Subtopic Deep Dive
Sociomateriality and Organizational Practice
Research Guide
What is Sociomateriality and Organizational Practice?
Sociomateriality in organizational practice examines the agential entanglement of social and material agencies in everyday work configuring technologies-in-practice within information systems.
This subtopic draws on ethnographies of healthcare and finance implementations to study performativity, intra-actions, and obduracy. Key works integrate sociomaterial perspectives with IS theories, challenging input-output models. Over 10 papers from MIS Quarterly and JAIS address these entanglements, with foundational theory papers cited 3000+ times.
Why It Matters
Sociomaterial approaches recast technology as co-constitutive of organizational realities, informing implementations in healthcare and finance. Markus and Silver (2008) extend DeSanctis and Poole’s structural features to analyze appropriation in groupware, impacting IS design. Henfridsson and Bygstad (2013) reveal generative mechanisms in digital infrastructure evolution, guiding scalability in enterprise systems. Majchrzak et al. (2016) apply lessons from ICT societal challenges to digital transformation strategies.
Key Research Challenges
Operationalizing Entanglements
Measuring agential intra-actions between humans and technologies remains elusive in ethnographies. Markus and Silver (2008) highlight gaps in extending structural features beyond appropriation. Ethnographic methods struggle with obduracy quantification in practice.
Bridging Paradigms
Integrating sociomaterial views with positivist IS paradigms creates theoretical tensions. Hirschheim and Klein (1989) outline four paradigms, but sociomateriality fits uneasily. Straub and Gefen (2004) stress validation needs for mixed-method rigor.
Scaling Ethnographic Insights
Generalizing findings from localized studies to broad implementations challenges theory building. Gregor (2006) defines theory structures needing cumulative mechanisms. Volkoff and Strong (2013) propose affordances under critical realism for change processes.
Essential Papers
The Nature of Theory in Information Systems1
Gregor · 2006 · MIS Quarterly · 3.2K citations
The aim of this research essay is to examine the structural nature of theory in Information Systems. Despite the importance of theory, questions relating to its form and structure are neglected in ...
Validation Guidelines for IS Positivist Research
Detmar W. Straub, David Gefen · 2004 · Communications of the Association for Information Systems · 2.7K citations
The issue of whether IS positivist researchers were sufficiently validating their instruments was initially raised fifteen years ago and rigor in IS research is still one of the most critical scien...
The Anatomy of a Design Theory
David Jones, Shirley Gregor · 2007 · Journal of the Association for Information Systems · 1.3K citations
Design work and design knowledge in Information Systems (IS) is important for both research and practice. Yet there has been comparatively little critical attention paid to the problem of specifyin...
Analyzing e-government research: Perspectives, philosophies, theories, methods, and practice
Richard Heeks, Savita Bailur · 2006 · Government Information Quarterly · 995 citations
Four paradigms of information systems development
Rudy Hirschheim, Heinz K. Klein · 1989 · Communications of the ACM · 920 citations
Developing computer-based information systems necessarily involves making a number of implicit and explicit assumptions. The authors examine four different approaches to information systems develop...
FEDS: a Framework for Evaluation in Design Science Research
John Venable, Jan Pries‐Heje, Richard Baskerville · 2014 · European Journal of Information Systems · 877 citations
Evaluation of design artefacts and design theories is a key activity in Design Science Research (DSR), as it provides feedback for further development and (if done correctly) assures the rigour of ...
A Foundation for the Study of IT Effects: A New Look at DeSanctis and Poole’s Concepts of Structural Features and Spirit
M. Lynne Markus, Mark S. Silver · 2008 · Journal of the Association for Information Systems · 850 citations
Gerardine DeSanctis and Marshall Scott Poole made an important contribution to the study of IT uses and effects with their insightful concepts of “structural features” and “spirit.” Unlike their co...
Reading Guide
Foundational Papers
Start with Gregor (2006) for IS theory structures, then Hirschheim and Klein (1989) for paradigms, followed by Markus and Silver (2008) for structural features foundational to sociomaterial extensions.
Recent Advances
Study Majchrzak et al. (2016) for digital transformation lessons; Henfridsson and Bygstad (2013) for infrastructure evolution; Volkoff and Strong (2013) for affordance mechanisms.
Core Methods
Ethnographic analysis of intra-actions; critical realism for generative mechanisms (Volkoff and Strong 2013); design theory anatomy (Jones and Gregor 2007); positivist validation (Straub and Gefen 2004).
How PapersFlow Helps You Research Sociomateriality and Organizational Practice
Discover & Search
Research Agent uses citationGraph on Gregor (2006) to map 3156-citation theory kernels linking to sociomaterial extensions like Markus and Silver (2008). exaSearch queries 'sociomateriality organizational practice ethnography' surfaces Henfridsson and Bygstad (2013) amid 250M+ OpenAlex papers. findSimilarPapers on Majchrzak et al. (2016) uncovers digital transformation parallels.
Analyze & Verify
Analysis Agent runs readPaperContent on Henfridsson and Bygstad (2013) to extract generative mechanisms, then verifyResponse with CoVe against Volkoff and Strong (2013) affordances. runPythonAnalysis with pandas networks citation overlaps from Straub and Gefen (2004) validation guidelines. GRADE grading scores ethnographic rigor in Majchrzak et al. (2016).
Synthesize & Write
Synthesis Agent detects gaps in paradigm integration between Hirschheim and Klein (1989) and sociomaterial works, flagging contradictions via exportMermaid diagrams. Writing Agent applies latexEditText to draft theory sections, latexSyncCitations for Gregor (2006), and latexCompile for full manuscripts.
Use Cases
"Extract networks from digital infrastructure papers for sociomaterial analysis"
Research Agent → searchPapers 'digital infrastructure sociomateriality' → Analysis Agent → runPythonAnalysis (pandas network graph on Henfridsson and Bygstad 2013 citations) → matplotlib visualization of entanglements.
"Draft LaTeX review on sociomateriality in IS implementations"
Synthesis Agent → gap detection (Markus and Silver 2008 vs Gregor 2006) → Writing Agent → latexEditText outline → latexSyncCitations (10 papers) → latexCompile PDF with bibliography.
"Find code repos linked to affordance papers in organizational change"
Research Agent → findSimilarPapers (Volkoff and Strong 2013) → Code Discovery → paperExtractUrls → paperFindGithubRepo → githubRepoInspect for simulation models of IT change processes.
Automated Workflows
Deep Research workflow conducts systematic review: searchPapers 'sociomateriality ethnography IS' → citationGraph → 50+ papers structured report on entanglements. Theorizer generates theory from Gregor (2006) kernels plus Markus and Silver (2008), outputting mechanisms via DeepScan 7-step checkpoints. Chain-of-Verification ensures claims trace to Henfridsson and Bygstad (2013).
Frequently Asked Questions
What defines sociomateriality in organizational practice?
Sociomateriality examines agential entanglement of social-material agencies in technologies-in-practice, as studied in IS ethnographies of healthcare and finance.
What methods dominate this subtopic?
Ethnographies analyze performativity and intra-actions; critical realism with affordances (Volkoff and Strong 2013) complements. Positivist validation follows Straub and Gefen (2004) guidelines.
What are key papers?
Gregor (2006, 3156 citations) structures IS theory; Markus and Silver (2008, 850 citations) refines structural features; Henfridsson and Bygstad (2013, 715 citations) details infrastructure mechanisms.
What open problems persist?
Scaling ethnographic insights to design theories (Jones and Gregor 2007); integrating paradigms (Hirschheim and Klein 1989); quantifying obduracy in implementations.
Research Information Systems Theories and Implementation with AI
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