Investigating the Interdependence of Organisations and Information Systems

Using Personal Construct Theory (PCT) as an underlying conceptual frame, this chapter explores the interdependence of organisations and information systems. Two PCT related techniques - Repertory Grid Analysis (RepGrid) and Cognitive Mapping (CM) - were used to investigate the dynamics of this interaction. Changing business models and information technologies were investigated in two distinct work settings: in each case, the technique contributed substantial insight into the role of information systems in that context. The analysis shows that the techniques have matured to a stage where they provide a basis for improved understanding of the organisational complexities related to information technologies. The techniques focus on the social construction of meaning by articulating and interpreting the discourse that surrounds the development, implementation and use of information technology in organisations. It is these ongoing discourses that create the dynamic complexities in the organisations, as they ‘play’ themselves out, and develop, over time. Current research has articulated and improved awareness of the issues and concerns that surround computer-based information systems (CBIS). Despite the differing contexts and work processes, the findings from each case suggest that the techniques facilitated social construction and increased the conceptual agility of managers, leading to improved integration of organisational processes and technology. The chapter concludes by drawing out the idea of the development of a conceptual model to act as a framework for the analysis of cognitive schema and shared understanding. In developing and participating in this shared understanding both organisational and technological communities could increase their awareness of each other’s issues and concerns, thereby enabling them to improve the conceptual agility of the organisation.

The Socio-Pragmatics of IT Artefacts

There are many attempts to explain success and failure in information systems. Many of these refer to a purported socio-technical gap. In this paper we develop an alternative approach that does not impose such a strong dichotomy, but regards social and technical rather as dimensions along which to study workpractices. The developed theory involves not only the “social” and “technical” constructs but also other generic ones, namely “instrumental”, “semiotic” and “pragmatic”. We call this theory socio-instrumental pragmatism. To illustrate the theoretical concepts introduced, we use an example brought from an extensive action research study including the development of an information system in eldercare, developed through a participatory design approach.

A Practioner-Centered Assessment of a User-Experience Framework

In this paper we outline a relational approach to experience, which we have used to develop a practitioner-oriented framework for analysing user experience. The framework depicts experience as compositional, emotional, spatio-temporal, and sensual, and as intimately bound up with a number of processes that allow us to make sense of experience. It was developed and assessed as part of a participative action research project involving interested practitioners. We report how these practitioners used the framework, what aspects of experience they felt that it missed, and how useful they found it as a tool for evaluating Internet shopping experiences. A thematic content analysis of participants’ reflections on their use of the framework to evaluate Internet shopping experiences revealed some strengths and some weaknesses. For example, certain features of the framework led participants to reflect on aspects of experience that they might not otherwise have considered e.g. the central role of anticipation in experience. The framework also captured aspects of experience that relate to both the sequential structure of the activity and its subjective aspects. However it seemed to miss out on the intensity of some experiences and participants sometimes found it difficult to distinguish between some of the sense making processes, for example, interpreting and reflecting. These results have helped to refine our approach to deploying the framework and have inspired an ongoing programme of research on experience-centered design.

Conduting Feminist Gender Research in the Information Systems Field

In this chapter, we explore the methodological and epistemological implications of conducting feminist, gender research in the information systems field. These implications revolve around four core themes: that feminist research is situated in the margins; that current gender and IS research is not adequately problematized; that feminist research questions the legitimacy and appropriateness of positivist research; and that reflection on the personal characteristics of the researcher such as race, gender, sexuality, and class can inform feminist research. We propose four criteria for conducting feminist IS research: (1) engaging in researcher reflexivity; (2) challenging the hegemonic dominance, legitimacy, and appropriateness of positivist epistemologies; (3) theorizing from the margins; and (4) problematizing gender.

Concerns with "Mutual Constitution"

The case for ‘analytical dualism’ as a means of approaching sociotechnical action is presented as an alternative to accounts which tend to conflate agency, structure and technology. This is based on the work of Margaret Archer, whose work is in turn located in the traditions of critical realism. Her commitment to analytical dualism, which stresses both the importance of time in analysis and the emergent properties of structure, is argued to give a firmer purchase on the notion of context than the alternatives based on, for example, the work of Giddens and Latour.

