As both technologies and organizations undergo dramatic changes in form and function, organizational researchers are increasingly turning to concepts of innovation, emergence, and improvisation to help explain the new ways of organizing and using technology evident in practice. With a similar intent, I propose an extension to the structurational perspective on technology that develops a practice lens to examine how people, as they interact with a technology in their ongoing practices, enact structures which shape their emergent and situated use of that technology. Viewing the use of technology as a process of enactment enables a deeper understanding of the constitutive role of social practices in the ongoing use and change of technologies in the workplace. After developing this lens, I offer an example of its use in research, and then suggest some implications for the study of technology in organizations.

Using Technology and Constituting Structures: A Practice Lens for Studying Technology in Organizations

All these premises having, as I think, been clearly made out, it is impossible that the rulers now on earth should make any benefit, or derive any the least shadow of authority from that, which is held to be the fountain of all power, Adam's private dominion and paternal jurisdiction; so that he that will not give just occasion to think that all government in the world is the product only of force and violence, and that men live together by no other rules but that of beasts, where the strongest carries it, and so lay a foundation for perpetual disorder and mischief, tumult, sedition and rebellion, (things that the followers of that hypothesis so loudly cry out against) must of necessity find out another rise of government, another original of political power, and another way of designing and knowing the persons that have it, than what Sir Robert Filmer hath taught us.

Two Treatises of Government.

The four Visegrad states — Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia (until 1993 Czechoslovakia) and Hungary — form a compact area between Germany and Austria in the west and the states of the former USSR in the east. They are bounded by the Baltic in the north and the Danube river in the south. They are cut by the Sudeten and Carpathian mountain ranges, which divide Poland off from the other states. Poland is an extension of the North European plain and like the latter is drained by rivers that flow from south to north west — the Oder, the Vlatava and the Elbe, the Vistula and the Bug. The Danube is the great exception, flowing from its source eastward, turning through two 90-degree turns to end up in the Black Sea, forming the barrier and often the political frontier between central Europe and the Balkans. Hungary to the east of the Danube is also an open plain. The region is historically and culturally part of western Europe, but its eastern Marches now represents a vital strategic zone between Germany and the core of the European Union to the west and the Russian zone to the east.

Economy and Society

The field of information systems is premised on the centrality of information technology in everyday socio-economic life. Yet, drawing on a review of the full set of articles published inInformation Systems Research ( ISR) over the past ten years, we argue that the field has not deeply engaged its core subject matter--the information technology (IT) artifact. Instead, we find that IS researchers tend to give central theoretical significance to the context (within which some usually unspecified technology is seen to operate), the discrete processing capabilities of the artifact (as separable from its context or use), or the dependent variable (that which is posited to be affected or changed as technology is developed, implemented, and used). The IT artifact itself tends to disappear from view, be taken for granted, or is presumed to be unproblematic once it is built and installed. After discussing the implications of our findings, we propose a research direction for the IS field that begins to take technology as seriously as its effects, context, and capabilities. In particular, we propose that IS researchers begin to theorize specifically about IT artifacts, and then incorporate these theories explicitly into their studies. We believe that such a research direction is critical if IS research is to make a significant contribution to the understanding of a world increasingly suffused with ubiquitous, interdependent, and emergent information technologies.

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Research Commentary: Desperately Seeking the IT in IT Research--A Call to Theorizing the IT Artifact

Social Psychology of Organizations

The invasion of Iraq was premised upon accounts of the situation that have proved unsustainable, but that has not generated a change in the strategy of the coalition forces. Conventional contingency accounts of leadership suggest that accurate accounts of the context are a critical element of the decision-making apparatus but such accounts appear incapable of explaining the decisions of those engaged. An alternative model is developed that adapts the Tame and Wicked problem analysis of Rittell and Webber, in association with Etzioni’s typology of compliance, to propose an alternative analysis that is rooted in social constructivist approaches. This is then applied to three asymmetric case studies which suggest that decision-makers are much more active in the constitution of the context than conventional contingency theories allow, and that a persuasive rendition of the context then legitimizes a particular form of action that often relates to the decision-maker’s preferred mode of engagement, rather than ...

