The negotiated order and electronic patient records: A sociomaterial perspective. (December 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Introna, Lucas D; Hayes, Niall; Al-Hejin, Zaina
• Is Part Of: Journal of information technology. Volume 34:Number 4(2019)
• Page Start: 333
• Page End: 349
• Publication Date: 2019-12
• Subjects: Negotiated order -- sociomateriality -- social capital -- electronic patient records -- computerised physician order entry system -- sociomaterial capital; Information technology -- Periodicals; Information storage and retrieval systems -- Periodicals; Information resources management -- Periodicals; 658.40380285
• DOI: 10.1177/0268396219870548
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0268-3962

Abstract

In this article, we consider how the notion of the negotiated order can be reinterpreted by drawing on ideas from sociomateriality. We argue that the negotiated order is an ongoing accomplishment in which a heterogeneous set of situated sociomaterial practices (or actors) are implicated. To do this, we draw upon an in-depth study of the use of a computerised physician order entry system in a hospital in Saudi Arabia. We explore how a computerised physician order entry system, as a new sociomaterial actor, performatively repositions the actors involved and hence offers the conditions of possibility for medical work practices to be renegotiated. We show that it is often contingent, mundane, situated sociomaterial practices that enact the conditions under which the negotiated order becomes re-established in terms of division of labour, legitimacy, collaboration, and social capital. We argue that as the social and material are co-constitutive, or intra-actional, it makes more sense to talk about the negotiated intra-actional order rather than the negotiated order. Importantly, such a change in conceptual vocabulary reveals the empirical and ontological issues at stake; essential for a more nuanced understanding of change/becoming.