Examining Practice, Structural, and Interpretive Dimensions of Technology Assemblages: The Case of Social Technology Use by Knowledge Workers

This paper theorizes on the sociotechnical dynamics and underlying dimensions of technology assemblages that emerge from the use of social technologies in organizations. This theorization reflects more precisely the information ecology around knowledge workers, which is more technologically diversified than suggested by prior studies. To that end, this work differs from the few studies of social technologies and many studies of ICT in organizations by focusing on more than one technology and by considering social technologies as an assemblage. In order to advance current theorizing about technology assemblages, this works draws on data from a study of knowledge workers’ use of social technologies for knowledge sharing and presents three complementary analytic lenses: Practice, Structural, and Interpretive. Integrating the three lenses, allows us to holistically capture the disparate dimensions of social technology assemblages enacted by knowledge workers.

[1]  B. Glaser.  Theoretical Sensitivity: Advances in the Methodology of Grounded Theory , 1978 .

[2]  Danah Boyd,et al.  Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship , 2007, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[3]  R. Mason,et al.  HOW EXECUTIVES PERCEIVE THE NET GENERATION , 2010 .

[4]  Chrisanthi Avgerou,et al.  IT and organizational change: an institutionalist perspective , 2000, Inf. Technol. People.

[5]  A. Kellerman,et al.  The Constitution of Society : Outline of the Theory of Structuration , 2015 .

[6]  P. Leonardi,et al.  Social Media Use in Organizations: Exploring the Affordances of Visibility, Editability, Persistence, and Association , 2013 .

[7]  Rob Kling,et al.  a Bit More to It: Scholarly Communication Forums as Socio-technical Interaction Networks , 2003, J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol..

[8]  Wanda J. Orlikowski,et al.  Theorizing Practice and Practicing Theory , 2011, Organ. Sci..

[9]  Gohar Feroz Khan.  Social media-based systems: an emerging area of information systems research and practice , 2012, Scientometrics.

[10]  Jonathan Grudin,et al.  A longitudinal study of Facebook, LinkedIn, & Twitter use , 2012, CHI.

[11]  Gerald C. Kane,et al.  Casting the Net: A Multimodal Network Perspective on User-System Interactions , 2008, Inf. Syst. Res..

[12]  H. Gardner,et al.  Knowledge-Based Innovation: Emergence and Embedding of New Practice Areas in Management Consulting Firms , 2007 .

[13]  S. Barley.  Images of Imaging: Notes on Doing Longitudinal Field Work , 1990 .

[14]  B. Wellman,et al.  Work, friendship, and media use for information exchange in a networked organization , 1998 .

[15]  Andrew McAfee,et al.  Enterprise 2.0: New Collaborative Tools for Your Organization's Toughest Challenges , 2009 .

[16]  Steve Sawyer,et al.  Social Technologies, Informal Knowledge Practices, and the Enterprise , 2013, J. Organ. Comput. Electron. Commer..

[17]  France Bélanger,et al.  Communication Media Repertoires: Dealing with the Multiplicity of Media Choices , 2007, MIS Q..

[18]  Dimitrina S. Dimitrova,et al.  Computer Networks as Social Networks: Collaborative Work, Telework, and Virtual Community , 1996 .

[19]  Marie-Claude Boudreau,et al.  Enacting Integrated Information Technology: A Human Agency Perspective , 2005, Organ. Sci..

[20]  Pnina Fichman,et al.  The Evolution of Social Informatics Research (1984-2013): Challenges and Opportunities , 2013 .

[21]  M. Winograd,et al.  Millennial Momentum: How a New Generation Is Remaking America , 2011 .

[22]  Gregor E. Kennedy,et al.  A five-year study of on-campus Internet use by undergraduate biomedical students , 2010, Comput. Educ..

[23]  K. Riemer,et al.  Corporate Social Networking Sites – Modes of Use and Appropriation through Co-Evolution , 2009 .

[24]  Cliff Lampe,et al.  Connection strategies: Social capital implications of Facebook-enabled communication practices , 2011, New Media Soc..

[25]  Gerry Stahl,et al.  Social practices of computer-supported collaborative learning , 2006, Int. J. Comput. Support. Collab. Learn..

[26]  Caroline Haythornthwaite,et al.  Work, Friendship, and Media Use for Information Exchange in a Networked Organization , 1998, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[27]  Jonathan Grudin,et al.  Discretionary Adoption of Group Support Software: Lessons from Calendar Applications , 2003, Implementing Collaboration Technologies in Industry.

[28]  Pernilla Qvarfordt,et al.  Exploring the workplace communication ecology , 2010, CHI.

[29]  Steve Sawyer,et al.  Digital Assemblages: Evidence and Theorising from the Computerisation of the US Residential Real Estate Industry , 2014 .

[30]  J. Morse.  Qualitative data analysis (2nd ed): Mathew B. Miles and A. Michael Huberman. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 1994. Price: $65.00 hardback, $32.00 paperback. 238 pp , 1996 .

[31]  D. Boyd.  Social Network Sites as Networked Publics: Affordances, Dynamics, and Implications , 2010 .

[32]  Steve Whittaker,et al.  Supporting collaborative task management in e-mail , 2005 .

[33]  Kai Riemer,et al.  Internet Social Networking , 2011 .

[34]  Aileen B. Sedman,et al.  A longitudinal study , 1987 .

[35]  W. Orlikowski.  Using Technology and Constituting Structures: A Practice Lens for Studying Technology in Organizations , 2000 .

[36]  France Bélanger,et al.  Virtual Teams and Multiple Media: Structuring Media Use to Attain Strategic Goals , 2006 .

[37]  Bjørn Erik Munkvold,et al.  Implementing Collaboration Technologies in Industry , 2003, Computer Supported Cooperative Work.

[38]  Susan V. Scott,et al.  10 Sociomateriality: Challenging the Separation of Technology, Work and Organization , 2008 .