Start Date
16-8-2018 12:00 AM
Description
Individuals rely on sensemaking process to clarify ambiguities in their work environment by extracting cues and acting on them to bring order. As technologies are deeply embedded in organizations, the form and functionalities of technology materiality can also generate cues during interactions with them leading to individual sensemaking. Using the ontological perspective of sociomateriality, it is proposed that technology materiality, through its affordances, can result in generating conditions that switches the cognition of an individual from automatic processing towards active thinking during interactions. More specifically, the conceptual model advanced here proposes that four types of affordances - cognitive, physical, sensory and functional, trigger cognitive switching conditions of – novel, discrepant and deliberate thinking, leading to individual sensemaking. The proposed conceptualization also contributes to the important notion that sensemaking should be considered as an embodied process in addition to considering it as a rational intellectual process.
Recommended Citation
Bemgal, Sampath, "Technology Materiality and Individual Sensemaking" (2018). AMCIS 2018 Proceedings. 7.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/amcis2018/AdvancesIS/Presentations/7
Technology Materiality and Individual Sensemaking
Individuals rely on sensemaking process to clarify ambiguities in their work environment by extracting cues and acting on them to bring order. As technologies are deeply embedded in organizations, the form and functionalities of technology materiality can also generate cues during interactions with them leading to individual sensemaking. Using the ontological perspective of sociomateriality, it is proposed that technology materiality, through its affordances, can result in generating conditions that switches the cognition of an individual from automatic processing towards active thinking during interactions. More specifically, the conceptual model advanced here proposes that four types of affordances - cognitive, physical, sensory and functional, trigger cognitive switching conditions of – novel, discrepant and deliberate thinking, leading to individual sensemaking. The proposed conceptualization also contributes to the important notion that sensemaking should be considered as an embodied process in addition to considering it as a rational intellectual process.