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Cited by 790Information Systems Theories and ImplementationManagement and Organizational StudiesERP Systems Implementation and Impact

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 170 of the 171 references it cites were found in a registry or an index, and 1 are not checked yet.

What’s Under Construction Here? Social Action, Materiality, and Power in Constructivist Studies of Technology and Organizing

Leonardi, Paul M., Barley, Stephen R.·2010·Academy of Management Annals
DOI 10.5465/19416521003654160
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Abstract

Over the past two decades, organizational scholars have increasingly argued that technology’s affects on organizations are socially constructed. Constructivists who study implementation generally hold that organizational change emerges from an ongoing stream of social action in which people respond to a technology’s constraints and affordances, as well as to each other. Although most students of technology and organizing generally agree on the ontology of constructivism, there are considerable differences in what scholars mean when they say that a technology’s affects are socially constructed. We show that research on the social construction of implementation clusters into five coherent perspectives, which we call perception, interpretation, appropriation,enactment, and alignment. The perspectives differ with regard to the social phenomena they study and the processes by which they claim that construction occurs. The perspectives also focus on different phases of the implementation process and operate at different levels of analysis. After elucidating each perspective, we argue that students of technology and organizing could more directly engage issues central to organizational theory if they grappled with materiality and power, which they have heretofore downplayed in an attempt to counteract the field’s earlier tendency toward technological determinism.

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Research works printed but not linked: 13

  1. Barley S.R., 1988, Biomedicine examined
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  5. DiMaggio P.J., 1991, The new institutionalism in organizational analysis, 1
  6. Emery F., 1959, Characteristics of sociotechnical systems
  7. Gould R.V., 1989, Sociological methodology, 89
  8. Green S.G., 1988, Academy of Management Review, 13, 287, 10.5465/amr.1988.4306891 · DOI · Paper page
  9. Jepperson R.L., 1991, The new insitutionalism in organizational analysis, 143
  10. Knorr‐Cetina K.D., 1983, Emerging principles in social studies of science
  11. Levi‐Strauss C., 1976, Structural anthropology
  12. Phillips N., 2004, Academy of Management Review, 29, 635, 10.5465/amr.2004.14497617 · DOI · Paper page
  13. Powell W.W., 2008, Handbook of new institutionalism

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Metadata

Authors
Leonardi, P. M., & Barley, S. R.
Affiliations
Northwestern University (US)
ORCID
Venue
Academy of Management Annals
Publisher
Academy of Management
Published
2010-01
Volume
4
Issue
1
Pages
1-51
ISSN
  • 1941-6067 (ISSN-L)
  • 1941-6520
DOI
10.5465/19416521003654160
OpenAlex
W2154824354
Cited by
733
References
170
Citations by year
2026: 30 · 2025: 44 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 39 · 2022: 52 · 2021: 86 · 2020: 62 · 2019: 48 · 2018: 42 · 2017: 44 · 2016: 48 · 2015: 49 · 2014: 60 · 2013: 48 · 2012: 35
FWCI
104.72
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Academy of Management Annals (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 › Business, Management and Accounting › Management Information Systems › ERP Systems Implementation and Impact
Keywords
social construction of technology, organizational change, implementation, constructivism, materiality, power, technological determinism, affordances, appropriations, enactment, alignment, perception, interpretation, levels of analysis

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