The Mediating Role of Technological Artifacts in Shaping Organizational Culture

This article investigates the relationship between technologies and organizational culture by focusing on the deployment of two technologies—the Geographic Information System (GIS) and the Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM)—within a binational organization engaged in constructing a tunnel for a high-speed railway. It challenges the traditional view of technology as an independent variable affecting organizational structures and processes, advocating instead for a relational and non-deterministic perspective that recognizes the mutual influences of humans and technologies in developing new work practices and organizational processes. Employing a theoretical framework drawing on Media, Technology, and Organization Studies (MTOS) and Science and Technology Studies (STS), the article underscores the mediating role of technological artifacts in the shaping of organizational culture. It emphasizes the importance of technologies in organizing both material and non-material aspects of organizational life while highlighting the co-constitutive relationship between technical objects, work practices, and organizational processes. Empirically it demonstrates how GIS and TBM contribute to actualizing a binational culture within the studied organization. In doing so, it illustrates how technologies can influence organizational culture and promotes a deeper understanding of the agential power of objects, while remaining stripped of deterministic interpretations. This approach not only enriches our comprehension of organizational culture, but also bridges theoretical gaps between MTOS and STS.