Boundary Relations: Technological Objects and the Restructuring of Workplace Boundaries

Recent research has highlighted the role and use of workplace artefacts by occupational communities in enacting jurisdictions within organizations. This article builds on these insights to understand how the use of a new technological object by community members has implications for the restructuring of workplace boundaries. Our study of hospital pharmacy automation examines how a newly introduced dispensing robot mediated the work of dispensing technicians and distribution assistants. We found that use of the robot, which was expected to improve patient safety and pharmacy productivity, also served to restructure spatial, temporal, task and role aspects of workplace boundaries, having important implications for the visibility and invisibility of different forms of work. We identified three boundary relations that emerged among different occupational groups and which served to enable and constrain their cross-boundary work: boundary strain between technicians and assistants; boundary cooperation between technicians and pharmacists; and boundary neglect between pharmacists and assistants. Our study goes beyond the predominant focus on boundary objects as bridging and coordinating work, and seeks to provide a richer conceptualization of the role of technological objects in shaping boundary relations within organizations.