Sorting Out Agencies in AI-supported Radiological Work Practices
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18291/njwls.158107Nøgleord:
Health, Working Environment & Wellbeing, Organization & ManagementResumé
The article examines how narrow-task artificial intelligence (NT-AI) implementation reconfigures professional practice and agency in radiology departments. Drawing on practice theory and qualitative data from two Danish hospitals, we analyze how radiographers and radiologists interact with NT-AI systems in their daily work. The findings reveal that professional expertise is not simply diluted by AI but transformed through complex negotiation processes involving trust and responsibility. Professionals develop new interstitial expertise by learning when to trust, question, or override AI suggestions. Rather than creating a zero-sum game where AI gains agency at humans’ expense, implementation produces new forms of relational expertise while preserving distinct forms of human and non-human agency. We propose that successful AI integration requires practice-centered design approaches that recognize how agency materializes through relationships between people and technologies, rather than viewing implementation as merely a technical challenge.
Forfatterbiografier
Astrid Galsgaard, Radiological AI Test Center, Capital Region of Denmark
PhD scholar. Matl to: Astrid Galsgaard, LinkedIn: ‘Astrid Galsgaard’
Anders Buch, VIA University College
Docent at Centre for Profession Studies
Referencer
Abbott, A. (1991). ‘The future of professions’. Research in the Sociology of Organizations, 8, 17-42, JAI Press Inc.
Ågnes, J. S. (2022). ‘Gaining and training a digital colleague: Employee responses to robotization’, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 58/1: 29–64. DOI: 10.1177/00218863211043596
Armour, J., & Sako, M. (2020). ‘AI-enabled business models in legal services: From traditional law firms to next-generation law companies?’, Journal of Professions and Organization, 7/1: 27–46. DOI: 10.1093/jpo/joaa001
Barley, S. R., & Beane, M. I. (2020). ‘How should we study intelligent technologies’ implications for work and employment?’ Work and Technological Change, pp. 69–115. Oxford University Press. DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780198795209.003.0003
Barad. K. (2007) Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Duke University Press, https://doi.org/10.1215/9780822388128.
Berberian, B. (2019). ‘Man-machine teaming: a problem of Agency’, IFAC-PapersOnLine, 51/34: 118–23. Elsevier B.V. DOI: 10.1016/j.ifacol.2019.01.049
Bergquist, M. & Rolandsson, B. (2022) Exploring ADM in clinical decision-making: Healthcare experts encountering digital automation. In Pink, S., Berg, M., Lupton Deborah and Ruckenstein. M. (eds), EVERYDAY AUTOMATION - Experiencing and Anticipating Emerging Technologies, pp. 140–153. New York, Tayler & Francis.
Bergquist, M., Rolandsson, B., Gryska, E., Laesser, M., Hoefling, N., Heckemann, R., Schneiderman, J. F., et al. (2023). ‘Trust and stakeholder perspectives on the implementation of AI tools in clinical radiology’, European Radiology, 34/1: 338–47. Springer Berlin Heidelberg. DOI: 10.1007/s00330-023-09967-5
Le Besnerais, A., Moore, J. W., Berberian, B., & Grynszpan, O. (2024). ‘Sense of agency in joint action: a critical review of we-agency’, Frontiers in Psychology, 15/January: 1–6. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1331084
Caspar, E. A., Christensen, J. F., Cleeremans, A., & Haggard, P. (2016). ‘Coercion changes the sense of agency in the human brain’, Current Biology, 26/5: 585–92. Cell Press. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2015.12.067
Dahlin, E. (2024). ‘And say the AI responded? Dancing around “autonomy” in AI/human encounters’, Social Studies of Science, 54/1: 59–77. DOI: 10.1177/03063127231193947
Dépelteau, F. (2018). Relational thinking in sociology: Relevance, concurrence and dissonance. In Dépelteau, F. (ed.), The Palgrave Handbook of Relational Sociology, pp. 3–33. Springer International Publishing, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66005-9_1.
Dionne, K. E., & Carlile, P. R. (2024). ‘The pragmatic cycle of knowledge work: Unlocking cross-domain collaboration in open innovation spaces’, Human Relations. DOI: 10.1177/00187267241234003
Dolan, B., & Tillack, A. (2010). ‘Pixels, patterns and problems of vision: The adaptation of computer-aided diagnosis for mammography in radiological practice in the U.S.’, History of Science, 48/2: 227–49. DOI: 10.1177/007327531004800204
Dreyfus, H. L., Dreyfus, S. E., Athanasiou, T. (1986). Mind Over Machine: The Power of Human Intuition and Expertise in the Era of the Computer. United Kingdom: Basil Blackwell.
