scholarly journals How Should Technology-Mediated Organizational Change Be Explained? A Comparison of the Contributions of Critical Realism and Activity Theory

MIS Quarterly ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 835-854 ◽  
Author(s):  
David K. Allen ◽  
◽  
Andrew Brown ◽  
Stan Karanasios ◽  
Alistair Norman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Activity Theory ◽  
Critical Realism

Critical Realism and Affordances: Theorizing IT-Associated Organizational Change Processes

MIS Quarterly ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 37 (3) ◽  
pp. 819-834 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Volkoff ◽  
◽  
Diane M. Strong ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Change Processes

Moving Beyond a Culture of Niceness in Faculty Hiring to Advance Racial Equity

2019 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 1954-1994 ◽  
Author(s):  
Román Liera
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Activity Theory ◽  
Private University ◽  
Racial Equity ◽  
Faculty Experiences ◽  
Religiously Affiliated ◽  
Faculty Hiring ◽  
Critical Knowledge ◽  
Hiring Process ◽  
Cultural Historical Activity

This study applies cultural historical activity theory to examine the experiences of 17 professors at a religiously affiliated private university who participated in a 10-month, inquiry-based intervention to change their culture around faculty hiring. The findings illustrate that professors who use race-conscious language and tools to interrogate their campus culture’s historical roots with racism rethought their hiring process. In doing so, faculty perceived racial equity work as an action-oriented, organizational effort to use equity-minded language and create a more equitable hiring structure. The study contributes to the literature on organizational change for racial equity by identifying faculty experiences with racism and critical knowledge about the organizational culture mediating faculty learning and agency.

scholarly journals Technology in the classroom: Exploring the experience of secondary students using activity theory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lauren Anateira Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Activity Theory ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
The State ◽  
Learning Activity ◽  
Technology In The Classroom ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Senior Secondary ◽  
The Impact

<p>Technology is an integral part of life in the senior secondary school classroom. The multiple and complex ways in which economic, social and political discourse and activity drive digital technology into the classroom are often framed in terms of the ‘transformation of education’ and ‘21st century skills’, configuring values and aspirations with technology.  This thesis explores what digital technology means in the classroom. It moves from the ‘state-of-the-art’ and ‘state-of-the-possible’ to the ‘state-of-the-actual’; from the impact of singular IT artefacts to the experience of the students. It addresses the questions, what is the technology artefact that the students are using in the classroom? and, how do students engage with the technology artefact and the information artefact in the classroom?  Four secondary schools in medium- to high-income areas of New Zealand participated in this qualitative study. Activity theory informed the research design and case analysis. Critical realism was used, via abductive and retroductive modes of inference, to make sense of the data and identify the structures and generative mechanisms underlying the use of technology in the classroom.  To make sense of how the students use the technology in the classroom this thesis presupposes that learning is a function of information, and information is not coterminous with information technology. The students’ learning actions can be instrumental, cognitive or axiological, and the activity can be mediated by technology. The use of technology is initially rooted in practical operations. This thesis sets out to revindicate a wider understanding of the technology/tool in activity theory by revisiting the concept of functional organs. This conceptualisation reorients perspectives on processuality, emergence and causation to reach an understanding of the student and the technology working in unison as an organisation, which allows different possibilities of operations, of actions and of relationships.  The findings of this study are that the technology in the classroom is ubiquitous spatially, almost every student has access to a device, software and the internet, and temporally, most students have a device to hand all the time. The technology can have a multiplicity of causes, the same effect can be performed with different combinations of technology, and a plurality of effects, the same combination of hardware and software can be used to perform different actions. Senior secondary students are responsible for selecting and structuring a combination of hardware and software to achieve the object of their activity.  This structuring is generally seamless, and without tension or contradiction when the object of the activity is instrumental, or when the information items required by the student are simple and linear, such as examples of concepts or contextual information. On the other hand, when the students’ experiences of the information are within activities that work with complex principles, generalisations or procedures then the technology needs to allow that possibility of action. Some specialist software does allow that possibility, and enables the student to engage deeply with the information. Conversely, some technology can impact the students’ practices if the critical analysis required of the students is not supported by the analytical processes of the technology, which may encourage students to follow linear rather than dialectical or dialogical engagement with the information.  This thesis concludes that the students are active in structuring their learning through creating organisations of themselves, the technology and the information as an emergent information system to achieve the goal of the learning action, which is embedded in the wider motivation of the learning activity.</p>

scholarly journals Strategy as Practice in the Structurationist Perspective: What it is and why it is? : Toward an Ontology of Practice of Strategy in Organizations

