Reconfiguring Organizational Attention: Socio-Material Insights from Railway Maintenance Operations

Loubna Echajari (), Imtiez Haddad () and Myriam Lewkowicz ()
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Myriam Lewkowicz: LIST3N - Laboratoire Informatique et Société Numérique - UTT - Université de Technologie de Troyes, Tech-CICO - TECHnologies pour la Coopération, l’Interaction et les COnnaissances dans les collectifs - ICD - Institut Charles Delaunay - UTT - Université de Technologie de Troyes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, LIST3N - TPRA - LIST3N - Technologies et pratiques - LIST3N - Laboratoire Informatique et Société Numérique - UTT - Université de Technologie de Troyes

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Abstract: This paper investigates how operational-level practices contribute to organizational attention management in the railway maintenance sector. Based on a comparative case study of two rail track surveillance sites, we analyze how frontline agents integrate artefacts into their workflows to coordinate attention and maintain infrastructure safety. Our findings highlight the role of shadow artefacts (i.e., informal tools developed by operators to compensate for rigid official systems) in sustaining attentional alignment. We argue that enriching the Attention-Based View with a socio-material perspective is essential to capture how attention is enacted across organizational levels. We also emphasize the central role of articulation work as a mechanism for managing attention, particularly when digital systems fail to support real-world coordination needs.

Keywords: Railway sector; shadow artefacts; articulation work; organizational attention (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025-07-03
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Published in European Group for Organizational Studies, Jul 2025, Athens, Greece

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-05794017

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