Turn to the material: Remote diagnostics systems and new forms of boundary-spanning

Abstract

To learn and adapt, organizations engage widely in Information Technology (IT)-mediated boundary-spanning. This involves making sense of a swath of peripheral information made available by digital means so as to expand local knowledge. Prior research on boundaryspanning has paid scant attention to material differences between IT systems in enabling or constraining such activity. In this article, we argue that material features do matter: features afforded by IT systems have a significant impact on the form and content of boundary-spanning. We analyze material features and related affordances provided by remote diagnostics systems -a family of ubiquitous IT systems. These features allow remote diagnostics systems to collect, store, and continuously analyze data about the state of machinery and related production processes across space, time and organizational boundaries. Organizations use these systems to determine when maintenance intervention is needed, or to improve their production processes. Often, these systems are run by external service providers at remote sites, which become the new ears and the eyes of a focal organization's production processes. Building on a longitudinal multi-site case study of two organizations, we explore the impacts of remote diagnostics systems on boundary-spanning. We observe that material features afforded by the remote diagnostics led the organizations to change their boundaryspanning in contradictory ways. On one hand, they reinforced existing boundaries. On the other hand, they crossed or cut down others, or created new ones. This suggests that the material features of these systems, when combined with new knowledge creation and sharing practices, within and between the local and the remote sites generate richer, multifaceted inter-organizational knowledge flows. We surmise that IT's new material features will continue to significantly shape organizing logics that determine where and when organizational boundaries are drawn and crossed. Future boundary-spanning will increasingly be shaped by socio-technical assemblages brought together by increasingly pervasive IT capabilities.

Patient Data as Medical Facts: Social Media Practices as a Foundation for Medical Knowledge Creation

“…The network exemplifies a new architecture for organizing data collection, and new capabilities for analyzing and assembling evidence that require in--depth investigation (Star 1986). As we hope to demonstrate throughout this article, the distinct configuration of the network we study here derives from the flexible forms of interaction enabled by social media and the innovative deployment of the functionalities afforded by current computing and communications technologies (Jonsson et al 2009). …”

Organizational dimensions of e-maintenance: a multi-contextual perspective

“…While the role of IT in industrial organizations has been investigated extensively Zuboff 1988) relatively little attention has been payed to remote diagnostics technology (for an exception see Jonsson 2010;Jonsson et al 2009). …”

“…Remote diagnostics systems have generated new insights like brokering leading maintenance practices data, or new maintenance rules. Finally, they increase the information and knowledge intensity of maintenance work, as centralized centers can analyze multiple data sets in complex ways with small additional cost (Jonsson et al 2009). Technicians in the centers can also focus on proactively diagnosing problems by learning from past cases.…”

The Light and Dark Side of The Black Box: Sensor-Based Technology in the Automotive Industry

“…Sensor-based technologies increasingly pervade the objects we use in our work and private lives Jonsson, Holmström, & Lyytinen, 2009;. These technologies pose opportunities and challenges for individuals, businesses, and society (Loebbecke & Picot, 2015).…”