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The construction industry is one of the least automated industries. In the aspect of automation, the technical understanding is very dominant. Focus has mostly been on tools, robots and industrialisation. sociomaterial design shows us that what may first appear technologically deterministic can be replaced and actually call for reinvisioning the traditional focus. The purpose of this study is to introduce the agency of a sociomaterial designer in construction.

This is a conceptual paper with an empirical example. To understand the sociomaterial complexity and dynamics of automation, practice theories are applied. To test this approach, the authors give an example from a Danish (global) supplier engaged in a development project about technical aid (tools) in mounting and assembling gypsum walls.

The sociomaterial-designer can help to understand and make innovation happen when doing automation in construction; as the centre of innovation in construction processes, she works all day with practice, together with practitioners, focusing on material arrangements as located not only in practice, but also in the artefacts. She can help the supplier of construction materials in understanding different professional practices and the transformation to use smarter tools.

This research is within a new practice domain “sociomaterial-design” and it has to follow up with an empirical study that covers a development project with a sociomaterial-design approach.

Developing competences (agency) as a sociomaterial-designer when linking the sociotechnical understanding of Automation with practice.

This research showcases how sociomaterial perspectives can inform automation in construction.

This chapter addresses a lack of theory building in electronic-HRM (e-HRM) research and attempts to contribute with a (re-)conceptualisation of e-HRM as a nexus of practices and their material arrangements.

The work draws on theories from information systems research, science and technology studies, and sociology and organisation studies.

The (re-)conceptualisation indicates that future research should make further enquiries into the role of human agency and political processes in e-HRM.

As a methodological pathway a combination of ethnography and philosophical hermeneutics is proposed, enabling the achievement of a required pertinent sensibility in the study of social practices and human intentionality. Action research is also considered to be relevant for an engaged e-HRM scholarship.

The social implication of this research is the advancement of theories that emphasise the importance of human agency, morality and materiality in organisational processes.

The conceptualisation may thus facilitate research that reveal insights about involvement, reciprocity and power in e-HRM projects – knowledge that can direct the development of e-HRM project teams and thus facilitate strategic HRM.

Tonya and Anete are new players at sc’MOI, but this theme emerges at the tail end of sc’MOI so they are best to explicate it. This chapter describes the theoretical contributions of quantum storytelling theory (QST) and practice. Building on the application of complexity theory in the hard sciences as well as social contexts and theory on multimodal constituency, this chapter considers the areas of overlap and difference between quantum storytelling and its theoretical fellows, with special attention given to sociomateriality, storytelling, feminism, fractal, and complexity theory.

My research is to forward knowledge and potentialities regarding individuals of autism and their place in societal’s sense of work and it’s physical space. The seven transformational Ss of academic thought have allowed or even imposed a superposition of autopoietic subjects rather than objects and their being-in-the-world. In this chapter I first present my interpretation of the seven Ss – storytelling, system, sustainability, science, spirit, spirals, and sociomateriality – then I speak where my voice is strongest in the storytelling system, and finally I elaborate on how my seven Ss antenarratives can be utilized in the autism storytelling system.

Business models can be considered as cognitive models that managers or analysts can use to describe, understand, or test business activities. However, the emergence of a new business model requires not only cognitive operations but also concrete modifications to the realities of a company’s operations and structures. In this paper, we adopt a sociomaterial view of organizational change based on actor-network theory, and underline the role of artifacts in the emergence of new business models. We base our discussion on a case study of a French leader in kitchen electric appliances. Despite the fact that the building of its new business model is still in progress, this empirical study provides important suggestions concerning the role of artifacts.

Sustainable innovation is not only about the design of radical “green” technologies, it is also about generating social and institutional support that complement and reinforce the adoption and diffusion of these technologies at large. Hence, treating the ecologically hazardous nature of the prevalent technologies alone is insufficient without complementary social change. Building on a longitudinal study of sustainable innovation in the car industry, we argue that the prevailing discourse that is centered on the creation of business value is unlikely to facilitate the widespread adoption of sustainable technologies. Furthermore, taking into consideration the sociomateriality of sustainable innovation, we rather suggest that a focus on creating social value is indispensable for triggering the desired change toward sustainable value. Following the analysis of sustainable innovation in the car industry, we generate two relevant insights for sustainable value. First, our results demonstrate the path-dependent nature of sustainable innovation, which is constrained and sustained by the materiality, social structures, and institutional frameworks that comprise the overall sociotechnical system in which innovation takes place. Second, our findings show that a successful diffusion of radical sustainable innovation requires both technological innovation and complementary social changes that together can disrupt the existing evolutionary path of technology and construct more sustainable alternatives. All in all, we argue that reframing the discourse around social value in lieu of monetary value can be leveraged by organizations for shaping alternative courses of action, creating innovative technologies, and developing novel practices that create sustainable value for all stakeholders in society.

The general topic of spirituality and the ways in which spirituality in organizations was studied and reported on have received mixed reactions (ranging from positive to puzzled to skeptical to negative) from sc’Moi participants, many of whom were European critical management theorists, and management researchers in other divisions when the Management Spirituality and Religion group was started at the Academy of Management. In this chapter I examine how these management research differences in approaches to ontology and epistemology were influenced by the philosophical approaches of Hegel and Marx, and how similar differences also influenced psychological research, whose approach to research and research methodology forms the basis of much management research. I will examine how these contrasting beliefs have played out and continue to play out in such seemingly diverse but really similar subjects of inquiry as philosophy (e.g., Hegel vs Marx), psychology (e.g., introspection vs behaviorism), and management studies (e.g., management organization inquiry vs critical management). I examine what these approaches have in common, how, in my opinion, the behaviorists have so far prevailed, and why they have so far prevailed; I conclude with suggestions for how ongoing dialectics between the seven Ss (the seven themes elaborated on in this book – storytelling, system, sustainability, science, spirit, spirals, and sociomateriality) can help contribute to the field of spirituality in management, and how spirituality research can contribute and interact with the other themes to the future of management and organizational inquiry.