From “Spaghetti to Lasagna” - Exploring the role of objects in cross-disciplinary collaboration

Abstract

Cross-disciplinary work is an increasing work-form in many organizations. This paper turns to investigate the role of objects and how they affect cross-disciplinary collaboration in an ongoing global IT-project. Through a performative approach and by using four lenses in studying objects as epistemic, boundary, activity and infrastructural, the study’s result show how they can be sources of motivation, tensions and shift in importance during the project. Moreover, this paper’s result show how actors, processes and objects can have a prominent role separately, but also collectively in deciding the role of objects in collaboration. Since previous research has largely focused on human-agency, or using a single lens on objects when explaining collaboration, this study contributes with new empirical insights and deeper understandings on the role of objects in organizational studies. Further, due to the limited strand of research on this topic, we suggest further studies in practice is needed to observe and study how objects affect and perform. This study can also be useful for practitioners as it sheds light on the different dimensions of objects and show the important role they can have in a collaborative setting.