Problems, problems, problems: The social construction of ‘leadership’

Acknowledgements. Introduction: Deus ex Machina. . 1. Theories of Technology. 2. The Luddites: Diablo Ex Machina. . 3. Configuring the User: Inventing New Technologies. 4. Some Failures of Nerve in Constructivist and Feminist Analyses of Technology. 5. Technology and Work Organizations. 6. Whata s Social about Being Shot?. Notes. References. Index.

The Machine at Work: Technology, Work and Organization

This book provides case-based analyses of leadership across business, political, military, and social contexts. Its rich historical detail and arts-of-leadership metaphors help separate this book from many others taking new approaches to leadership. This breadth across various historical time periods and contexts should help bolster the value of this book for both academics and non-academics alike.

The Arts of Leadership

Introduction What is Leadership: Person, Result, Position or Process? Leadership as Person: Putting the "Ship" Back into Leadership Leadership as Results: Putting the Subjunctive Back Where it Belongs Leadership as Process: Leadership as a Reflection of Community Leadership as Position: Hydras and Elephants Bibliography Index

Leadership: Limits and Possibilities

PART ONE: OVERVIEW PERSPECTIVES A History of Leadership - Keith Grint Research Methods in the Study of Leadership - Alan Bryman The Enduring and Elusive Quest for a General Theory of Leadership: Initial Efforts and New Horizons - Georgia Sorenson, George Goethals and Paige Haber Leadership Development - David V. Day PART TWO: MACRO AND SOCIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES Leadership and Organization Theory - Ken W. Parry Perspectives on Strategic Leadership - Jean-Louis Denis, Veronica Kisfalvi, Ann Langley and Linda Rouleau Charismatic Leadership - Jay A. Conger Gender and Leadership - Linda L. Carli and Alice H. Eagly A Network Approach to Leader Cognition and Effectiveness - Martin Kilduff and Prasad Balkundi Trust and Distrust in the Leadership Process: A Review and Assessment of Theory and Evidence - Roderick M. Kramer Leadership and Organizational Culture - Mats Alvesson Cross-Cultural Leadership Revisited - Eric Guthey and Brad Jackson PART THREE: POLITICAL AND PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES Critical Leadership Studies - David Collinson Leadership and Power - Raymond Gordon Political Leadership - Jean Hartley and John Benington Leadership and Cults - Dennis Tourish Leadership Ethics - Joanne B. Ciulla and Donelson R. Forsyth Philosophy of Leadership - Peter Case, Robert French and Peter Simpson Aesthetics and Leadership - Hans Hansen and Ralph Bathurst PART FOUR: PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES Predictors of Leadership: The Usual Suspects and the Suspect Traits - John Antonakis Contingency Theories of Effective Leadership - Gary Yukl Transformational Leadership - Hector R. Diaz-Saenz Leader-Member Exchange: Recent Findings and Prospects for the Future - Smriti Anand, Jia Hu, Robert C. Liden and Prajya R. Vidyarthi Leadership and Attachment Theory: Understanding Interpersonal Dynamics in Leader-Follower Relations - Annilee M. Game Team Leadership: A Review and Look ahead - Shawn Burke, Deborah DiazGranados and Eduardo Salas Authentic Leadership - Arran Caza and Brad Jackson A Multi-level View of Leadership and Emotions: Leading with Emotional Labour - Neal M. Ashkanasy and Ronald H. Humphrey The Shadow Side of Leadership - Manfred Kets De Vries and Katharina Balazs Psychoanalytic Approaches to Leadership - Yiannis Gabriel Creativity, Innovation and Leadership: Models and Findings - Michael D. Mumford, Isaac C. Robledo and Kimberly S. Hester PART FIVE: EMERGING PERSPECTIVES Followership and Follower-Centred Approaches - Michelle C. Bligh Hybrid Configurations of Leadership - Peter Gronn Moving Relationality: Meditations on a Relational Approach to Leadership - Dian Marie Hosking Complexity Leadership Theory - Mary Uhl-Bien and Russ Marion Spirituality and Leadership - Mario Fernando Discursive Approaches to Leadership - Gail T. Fairhurst Being Leaders: Identities and Identity Work in Leadership - Amanda Sinclair The Virtual Leader - David M. Boje, Alison Pullen, Carl Rhodes and Grace Ann Rosile

Keith Grint

Papers

Problems, problems, problems: The social construction of ‘leadership’

The Machine at Work: Technology, Work and Organization

The Arts of Leadership

Leadership: Limits and Possibilities

The SAGE Handbook of Leadership