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Cited by 1,889Information Systems Theories and ImplementationManagement and Organizational StudiesInnovative Education and Learning Practices

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 70 of the 72 references it cites were found in a registry or an index, and 2 are not checked yet.

When Flexible Routines Meet Flexible Technologies: Affordance, Constraint, and the Imbrication of Human and Material Agencies1

Leonardi, Paul M.·2011·MIS Quarterly
DOI 10.2307/23043493
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Abstract

Employees in many contemporary organizations work with flexible routines and flexible technologies. When those employees find that they are unable to achieve their goals in the current environment, how do they decide whether they should change the composition of their routines or the materiality of the technologies with which they work? The perspective advanced in this paper suggests that the answer to this question depends on how human and material agencies—the basic building blocks common to both routines and technologies—are imbricated. Imbrication of human and material agencies creates infrastructure in the form of routines and technologies that people use to carry out their work. Routine or technological infrastructure used at any given moment is the result of previous imbrications of human and material agencies. People draw on this infrastructure to construct a perception that a technology either constrains their ability to achieve their goals, or that the technology affords the possibility of achieving new goals. The case of a computer simulation technology for automotive design used to illustrate this framework suggests that perceptions of constraint lead people to change their technologies while perceptions of affordance lead people to change their routines. This imbrication metaphor is used to suggest how a human agency approach to technology can usefully incorporate notions of material agency into its explanations of organizational change.

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Research works printed but not linked: 10

  1. Barley, 1988, Technology, Power, and the Social Organization of Work: Towards a Pragmatic Theory of Skilling and Deskilling, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 33
  2. Cyert, 1963, A Behavioral Theory of the Firm
  3. Giddens, 1998, Conversations with Anthony Giddens
  4. Heidegger, 1959, An Introduction to Metaphysics
  5. Jones, 1998, Information Systems and the Double Mangle: Steering a Course between the Scyla of Embedded Structure and the Charydbis of Strong Symmetry, 287
  6. Latour, 1992, Where Are the Missing Masses? The Sociology of a Few Mundane Artifacts, 225
  7. Latour, 1999, Pandora’s Hope
  8. Pickering, 2001, Practice and Posthumanism: Social Theory and a History of Agency, 163
  9. Tabrizi, 2005, Accelerating Transformation: Process Innovation in the Global Information Technology Industry
  10. Taylor, 2007, Communication as the Modality of Structuration, 391

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Metadata

Authors
Leonardi, P. M.
Affiliations
Northwestern University (US)
Corresponding author
Leonardi, Paul M.
ORCID
Leonardi, Paul M.
Venue
MIS Quarterly
Publisher
MIS Quarterly
Published
2011-03-01
Volume
35
Issue
1
Pages
147-167
ISSN
  • 0276-7783 (ISSN-L)
  • 2162-9730
DOI
10.2307/23043493
OpenAlex
W3121575000
Semantic Scholar
b2ef038546d35ce422ea14dd8b4f7aa828276e7b
Cited by
1,889
References
72
Citations by year
2026: 294 · 2025: 171 · 2024: 151 · 2023: 100 · 2022: 134 · 2021: 121 · 2020: 137 · 2019: 138 · 2018: 115 · 2017: 101 · 2016: 91 · 2015: 103 · 2014: 92 · 2013: 79 · 2012: 43
FWCI
246.62
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
MIS Quarterly (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management Information Systems › Information Systems Theories and Implementation
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Management and Organizational Studies
  • Social Sciences › Education › Innovative Education and Learning Practices
Keywords
flexible technology, human agency, material agency, imbrication, affordances, constraints, organizational change, computer simulation, automotive design, technological change, routine change

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