Yes / This paper seeks to contribute to the debate around sustainability by proposing the need for an ecocentric stance to sustainability that reflexively embeds humans in—rather than detached from—nature. We argue that this requires a different way of thinking about our relationship with our world, necessitating a (re)engagement with the sociomaterial world in which we live. We develop the notion of ecocentrism by drawing on insights from sociomateriality studies, and show how radical-reflexivity enables us to appreciate our embeddedness and responsibility for sustainability by bringing attention to the interrelationship between values, actions and our social and material world. We examine the implications of an ecocentric radically reflexive approach to sustainability for management education.

Corporate codes of ethics (CCEs) have become increasingly prevalent as overarching ethical guidelines for multinational corporations doing business around the globe. As formal documents, governing corporations’ work, policies, and ways of doing business, CCEs are meant to guide all business activities and apply to all of the corporation’s employees, suppliers, and business partners. In multinational corporations, this means that diverse countries, cultures, and a myriad of heterogeneous actors are expected to abide by the same standards and guidelines, as stipulated in the CCE. Despite this empirical reality, CCEs have previously been approached by academics mainly as passive company documents or as marketing or management tools, in the contexts of their country of origin. Building on Actor-Network Theory this thesis applies an interactionist ontology, and relational epistemology, seeing the code as a sociomaterial object with both material and immaterial characteristics, and moving in a global arena. Furthermore, the CCEs are assumed to be susceptible to change, i.e. translations. With these assumptions, the CCE of a multinational corporation is followed as it travels between its country of origin (Sweden) and another country (China) and goes to work in different contexts. Heterogeneous empirical materials such as interviews, company documents, observations, shadowing, and emails are used to present stories from different contexts where the CCE is at work. The overall purpose of the thesis is to contribute to the theorizing of CCEs, thereby providing further understanding of the possible consequences of CCEs in contextually diverse settings. By following traces of a CCE, this study posits the need for a simultaneous understanding of three dimensions of CCEs for CCEs to be understood in contextually dispersed settings. The three dimensions are a) material translations of the code, b) enactments of these translations, and c) ideas associated with the material and enacted code.  The study contributes to the understanding of CCEs by highlighting a specific country-context (China), by putting together knowledge from codes in various contexts, and the overarching contribution lies in highlighting codes as different kinds of objects and adding to the existing literature – specifically, contextualizing the CCE as a vaporous object.

While (big) data promises immense opportunity, initiatives focused on using data to pursue insight have mixed outcomes. The Management Support Systems (MSS) model summarises what we currently understand within Information Systems (IS) about the implementation and use of systems to improve organisations’ use of data. Adopting an ethnographic approach to observe how practitioners in two contrasting organisations actually generate insight from data, this research challenges the implicit information processing and implementation logics of the MMS model. The pragmatic messiness of pursuing insight is described in two monographs, which reveal the socially constructed nature of data in relation to phenomena, and the importance of data engagement to produce insight. Given that this PhD study also seeks to generate insight from data, it is compared and contrasted reflexively to the two cases observed. While the inquiry logic pursued in this study was made explicit, and was regularly reviewed and challenged, the two cases left this largely implicit. The use of tools is shown to facilitate and constrain inquiry, with related data acting as boundary objects between the different practitioner groups involved. An explanatory framework is presented and used to suggest various enhancements to the MSS model. First, the Problem Space is reframed to reflect the distinct, though interdependent logics involved in inquiry versus realising envisaged benefits from insights. Second, the MSS artefact itself is contextualised and Data Engagement rather than MSS or Tool Use is positioned as central. Third, Data are disentangled from the wider MSS artefact, as a critical, distinct construct. Fourth, an Alignment construct is introduced to address the boundary spanning nature of data initiatives. The thesis also highlights the value of using Wenger’s (1998) Communities of Practice (CoP) situated learning framework to study data initiatives, and the related value of mapping groups as a technique for further development. Some questions are provided for practitioners to gain a better understanding of data initiatives. Wider implications are also noted for the socio-material theorising of Data, and distinguishing between Data, Information and Knowledge concepts within the IS discipline.

Information security management is now a major concern for any organization regardless of its type, size, or activity field. Having an information security system that ensures theavailability, the confidentiality, and the integrity of information is not an option anymorebut a necessity. Information security management identifies difficulties with user behaviourand compliance that is centralized around policies, perceptions, and practices. In order to address how they affect information security management, these three issues are holistically explored using a sociomaterial framework to engage the understanding of human andnonhuman components. A case study of a university in Sweden was conducted and it was found that despite the sophistication of the IT system, human behaviours are a pertinent component of information security management, and not one that can be ignored.