Edwards, A. (2007). ‘Relational agency in professional’, An International Journal of Human Activity Theory, 1/1: 1–17.
Edwards, A. (2011). ‘Building common knowledge at the boundaries between professional practices: Relational agency and relational expertise in systems of distributed expertise’, International Journal of Educational Research, 50/1: 33–9. Elsevier Ltd. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijer.2011.04.007
Emirbayer, M. (1997). ‘Manifesto for a relational sociology’, American Journal of Sociology, 103/2: 281–317. DOI: 10.1086/231209
Emirbayer, M., & Mische, A. (1998). ‘What is agency?’, American Journal of Sociology, 103/4: 962–1023. DOI: 10.1086/231294
Eyal, G. (2019). The Crisis of Expertise. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Flyvbjerg, B. (2006). ‘Five misunderstandings about case-study research’, Qualitative Research Practice, 12/2, 390–404. DOI: 10.4135/9781848608191.d33
Galsgaard, A., Doorschodt, T., Holten, AL., Müller, F., Boesen, M. and Maas, M. (2022). ‘Artificial intelligence and Multidisciplinary Team Meetings; A communication challenge for radiologists’ sense of agency and position as spider in a web?’, European Journal of Radiology, 155/October 2021: 110231. Elsevier B.V. DOI: 10.1016/j.ejrad.2022.110231
Geertz, C. (2021). ‘Thick description: Toward an interpretive theory of culture [1973]’, Readings for a History of Anthropological Theory, Sixth Edition, 302–6.
Gioia, D. (2021). ‘A systematic methodology for doing qualitative research’, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 57/1: 20–9. DOI: 10.1177/0021886320982715
Goto, M. (2021). ‘Collective professional role identity in the age of artificial intelligence’, Journal of Professions and Organization, 8/1: 86–107. DOI: 10.1093/jpo/joab003
Grynszpan, O., Sahaï, A., Hamidi, N., Pacherie, E., Berberian, B., Roche, L., & Saint-Bauzel, L. (2019). ‘The sense of agency in human-human vs human-robot joint action’, Consciousness and Cognition, 75/December 2018: 102820. Elsevier. DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2019.102820
Heimstädt, M., Koljonen, T., & Elmholdt, K. T. (2024). 'Expertise in management research: A review and agenda for future research, Academy of Management Annals, 18(1): 121-156. https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2022.0078’, 2024: 121–56. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2022.0078
Hoeyer, K., & Wadmann, S. (2020). ‘“Meaningless work”: How the datafication of health reconfigures knowledge about work and erodes professional judgement’, Economy and Society, 49/3: 433–54. Taylor & Francis. DOI: 10.1080/03085147.2020.1733842
Hopwood, N., Day, C., & Edwards, A. (2016). ‘Partnership practice as collaborative knowledge work: Overcoming common dilemmas through an augmented view of professional expertise’, Journal of Children’s Services, 11/2: 111–23. DOI: 10.1108/JCS-08-2015-0027
Jones, M. (2014). 'A matter of life and death: Exploring conceptualizations of sociomateriality in the context of critical care'. MIS Quarterly, 38(3): 895–925.
Kristensen, C. J. (2016). Shadowing - observationer af enkeltpersoners praksis (eng: Shadowing – observations of individuals’ practice). In C. J. Kristensen, & M. A. Hussain (eds.), Metoder i samfundsvidenskaberne, pp. 169–184. Samfundslitteratur.
Kronblad, C., & Jensen, S. H. (2023). ‘“Being a professional is not the same as acting professionally”—How digital technologies have empowered the creation and enactment of a new professional identity in law’, Journal of Professions and Organization, 10/2: 99–119. DOI: 10.1093/jpo/joad005
Kvale, S. & Brinkmann, S (2015), Interview - det kvalitative forskningsinterview som Håndværk, 3rd. ed. København. Hans Reitzels Forlag.
Latour, B. Reassembling the Social: An Introduction to Actor-Network-Theory. 1st ed. Oxford University Press, 2005, https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780199256044.001.0001.
