CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 2,571Information Systems Theories and ImplementationManagement and Organizational StudiesManagement Theory and Practice

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 171 of the 171 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

10 Sociomateriality: Challenging the Separation of Technology, Work and Organization

Orlikowski, Wanda J., Scott, Susan V.·2008·Academy of Management Annals
DOI 10.5465/19416520802211644
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

We begin by juxtaposing the pervasive presence of technology in organizational work with its absence from the organization studies literature. Our analysis of four leading journals in the field confirms that over 95% of the articles published in top management research outlets do not take into account the role of technology in organizational life. We then examine the research that has been done on technology, and categorize this literature into two research streams according to their view of technology: discrete entities or mutually dependent ensembles. For each stream, we discuss three existing reviews spanning the last three decades of scholarship to highlight that while there have been many studies and approaches to studying organizational interactions and implications of technology, empirical research has produced mixed and often‐conflicting results. Going forward, we suggest that further work is needed to theorize the fusion of technology and work in organizations, and that additional perspectives are needed to add to the palette of concepts in use. To this end, we identify a promising emerging genre of research that we refer to under the umbrella term: sociomateriality. Research framed according to the tenets of a sociomaterial approach challenges the deeply taken‐for‐granted assumption that technology, work, and organizations should be conceptualized separately, and advances the view that there is an inherent inseparability between the technical and the social. We discuss the intellectual motivation for proposing a sociomaterial research approach and point to some common themes evident in recent studies. We conclude by suggesting that a reconsideration of conventional views of technology may help us more effectively study and understand the multiple, emergent, and dynamic sociomaterial configurations that constitute contemporary organizational practices.

Overview

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.5465/19416520802211644

Cites

171 of 171 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Verification

Claims the paper makes

This paper’s full text isn’t openly available, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Citations

Cites

Show all 124 references

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. Jones M.R., 1998, Information systems: Current issues and future challenges, 287
  2. Trist E.L., 1981, Perspectives on Organizational Design and Behavior, 19

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Items 1,301–1,400 of 1,527

Related

See all

Metadata

Authors
Orlikowski, W. J., & Scott, S. V.
Affiliations
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
ORCID
Venue
Academy of Management Annals
Publisher
Academy of Management
Published
2008-01
Volume
2
Issue
1
Pages
433-474
ISSN
  • 1941-6067 (ISSN-L)
  • 1941-6520
DOI
10.5465/19416520802211644
OpenAlex
W2058287127
Cited by
2,571
References
124
Citations by year
2026: 207 · 2025: 174 · 2024: 154 · 2023: 161 · 2022: 177 · 2021: 221 · 2020: 187 · 2019: 177 · 2018: 158 · 2017: 140 · 2016: 136 · 2015: 139 · 2014: 147 · 2013: 141 · 2012: 111
FWCI
162.64
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Academy of Management Annals (publishedVersion, public-domain)
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 › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Management Theory and Practice
Keywords
sociomateriality, technology in organizations, organizational practices

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review