Reconfiguring Boundary Relations: Robotic Innovations in Pharmacy Work
Name
Robots_Boundaries_Nov 12 2010.pdf
Size
344.45 KB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
5c4943e826bf5cd60852c1ca1497c596
Author(s)
Barrett, Michael
Oborn, Eivor
Orlikowski, Wanda J.
Yates, JoAnne
Date Issued
April 2011
Journal
Organization Science
Publisher
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
Citation
Barrett, M. et al. “Reconfiguring Boundary Relations: Robotic Innovations in Pharmacy Work.” Organization Science, Articles in Advance (April 11, 2011) pp. 1–20.
Version
Author's final manuscript
Abstract
Robotics is a rapidly expanding area of digital innovation with important implications for organizational practice in multioccupational settings. This paper explores the influence of robotic innovations on the boundary dynamics of three different occupational groups—pharmacists, technicians, and assistants—working in a hospital pharmacy. We extend Pickering's tuning approach [Pickering, A. 1995. The Mangle of Practice: Time, Agency, and Science. University of Chicago Press, Chicago] to examine the temporally emergent process that entangled the mechanical elements and digital inscriptions of a dispensing robot with the everyday practices of hospital pharmacy work. We found that engagement with the robot's hybrid and dynamic materiality over time reconfigured boundary relations among the three occupational groups, with important and contradictory consequences for the pharmacy workers' skills, jurisdictions, status, and visibility.
MIT Department
Sloan School of Management
Terms of Use
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1100.0639