Leonardi, P. M., & Barley, S. R. (2008). ‘Materiality and change: Challenges to building better theory about technology and organizing’, Information and Organization, 18/3: 159–76. DOI: 10.1016/j.infoandorg.2008.03.001
Lombi, L., & Rossero, E. (2024). ‘How artificial intelligence is reshaping the autonomy and boundary work of radiologists. A qualitative study’, Sociology of Health and Illness, 46/2: 200–18. DOI: 10.1111/1467-9566.13702
Mylopoulos, M., & Regehr, G. (2007). ‘Cognitive metaphors of expertise and knowledge: Prospects and limitations for medical education’, Medical Education, 41/12: 1159–65. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2007.02912.x
Pakarinen, P., & Huising, R. (2023). ‘Relational expertise: What machines can’t know’, Journal of Management Studies, 0/0, DOI: 10.1111/joms.12915
Pink, S. (2022). ‘TRUST, ETHICS AND AUTOMATION: Anticipatory imaginaries in everyday life’. In: Pink, S., Berg, M., Lupton, D., & Ruckenstein, M. (eds.), Everyday Automation: Experiencing and Anticipating Emerging Technologies, Cpt 2, pp. 44–58, Taylor & Francis, DOI: 10.4324/9781003170884-4
Redaelli, R. (2023). ‘Different approaches to the moral status of AI: a comparative analysis of paradigmatic trends in Science and Technology Studies’, Discover Artificial Intelligence, 3/1. Springer International Publishing. DOI: 10.1007/s44163-023-00076-2
Rouse, J. (2007). Normativity. In: Kiverstein, J. (ed.), THE ROUTLEDGE HANDBOOK OF PHILOSOPHY OF THE SOCIAL MIND, London & New York: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
Rouse, J. (2023). Social Practices as Biological Niche Construction. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Schatzki, T. (2001). Introduction: Practice theory, In: Schatzki, T. (ed.), The Practice Turn in Contemporary Theory, pp. 1-14. London: Routledge.
Schatzki, T. R. (2019). Social Change in a Material World. New York: Routledge.
Schatzki, T. R. (2025). Agency, Information and Organization, 35/1: 100553, ISSN 1471-7727. DOI: 10.1016/j.infoandorg.2024.100553
Schneider, P., & Sting, F. J. (2020). ‘Employees’ perspectives on digitalization-induced change: Exploring Frames of Industry 4.0’, Academy of Management Discoveries, 6/3: 406–35. DOI: 10.5465/amd.2019.0012
Smets, M., Aristidou, A. & Whittington, R. (2017). Towards a practice-driven institutionalism. In: Greenwood, R., Oliver, C., Lawrence, T. B. & Meyer, R (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism, pp. 384-411. 2nd ed. London: SAGE.
Susskind, R., & Susskind, D. (2022). The Future of the Professions: How Technology will Transform the Work of Human Experts, updated edition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Timmermans, S. & Tavory, I. (2022). Data Analysis in Qualitative Research: Theorizing with Abductive Analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ulfert, A. S., Georganta, E., Centeio Jorge, C., Mehrotra, S., & Tielman, M. (2023). ‘Shaping a multidisciplinary understanding of team trust in human-AI teams: a theoretical framework’, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 00/00: 1–14. Routledge. DOI: 10.1080/1359432X.2023.2200172
Wesche, J. S., Hennig, F., Kollhed, C. S., Quade, J., Kluge, S., & Sonderegger, A. (2024). ‘People’s reactions to decisions by human vs. algorithmic decision-makers: the role of explanations and type of selection tests’, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 33/2: 146–57. Routledge. DOI: 10.1080/1359432X.2022.2132940
Downloads
Publiceret
Citation/Eksport
Nummer
Sektion
Licens
Copyright (c) 2020 Author and Journal
Dette værk er under følgende licens Creative Commons Navngivelse – Ikke-kommerciel – Ingen Bearbejdede Værker (by-nc-nd).
The Copyright Holder of this Journal is the authors and the Journal. Normally the journal use the CC-BY NC-ND 4.0 licence.
Exceptions to the license terms may be granted
If you want to use content in the Journal in another way then described by this license, you must contact the licensor and ask for permission. Contact Annica Asp at annica.asp@kau.se. Exceptions are always given for specific purposes and specific content only.
Sherpa/Romeo
The Journal is listed as a blue journal in Sherpa/Romeo, meaning that the author can archive post-print ((ie final draft post-refereeing) and author can archive publisher's version/PDF.
Copyright of others
Authors are responsible for obtaining permission from copyright holders for reproducing any illustrations, tables, figures or lengthy quotations previously published elsewhere.
Archives policy
All published material is archived at the Danish Royal Library in conformity with the Danish rules of legal deposit.
Plagiarism screening
We do not screen articles for plagiarism. It is the responsibility of the authors to make sure they do not plagiate.
