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Technology, Materiality and Organizational Change

Daniel Robey Georgia State University December 15, 2010. Technology, Materiality and Organizational Change. Layers of Narrative. Theoretical Development. Personal Reflections and Plans. Session Theme: My View. Looking back at a career of intellectual puzzle solving (celebration)

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Technology, Materiality and Organizational Change

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  1. Daniel Robey Georgia State University December 15, 2010 Technology, Materiality and Organizational Change

  2. Layers of Narrative Theoretical Development Personal Reflections and Plans

  3. Session Theme: My View Looking back at a career of intellectual puzzle solving (celebration) It’s not about me. It’s about us. Looking ahead to new puzzles

  4. My Immediate Plans(retirement for hopelessly dedicated academics) • Role models: Beath, Walsham, Land, Davis • Doing what I want and spending time with my real friends • EIC of Information and Organization (meetings at ICIS or AoM) • Research and teaching • Nurture the academic family

  5. Doctoral Students - FIU Sundeep Sahay Leo Vijayasarathy Line Dubé Martin Santana

  6. Doctoral Students - GSU Paul Cule(not shown) Maric Boudreau Suzanne Pawlowski Leigh Jin Karlene Cousins Huoy Min Khoo Jijie Wang AlinaDulipovici AnouckAdrot Benoit Raymond Chad Anderson

  7. Academic Family Topography(illustrative 5% sample)

  8. Importance of the Family • Not just a metaphor • Describes relationships in which individual interests overlap extensively with collective interests • Explains behaviors • My identity in this family serves as a moral compass

  9. Lifelong colleagues and fellow travelers never really retire. You will always be the heart of our academic family. Susan Winter, the NSF person at ICIS

  10. “If you know who you are, you’ll know what to do.” -- Bill Curry, Head Football Coach, Georgia State University

  11. Bio-Family Lauren, age 5 Mason, age 3 Hannah, age 7

  12. Theoretical Development Intellectual Puzzle: How is information technology implicated in organizational change? • “Impact” rhetoric of the 1960s • I entered the discourse in 1970s

  13. Contingency Theory • The search for relevant conditions and contingencies that would explain why different ways of organizing could be equally effective.

  14. Technology as Contingency • J. Woodward: technology as manufacturing processes: • Small batch • Mass production/assembly lines • Continuous process This approach included the material aspects of technology as the basis for classifying organizations.

  15. Technology as Contingency • C. Perrow: technology is abstraction of organizational processes • Two variables: • Number of exceptions encountered • Analyzability of exceptions • This approach excluded the material aspects of technology.

  16. Perrow’s Recompense • Perrow “Normal Accident at Three Mile Island” Society 1981. • “I hope I have suggested that organizational theorists pay attention to the way mere “things” – equipment, its layout, its ease of operation and maintenance – are shaped by organizational structure and top management interests, and in turn shape operator behavior.” (Perrow ASQ 1983, p. 540).

  17. Challenges to Contingency Theory • Soft determinism (Orlikowski CJE 2010) • Multiple conceptions of “fit.” • Drazin &Van de Ven (ASQ 1985) • Venkatraman (AMR 1989) • Strong & Volkoff (MISQ 2010) • Leaves out: • Material characteristics of technology • Explanations of the process of change

  18. Process Perspective Related stream of research on ISD: Franz, Farrow – conflict in ISD Newman – social process model Sabherwal – event sequence studies Khoo – packaged software upgrades Mao, Zhang – conflict and control Markus & Robey (Mgt Sci 1988)

  19. Explorations of Theory1990-2010 • Structuration Theory (Orlikowski) • Dialectics (Cule, Boudreau, Cho, Mathiassen) • Organizational Politics (Franz, Markus) • Organizational Learning (Sahay, Wishart, Boudreau, Ross) • Organizational Culture (Dubé, Kaarst-Brown) • Actor-Network Theory (Holmström) • Institutional Theory (Holmström,Cousins) • Time-Space Distanciation (Jin) • Human Agency (Boudreau, Cousins, Chu)

