On Time, Space, and Action Nets

Czarniawska, Barbara

doi:10.1177/1350508404047251

Cited by 403 publications

(341 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…Fox (2000) argues that ANT relies on de-contextualization, and thus that context is dependent on the viewpoint of the studied actors as well as those of the observer. However, in line with the decontextualization argument, and in line with Czarniawska (2004) and Hoholm (2009) we find that there is good reason to stretch ANT ethnographies beyond what has commonly been by tracing the network building activities beyond local sites and projects, and connecting the focal narrative to some of the other processes with which it interacts.…”

Section: What Is It To Follow Innovation In-the-making?supporting

confidence: 83%

Studying innovation processes in real-time: The promises and challenges of ethnography

Hoholm

Araújo

2011

Industrial Marketing Management

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Section: What Is It To Follow Innovation In-the-making?supporting

confidence: 83%

Studying innovation processes in real-time: The promises and challenges of ethnography

Hoholm

Araújo

2011

Industrial Marketing Management

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“…The nodes in a narrative network are fragments of stories rather than actants. In this respect, the narrative network is similar to what Czarniawska (2004) and Pentland (1999) have called "action nets." The nodes represent parts of stories-things that have happened or could happen.…”

Section: Narrative Networkmentioning

confidence: 86%

Narrative Networks: Patterns of Technology and Organization

Pentland

Feldman

2007

Organization Science

260

178

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T his paper introduces the narrative network as a device for representing patterns of "technology in use." The narrative network offers a novel conceptual vocabulary for the description of information and communication technologies (ICTs) and their relationship to organizational forms. We argue that as ICTs have become increasingly modular and recombinable, so have organizational processes and forms. The narrative network draws on concepts from structuration theory, actor network theory (ANT), and the theory of organizational routines. A narrative network expresses the set of stories (performances) that have been, or could be, generated by combining and recombining fragments of technology in use. This paper discusses how thinking of technology and organizations as narrative networks influences our understanding of design.

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“…We chose the strategy project as the unit of observation, which allowed us to observe the actors and activities producing strategy as projects unfolded, rather than prejudging which actors, technologies, and events might be central (Czarniawska 2004). After a series of orienting interviews, we selected for in-depth analysis five projects (described in Table 1) that were at an early stage (so that we could follow them over time) and in technology areas deemed critical to the corporation.…”

Section: Research Settingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal Work in Strategy Making

Kaplan

Orlikowski

2013

Organization Science

428

458

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This paper reports on a field study of strategy making in one organization facing an industry crisis. In a comparison of five strategy projects, we observed that organizational participants struggled with competing interpretations of what might emerge in the future, what was currently at stake, and even what had happened in the past. We develop a model of temporal work in strategy making that articulates how actors resolved differences and linked their interpretations of the past, present, and future so as to construct a strategic account that enabled concrete strategic choice and action. We found that settling on a particular account required it to be coherent, plausible and acceptable, otherwise breakdowns resulted. Such breakdowns could impede progress, but could also be generative in provoking a search for new interpretations and possibilities for action. The more intensely actors engaged in temporal work, the more likely the strategies departed from the status quo. Our model suggests that strategy cannot be understood as the product of more or less accurate forecasting without considering the multiple interpretations of present concerns and historical trajectories that help to constitute those forecasts. Projections of the future are always entangled with views of the past and present, and temporal work is the means by which actors construct and reconstruct the connections among them. These insights into the mechanisms of strategy making help explain the practices and conditions that produce organizational inertia and change. Temporal Work in Strategy Making-1 -A fundamental challenge for managers making strategy is coping with an uncertain future. In studying strategic change, scholars have emphasized the importance of sensemaking as a collective and often conflictual interpretive process for dealing with uncertainties about the business, the market, and the environment that lead to breakdowns in understandings and require cognitive reorientations to move forward (Balogun and Johnson 2004;Gioia and Chittipeddi 1991;Gioia et al. 1994;Kaplan 2008b;Maitlis and Sonenshein 2010;Rouleau 2005). These studies suggest that linking across interpretations of the past, present and future make action possible, but have left unexplained how and why some linkages work and some fail in practice, and, for those that do work, why some lead to the status quo and others produce change.Our study of strategy making in practice offers some answers to these questions. We found that managers -through a set of practices that we call "temporal work" -come to settle on particular strategic accounts that link interpretations of the past, present and future in ways that appear coherent, plausible and Settling on a strategic account, even if provisional, allows actors to shift from disagreeing or deliberating about meanings to implementing strategic choices, thus enabling the organization to move forward in the face of uncertainty. If a settlement breaks down, further temporal work is required in order to reconstruct a new str...

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On Time, Space, and Action Nets

Cited by 403 publications

References 26 publications

Studying innovation processes in real-time: The promises and challenges of ethnography

Studying innovation processes in real-time: The promises and challenges of ethnography

Narrative Networks: Patterns of Technology and Organization

Temporal Work in Strategy Making

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