While (big) data promises immense opportunity, initiatives focused on using data to pursue insight have mixed outcomes. The Management Support Systems (MSS) model summarises what we currently understand within Information Systems (IS) about the implementation and use of systems to improve organisations’ use of data. Adopting an ethnographic approach to observe how practitioners in two contrasting organisations actually generate insight from data, this research challenges the implicit information processing and implementation logics of the MMS model. The pragmatic messiness of pursuing insight is described in two monographs, which reveal the socially constructed nature of data in relation to phenomena, and the importance of data engagement to produce insight. Given that this PhD study also seeks to generate insight from data, it is compared and contrasted reflexively to the two cases observed. While the inquiry logic pursued in this study was made explicit, and was regularly reviewed and challenged, the two cases left this largely implicit. The use of tools is shown to facilitate and constrain inquiry, with related data acting as boundary objects between the different practitioner groups involved. An explanatory framework is presented and used to suggest various enhancements to the MSS model. First, the Problem Space is reframed to reflect the distinct, though interdependent logics involved in inquiry versus realising envisaged benefits from insights. Second, the MSS artefact itself is contextualised and Data Engagement rather than MSS or Tool Use is positioned as central. Third, Data are disentangled from the wider MSS artefact, as a critical, distinct construct. Fourth, an Alignment construct is introduced to address the boundary spanning nature of data initiatives. The thesis also highlights the value of using Wenger’s (1998) Communities of Practice (CoP) situated learning framework to study data initiatives, and the related value of mapping groups as a technique for further development. Some questions are provided for practitioners to gain a better understanding of data initiatives. Wider implications are also noted for the socio-material theorising of Data, and distinguishing between Data, Information and Knowledge concepts within the IS discipline.

National and international crises in the early 21st Century, whether natural, technological or man-made, emphasize the need for highly reliable organizations (HROs) to conduct emergency response in a relatively error-free way. Urban search and rescue units provide a pivotal intermittent role in these high-risk environments. Traditional HRO research focuses on a concept known as "collective mind" -- heedful interactions of responders that accomplish reliability. Rather than focusing on collective mind, this study uses a practice-based communication approach to examine the material interplay of bodies, objects, and sites using ethnography and grounded theory. In-depth interviews, participant observations, and organizational documents were coded and contrasted to find patterns in material interplay. More specifically, this study examines how these material features interact to orchestrate reliable practices through ecological coherence, a bonding of multiple forces to construct meaning and improvisation. The study has implication for HRO theory through focusing on the role of the body rather than emphasizing cognitive judgment in collective action. Collective body shifts the discussion of mindful processes to embodied practices and offers insights into the ways responders enact safety and perform responses in dynamic, high-risk environments.

Firmly placed in an industrial setting, this research explored the introduction of remote monitoring technology into three different organizational contexts. By following these organizations over time, starting with their intention to invest in remote monitoring systems (RMS), there was a unique opportunity to witness their processes and to gain an insight into the intricacies of information technology (IT) and organizational transformation. The main question that this research sought to answer was thus: How is IT implicated in the remote monitoring of industrial equipment? Previous information systems research has been accused of not paying enough attention to the material, that is, of not being specific about technology. This research adopted a sociomaterial perspective, thus recognizing the constitutive entanglement of the material and the social, and thereby acknowledging their mutual dependency. However, in order to provide specific insights about the material, an analytical disentanglement was performed, by extending the concept of agency from a focus on “the what” to include “the how”. Change was thus studied by not only asking what the nature of change is and who or what causes change to occur, but by also tracing how change is enacted, thus capturing both material and social agency as well as tracing their entanglement. This research employed a broad approach, designed to provide a profound and extensive account of the studied phenomenon. Consequently, the thesis explored value creation, sourcing routines, partnership formation and innovative practices all related to remote diagnostics design and use. In addition, the research was qualitative and used interpretive case studies as the main methodology. A composite finding of this research is that an RMS, with its ability to collect, transmit, store, and analyze specific contextual information across time and space, provides opportunities for boundary-spanning activities manifested as the formation of interorganizational networks. Furthermore, by tracing the information capabilities of the IT, and by being specific about the material, it has been possible to explore how RMSs have the potential to influence both organizational form and content. Through the examination of RMSs within interorganizational networks and as a part of value creation practices, this research has also shown how the organizational form and content have the potential to influence RMSs; their design, use, and material affordances. This research also placed focus on the importance of trust and has shown that trust in technology is established through trust in people.