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 135-143
Author(s):  
Marcio Luiz Marietto ◽  
Ivano Ribeiro ◽  
Fernando Antonio Ribeiro Serra
Keyword(s):  
Activity Theory ◽  
Analytical Procedure ◽  
Theoretical Study ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
Organizational Strategy ◽  
Cultural Activity ◽  
Analytical Basis ◽  
Theory Of Structuration ◽  
Strategy As Practice

As a developing approach, Strategy as Practice appropriates other theories with converging ontological and epistemological assumptions to build its analytical body. Therefore, in this discipline the designs of Structurationism and the Historical-Cultural Activity Theory generally serve as the analytical basis, even though other theories such as Critical Realism, Sensemaking and Bourdieu’s concept of Habitus are alternative and/or complementary theories for the basic frameworks. This theoretical study offers a discussion on the appropriation of Structurationism that serves as one of the analytical theoretical structures of Strategy as Practice. The analytical procedure is guided by the central goal of discussing the ontological assumptions of Structurationism that support this perspective under the aegis of Strategy as Practice in the field of Organizational Strategy. For this purpose, the specific objectives are: a) to conduct a theoretical (albeit not exhaustive) review of Strategy as Practice; and b) to conduct a review of Giddens’ Theory of Structuration, followed by c) to offer a discussion on the theoretical/analytical specifics that Structurationism shown in studies of Strategy as Practice. The conclusion of the discussion shows adequate ontological agreement with the Structurationist assumptions adopted by the Strategy as Practice discipline, i.e., there is here a parallel intention to reveal an Ontology of Practice of Strategy in Organizations.

Supporting Sensemaking to Promote a Systemic View of Organizational Change – Contributions from Activity Theory

2017 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 367-387 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arja Ala-Laurinaho ◽  
Anna-Leena Kurki ◽  
Johan Simonsen Abildgaard
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Change ◽  
Activity Theory ◽  
Systemic View

scholarly journals Technology in the classroom: Exploring the experience of secondary students using activity theory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Lauren Anateira Bennett
Keyword(s):  
Activity Theory ◽  
Secondary Students ◽  
Digital Technology ◽  
Critical Realism ◽  
The State ◽  
Learning Activity ◽  
Technology In The Classroom ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Senior Secondary ◽  
The Impact

<p>Technology is an integral part of life in the senior secondary school classroom. The multiple and complex ways in which economic, social and political discourse and activity drive digital technology into the classroom are often framed in terms of the ‘transformation of education’ and ‘21st century skills’, configuring values and aspirations with technology.  This thesis explores what digital technology means in the classroom. It moves from the ‘state-of-the-art’ and ‘state-of-the-possible’ to the ‘state-of-the-actual’; from the impact of singular IT artefacts to the experience of the students. It addresses the questions, what is the technology artefact that the students are using in the classroom? and, how do students engage with the technology artefact and the information artefact in the classroom?  Four secondary schools in medium- to high-income areas of New Zealand participated in this qualitative study. Activity theory informed the research design and case analysis. Critical realism was used, via abductive and retroductive modes of inference, to make sense of the data and identify the structures and generative mechanisms underlying the use of technology in the classroom.  To make sense of how the students use the technology in the classroom this thesis presupposes that learning is a function of information, and information is not coterminous with information technology. The students’ learning actions can be instrumental, cognitive or axiological, and the activity can be mediated by technology. The use of technology is initially rooted in practical operations. This thesis sets out to revindicate a wider understanding of the technology/tool in activity theory by revisiting the concept of functional organs. This conceptualisation reorients perspectives on processuality, emergence and causation to reach an understanding of the student and the technology working in unison as an organisation, which allows different possibilities of operations, of actions and of relationships.  The findings of this study are that the technology in the classroom is ubiquitous spatially, almost every student has access to a device, software and the internet, and temporally, most students have a device to hand all the time. The technology can have a multiplicity of causes, the same effect can be performed with different combinations of technology, and a plurality of effects, the same combination of hardware and software can be used to perform different actions. Senior secondary students are responsible for selecting and structuring a combination of hardware and software to achieve the object of their activity.  This structuring is generally seamless, and without tension or contradiction when the object of the activity is instrumental, or when the information items required by the student are simple and linear, such as examples of concepts or contextual information. On the other hand, when the students’ experiences of the information are within activities that work with complex principles, generalisations or procedures then the technology needs to allow that possibility of action. Some specialist software does allow that possibility, and enables the student to engage deeply with the information. Conversely, some technology can impact the students’ practices if the critical analysis required of the students is not supported by the analytical processes of the technology, which may encourage students to follow linear rather than dialectical or dialogical engagement with the information.  This thesis concludes that the students are active in structuring their learning through creating organisations of themselves, the technology and the information as an emergent information system to achieve the goal of the learning action, which is embedded in the wider motivation of the learning activity.</p>

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document