  20. Intellectual Puzzle Solved! • IT influences organizational change through its implication in social processes: • Learning • Politics • Etc. • Human agency is central to the enactment of technologies in use. • Social processes are indeterminate, yet important to understand and theorize

  21. So Now Can I Retire in Peace?

  22. Not so fast… Missing Pieces? How is information technology implicated in organizational change?

  23. Problems with the Solution So Far • Explanations could apply to any organizational initiative, whether IT-related or not. • Inadvertent “tilt” toward human agency, thus marginalizing the influence of both social structure and technology. • Hutchby (Sociology 2001) • Volkoff, Strong & Elmes (Org Sci 2007). • Leonardi & Barley (I&O 2008) • Orlikowski (CJE 2010)

  24. Completing the Puzzle:What is Technology? • Sketching Current Interest in Materiality • Strategies for Theorizing Materiality • Observations on: • Theoretical Form • Methodological Preferences • Philosophical Assumptions

  25. Sketching Current Interest in Materiality • The desperate search for the IT artifact • Interest in materiality • AoM symposia (2009, 2010) • Leonardi, et al. book • MISQ Special Issue call for papers • Papers in Information and Organization • E.g., Jonsson, Holmström & Lyytinen (2009) • Interest spans both Organization Studies and Information Systems

  26. Strategies for Theorizing Materiality of IT Develop new concepts and/or import concepts from other fields • Affordance • Sociomateriality • Material agency • Imbrication • Embeddedness

  27. Potential Sources of Concepts • Actor-Network Theory • Material agency • Structuration Theory • Material constraints (Giddens) • Ecological Psychology, HCI • Affordances (Gibson, Norman) • Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST) • Technical features = technical objects + functional affordances (Markus & Silver 2008)

  28. Two Strategies Illustrated • Append materiality concepts to existing theory that has neglected IT artifacts: • Cousins & Robey (2010) application of affordances to theory of work-life boundary management • Integrate new concepts into existing theory that intentionally excludes IT artifacts: • Raymond’s (2010) extension of Feldman & Pentland’s theory of organizational routines

  29. 1. Affordances of Mobile Technologies • Study of work-life boundary management • Research question: How is mobile technology implicated in work-life boundary management practices? • Five affordances identified in field work

  30. Source: Cousins & Robey (2010)

  31. 2. Extending Organizational Routines Theory Routines as: • Repetitive, recognizable patterns of interdependent actions carried out by multiple actors • Generative systems capable of producing new performances (Feldman and Pentland ASQ 2003)

  32. Controversy What role do IT artifacts play in organizational routines? IT artifacts influence and are influenced by IT artifacts but they are not part of the generative system of an organizational routine (Pentland & Feldman I&O 2008). IT artifacts are embedded as integral parts of organizational routines ( Volkoff et al. Org Sci 2007)

  33. Ostensive and Performative Aspects of Routines Source: Pentland and Feldman (I&O 2008)

  34. Influence of IT Artifacts on Organizational Routines (Raymond 2010)

  35. Theoretical Form: Process • Challenge the treatment of IT as a variable. • Theorize IT as a material ingredient in social processes (Mutch, Org Sci 2010) • Baxter & Berente (I&O 2009) • Raymond (2010)

  36. Methodological Preference • Qualitative field work • Attention to material artifacts, including software • Exemplars: • Leonardi (Org Sci 2o1o; MISQ 2011) • Jonsson, Holmström & Lyytinen (I&O 2009) • Pollock and Williams (I&O 2009)

  37. Philosophical Assumptions: Critical Realism • IT artifacts as material objects, not socially constructed and interpreted “texts” (Hutchby, Sociology 2001). • What structures and mechanisms generate the empirical events we can observe as IT consequences in organizations? (Strong & Volkoff MISQ 2010; Mutch 2010) • How do these mechanisms operate?

  38. The Way Ahead

  39. The Way Ahead Is Robey on board? Did we leave him ashore?

  40. The Way Ahead

  41. Thank You All • For inspiring me • For contributing to a fulfilling academic career • For your friendship and support

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