasad, 1993;Thomas, 1994;Zuboff, 1988). For example, Kling and his colleagues developed what they termed a "web model of computing," focusing on the broader ecology of people, infrastructures, resources, policy decisions, and social relations that affected the development, adoption, appropriation, and adaptation of information technology (Gasser, 1986;Kling and Dutton, 1982;Kling and Iacono 1984;Kling and Scaachi, 1982).…”

Section: Emergent Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

The sociomateriality of organisational life: considering technology in management research

Orlikowski

2009

Cambridge Journal of Economics

692

491

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Section: Emergent Processmentioning

confidence: 99%

The sociomateriality of organisational life: considering technology in management research

Orlikowski

2009

Cambridge Journal of Economics

692

491

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Drawing on social constructivism, ethnomethodology, and structuration theory (Bijker et al 1984;Pinch and Bijker 1984;Barley 1986;Suchman 1987;Woolgar and Grint 1991;Orlikowski 1992;Prasad 1993;DeSanctis and Poole 1994;Heath et al 1995;Barrett and Walsham 1999), researchers aimed to theorize the socially embedded and emergent nature of technology at work.…”

Section: Digital Reconfigurationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Digital work: a research agenda

Orlikowski¹

2016

A Research Agenda for Management and Organization Studies

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IntroductionWe have been invited to discuss "digital work" and to propose a research agenda for the next decade or so. We value the opportunity to share some thoughts on this important area. In doing so, we will begin with a reconceptualization of the phenomenon that is at stake here, offer some specific examples, and then close by considering some possible future research directions that we hope will be both useful and generative. The phenomenon: What is digital work?The term "digital work" suggests that we are able to differentiate work that is dependent on digital technologies from "other work" that is not. We argue that in order to develop a contemporary research agenda for management and organization studies we must take a different route because the "digital" no longer serves as a useful separable feature distinguishing a type of work. Work today always entails the digital; even where the work itself doesn't directly involve a computing device, most contemporary work relates to digital phenomenon. What we mean by this is that most work practices involve digital technology to a greater or lesser extent -whether through digital networks that transfer email, cellular communications, and webpages or the computers that process financial transactions for global funds flow, facilitate writing and editing of documents, and handle logistics so parcels can be delivered on time.Although office, manufacturing and service work have been through more intense processes of digitisation that are more easily called out as "digital," we contend that such easy categorizations have blinkered us from realising the relational processes through which all work has become "cyborgian" to use Haraway's (1991) technology, yet their activities are surely configured by it as the quality of their cleaning becomes subject to online user-generated commentary. These reviews posted on social media websites such as TripAdvisor will elicit praise or rebuke from hotel managers while also impinging on their job security (as social media reviews and ratings influence room bookings that affect the financial position of the hotel and its staff levels).Work is "a doing," it is performed. As Weick (1969) suggests, we are better served by talking in terms of verbs rather than nouns. So our focus is on the dynamic and situated activities that constitute working rather than static or abstract tasks that make up "the work." As a doing, work is configured by its performance through the specific actions, voices, bodies, rooms, documents, tools, infrastructure, etc., that constitute it. As these specificities change, so does the work. Over the years, considerable attention has been paid to how certain kinds of work are reconfigured through different technologies. As we have argued above, all work is today being reconfigured in relation to digital technologies, and so it is important for us to draw attention to and craft accounts of the critical issues that this raises. But how are we to do this and what kind of research agenda are we calling for?One way of...

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“…This approach to qualitative data collection and the writing of the description is characteristic of organizationa l ethnographie s such as van Maanen (1979Maanen ( , 1988 and has also increasingly been used to study IS in organizations (e.g., Zuboff, 1988;Prasad, 1993;Nandhakumar & Jones, 1997;Walsham & Sahay, 1999). The validity of such research depends on gaining suf cient access to the knowledge and meanings of actors to enable a plausible , credible, and relevant representation of their interpretation s to be generated (Altheide & Johnson, 1994;Walsham & Sahay, 1999).…”

Section: Research Study and Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing Time in a Software Factory: Temporal and Spatial Organization of IS Development Activities

Nandhakumar¹

2002

The Information Society

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This article reports an ethnographic study that investigates the ways in which time was experienced and managed in an information systems (IS) development project. The study is based on 6 months of intensive overt participant observation of the development of Executive Information Systems in a large multinational company. Drawing on time geography, this article discusses a social perspective of time and social dynamics of time management in IS development project teams and outlines its implications for formal approaches to time management.Keywords information systems development, structuration, temporal structuring, time geography, time management, timespace pathsIn IS development projects, relatively autonomous organizational members collaborate to perform complex tasks that require specialized knowledge and expertise. Such project-based teamwork is also a form of working that is common in modern organizations (Dichter, 1991;Hammer, 1997). It appears, however, that IS development projects are poorly served by traditional time management techniques, as evidenced by the frequent late delivery problems in the software industry (Sauer, 1993). Further, the increasing adoption of automated software tools for IS development is also seen as shaping the temporal and spatial organization of activities and management of time in IS development projects (Orlikowski, 1991). This article therefore investigates the ways in which time was

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Symbolic Processes in the Implementation of Technological Change: A Symbolic Interactionist Study of Work Computerization

Cited by 88 publications

References 28 publications

The sociomateriality of organisational life: considering technology in management research

The sociomateriality of organisational life: considering technology in management research

Digital work: a research agenda

Managing Time in a Software Factory: Temporal and Spatial Organization of IS Development Activities

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