Cette thèse est une investigation multi-perspective du phénomène des innovations crées par les utilisateurs finaux. Elle est focalisée sur les procès des innovations et de co-création des technologies venu du niveau des utilisateurs finaux, c’est-à-dire sur les procès qui sont appelé dans des publications anglophones ‘grassroots technologies’. Nous considérons comment ces développements se plongent dans le contexte des complications d’environnent et de ses interactions avec des acteurs déjà en jeu, i.e. institutes et des infrastructures déjà existants. Notre recherche est fondée sur le développement d’une infrastructure d’Internet, évoluant pendant 16 ans, dont est élaboré par des particuliers comme alternative à l’inaction du gouvernement et des fournisseurs d’Internet. Le phénomène a réuni millions des utilisateurs, création des innovations et des biens publics par des particuliers, ainsi que coopération fécond avec des organismes privés. La thèse comprend trois articles de recherche, chacun prenant une perspective différente du phénomène. Du point de vu de la méthodologie, ce travail est appuie sur l’approche avec les études qualitatives des cas et les raisonnements abductifs et inductifs. La thèse fournit contributions théoriques et pratiques pour compréhensions des conditions préalables, procès et conséquences des innovations par des utilisateurs finaux, la coévolution du sens et de la structure de la technologie, lien entre le niveau des innovations par des utilisateurs finaux et l’industrie, ainsi que le changement en routines et technologies quand ces dernières sont plongés dans l’ambiance de la dynamique institutionnelle et des complexités. / This dissertation is a multi-perspective inquiry into the phenomenon of grassroots end-user innovation. It focuses on the processes of end-user innovation and technology co-creation and investigates how these developments are embedded in the context of environmental complexities and the interplay of existing actors, institutions and infrastructures. The research setting is based on the 16-year Internet infrastructure development by residential citizens as an alternative to the government and private providers’ inaction. The phenomenon included millions of users, innovations and public value creation from the grassroots, and successful cooperation with private organizations. The dissertation mainly comprises three research papers each taking a separate perspective on the phenomenon. Methodologically, the dissertation builds on the qualitative case-study approach and abductive and inductive reasonings. The dissertation provides theoretical and practical contributions to the understanding prerequisites, process and consequences of end-user innovation, co-evolution of the technology meaning and structure, grassroots links with industry, as well as organizational change in routines and technologies as embedded in larger institutional dynamics and complexities.

This thesis is a case study which looks at the creation of two theatre productions. Using the literature of Actor-Network Theory as a methodological provocation, it analyses the processes by which networks of actors created these theatre pieces with particular attention to where agency was observed. Through data gathered through observing material interactions, the thesis develops the concept of the (play)text: an object that is an expression of the ideas of the text, but is not the text itself – rather, a bricolage of ‘translations' of a piece of written and rehearsed work bound together by time and combined action. Conceiving of the eventual product – the (play)text in performance – as an example of the ANT concept of an agencement, a network of different people and objects working together to maintain a stable construction, but one which perpetually refines and redefines each of its component parts – this thesis proposes that the (play)text is an example of a dynamic and fractional artistic object, stabilised only briefly in the moments of its performance. Examining the theatre production process in this way contributes to ANT literature by providing specific examples of an artistic object created materially and agentively; it also highlights the limitations of the ways in which theatre has been used as a metaphor within Organisation Studies. Finally, it contributes to work on process change in showing an object which is, though it appears constantly improvisational and changing in its form, stabilised by material interactions.

The adoption of advanced Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is increasing in organizations which is altering organising and leading teams in many ways. Organizations are moving toward adopting more dynamic and global work structures namely virtual teams which mostly rely on ICTs as the main form of communication. The study investigates leaders’ practices and their appropriation of ICTs in virtual teams while applying a sociomaterial perspective which views technology and leaders’ interaction with technology as interlinked. The study employed qualitative approach based on data collected from two blogs run by Toptal which is a fully virtual company with no physical office. Additionally, cross-disciplinary journal articles were collected from Scopus database to perform an iterative content analysis and progressively develop meanings and results. The findings were organized according to two main categories: leaders’ practices and ICTs then analysed according to the five notions entailed in sociomateriality: materiality, inseparability, relationality, performativity and practices, as suggested by Jones (2014). The main contribution of the study was expanding knowledge about leadership practices and technology within virtual teams using a new theoretical lens. The study identified seven main practices of virtual team leaders including managing communication (formal, informal), supporting team technology adaptation, ensuring team alignment with goals, building team motivation, creating shared identity (culture), shaping trust, showing transparency, in addition to other practices like hiring self-motivated workers, managing time zones, encouraging innovation and creativity, leading by example, always being available, ensuring workers wellness and good listening. The study also identified ICTs that are commonly adopted by virtual team leaders such as Slack, email, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Skype and smartphones.