Temporal Implications of Information Technology for Work Practices: Organizing in and for Time in an Emergency Department

We investigate the temporal implications of information technology by examining its use in the work practices of physicians and nurses in an emergency department. We conceptualize that the temporality in work practices is constituted by temporal enactment (e.g., linearity), temporal construal (e.g., autonomy), and temporal spatiality (e.g., regionalization). By using this categorization we found that information technology impinges on temporal organizing by imposing its specific temporal logics and by being location dependent. Distinct information technologies have different impacts on temporality in work, and temporal effects of the same information technology vary across work groups. This highlights the need for alternative technological configurations to support varying temporal practices. The findings underscore the potential of information technology as a temporal boundary object that reconciles differences in temporal organizing of work groups.