Visualizing Institutional Logics in Sociomaterial Practices

This paper aims to deepen our understanding of how sociomaterial practices influence and are influenced by competing institutional logics, by combining a sociomaterial lens with the institutional logics perspective. We present findings from an interpretive, longitudinal case study of the emergency surgical ward of a Nordic University Hospital. By focusing our analysis on how affordances and agency emerge through the implementation, use and development of digital and physical visualization boards, we show how these artifacts constitute an integral part of the operational staff’s sensemaking of a new institutional logic. We make two contributions. Firstly, we show how the way visualization artifacts shape individual focus of attention can facilitate integration of a new institutional logic in operational practices. Secondly, we show how the perceived affordances of a technology are created from the experience of using several different technologies and how the rejection of one technology simultaneously can constitute another