Materiality and change: Challenges to building better theory about technology and organizing

  • Authors:
  • Paul M. Leonardi;Stephen R. Barley

  • Affiliations:
  • Department of Communication Studies, Department of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences, Northwestern University, 2240 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208, United States;Center for Work, Technology and Organization, Department of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University, 422 Terman Engineering Center, Stanford, CA 94305, United States

  • Venue:
  • Information and Organization
  • Year:
  • 2008

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Abstract

Researchers have had difficulty accommodating materiality in voluntaristic theories of organizing. Although materiality surely shapes how people use technologies, materiality's role in organizational change remains under-theorized. We suggest that scholars have had difficulty grappling with materiality because they often conflate the distinction between the material and social with the distinction between determinism and voluntarism. We explain why such conflation is unnecessary and outline four challenges that researchers must address before they can reconcile the reality of materiality with the notion that outcomes of technological change are socially constructed.