What Difference Does a Robot Make? The Material Enactment of Distributed Coordination

Organization Science, Forthcoming

44 Pages Posted: 21 May 2014 Last revised: 24 Jul 2015

See all articles by Matt Beane

Matt Beane

University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) - College of Engineering

Wanda J. Orlikowski

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management

Date Written: May 18, 2014

Abstract

What difference does robotic telepresence make to the coordination of complex, dynamic and distributed knowledge work? We explored this question in a post-surgical intensive care unit where medical workers struggled to coordinate their work in the face of different assessments of their extremely sick patients. Our in-depth field study examined night rounds, a central routine for coordinating work in this unit that was performed remotely through different technologies. We found that night rounds that are materially enacted through robotic telepresence intensify coordination outcomes both positively and negatively, resulting in contrary implications for subsequent coordination of work. We further found that these differences in intensification depend on whether preparatory work is more or less distanced from the bedside.We develop a theoretical account of these findings by explaining how the coordination of complex, dynamic and distributed work is crucially related to how that work is materially enacted over time.

Keywords: material enactment, robotic telepresence, coordination, practice lens, temporality, provisional settlements

Suggested Citation

Beane, Matthew and Orlikowski, Wanda J., What Difference Does a Robot Make? The Material Enactment of Distributed Coordination (May 18, 2014). Organization Science, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2438709 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2438709

Matthew Beane (Contact Author)

University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) - College of Engineering ( email )

Santa Barbara, CA
United States

Wanda J. Orlikowski

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) - Sloan School of Management ( email )

E53-329
Cambridge, MA 02142
United States
617-253-0443 (Phone)
617-258-7579 (Fax)

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