This paper examines how a new actor category may emerge in a field of discourse through the new media of the Internet. Existing literatures on professional and organizational identity have shown the importance of identity claims and of the tensions surrounding "optimal distinctiveness" for new actors in a field, but have not examined the roles of new media in these processes. The literature on information technology (IT) and identity has highlighted the identity-challenging and identity-enhancing aspects of new IT use for existing actor categories but has not examined the dynamics associated with the emergence of new actor categories. Here, we investigate how a new actor category may emerge through the use of new media as a dynamic interaction of discursive practices, identity claims, and new media use. Drawing on findings from a case study of technology bloggers, we identified discursive practices through which a group of technology bloggers enacted claims of a distinctive identity in the joint construction of their discourse and in response to continuous developments in new media. Emergence of this new category was characterized by ongoing, opposing yet coexisting tendencies toward coalescence, fragmentation, and dispersion. Socio-technical dynamics underlying bloggers' use of new media and the actions of prominent ("A-list") bloggers contributed to these tendencies. We untangle theoretically the identity-enabling and identity-unsettling effects of new media and conceptualize the emergence of a new actor category through new media as an ongoing process in which the category identity may remain fluid, rather than progress to an endpoint.
Aligning social structures and technology capabilities is a significant challenge to information technology-related organizational change. It is particularly challenging in institutionalized settings such as hospitals. We report an interpretive field study of computerized physician order entry (CPOE) at an acute-care hospital, in which we investigated how institutionally triggered and technology-triggered change interacted in complementary processes to engender alignment. Social structure changes included increased interdependency among clinical departments, multidisciplinary cooperation across clinical disciplines, and standardization in clinical decision-making. Organization members also enacted institutionalized interaction patterns with physicians by deferring to their preferences for CPOE use. The cumulative influence of change triggers nonetheless facilitated the hospital's realization of clinical goals. We drew on Barley's (1990) role- and network-based model for technology and structure alignment. Nonetheless, we extended this micro-level analytic approach to account for the influence of change in the macro-institutional environment. Our analysis clarified the extent of structure change attributable to the CPOE technology and highlighted institutional forces that promoted yet inhibited change. The case also highlighted the importance of role networks on the trajectory and outcomes of organizational change processes.
Requirements determination (RD) during information systems delivery (ISD) is a complex organizational endeavor, involving political, sensemaking, and communicative processes. This research draws on the analytic concept of technology frames of reference to develop a socio-cognitive process model of how frames and shifts in frame salience influence sensemaking during requirements determination. The model provides a theoretical and conceptual perspective that deepens our understanding of requirements processes in organizations and of the socio-cognitive basis of power in ISD. The paper reports on a longitudinal case study, in which four technology frame domains were identified and the influence of frames on project participants' understanding of requirements was traced through eight RD episodes. Repeated shifts in the salience of the business value of IT and IT delivery strategies frames disrupted project participants' understanding of requirements and contributed to a turbulent RD process. Analysis of frames and framing helped explain how interpretive power was exercised, yet constrained, in this project. Implications for further research and for practice are considered.