Contextual Characteristics of Creativity

As a much needed quality in today’s businesses, creativity is an important area of research. Creativity is a complex and multi-faceted concept and can thus be studied from a variety of perspectives. In this paper we describe an attempt to support organisational creativity with information technology, in this case an electronic brainstorming device. Whilst implementing and evaluating this prototype, it was noticed that the sheer presence of technology did neither guarantee usage nor success. Contextual factors such as organisational culture and attitudes seem to have an equally important role, and this observation called for a more focused analysis of the motivational aspects of creativity management. Based on the empirical data from the electronic brainstorming system evaluation and literature on organisational creativity, three general pieces of managerial advice to promote corporate creativity are suggested: reconsider the use of extrinsic rewards; recognise creative initiatives, and; allow redundancy.

Sociotechnical Spaces

The chapter addresses how insights from the social shaping tradition and political process theory may contribute to an understanding of the sociotechnical design and implementation of change. This idea is pursued through the notion of “sociotechnical spaces” and its delineation, with respect to the analysis of two distinct cases, namely, Business Process Reengineering (BPR), and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in the light of “film-less” radiological prac-tice, respectively. The chapter elaborates on sociotechnical space as being an occasioning as well as a result of sociotechnical choices and processes, and points to how socio-material and discursive practices may render such spaces open to problematisation and action. It is sug-gested that the notion of sociotechnical spaces helps generate a sensitising guide for research-ers and practitioners, and thus may serve as a constructive means with which to localise poten-tial political concerns in processes of change. The paper tentatively points to some analytical implications and to challenges and possibilities for the “bridging” between spaces, which may otherwise be rendered analytically distinct.

The Sociotechnical Nature of Mobile Computing Work

In this paper we discuss the sociotechnical nature of mobile computing as used by three policing agencies within the United States. Mobile devices, access and service was provided via a third generation wireless network to a focal application, Pennsylvania’s Justice NETwork (JNET), a secure web-based portal connecting authorized users to a set of 23 federated criminal justice and law enforcement databases via a query-based interface. In this study we conceptualize mobility and policing as a sociotechnical ensemble that builds on the social-shaping of technology perspective and the tradition of sociotechncial theorizing focusing on the co-design of work practices and technologies to support work. Drawing from the social informatics tradition, we turn a critical, empirical, and contextual lens on the practices of mobility and work. Our analysis of the data leads us to find that the social and the technical are still separate in this mobile work context. This simple view of social and technical as related, but distinct, often leads to problems with collecting and interpreting evidence of ICT-based system’s design and use. We further note this over-simplification of sociotechnical action is likely to continue unless more viable analytic approaches are developed and the assumptions of the current techno-determinist approaches challenged more explicitly.

USE IT to Create Patient Relation Management for Multiple Sclerosis Patients

Patients with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) visit various healthcare providers during the course of their disease. It was suggested that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) might help to orchestrate their care provision. We have applied the USE IT-tool to get insight in the relevant problems, solutions and constraints of the MS-care both in the organizational and the information technological area. There is hardly a chain of healthcare, but rather, a network in which informal communication plays an important role. This informal network worked reasonably effective, but inefficient and slow. MS patients-count is only small for most care providers. Patients thought that lack of experience caused their major problems: insufficient and inadequate care. To improve care, we proposed a solution that combines an “MS-protocol”, the introduction of a central coordinator of care and a Patient Relation Management (PRM) system. This is a simple web-based application based on agreement by the caregivers that supports routing, tracking and tracing for an MS patient and supplies the caregivers with professional guidelines. It is likely that we would have suggested a far more complicated ICT-solution if we had only analyzed the MS-care process as such, without specific consideration of the dimensions in the USE IT-tool.

A Frameowrk for Monitoring User Involvement and Participation in ERP Implementation Projects

In this chapter a framework for monitoring user involvement and participation within ERP implementation projects is proposed, by using the Goals/Questions/Metrics method. The results of this work are threefold. First, a literature review is presented on the topic of user involvement and participation as related with ERP implementation projects. Second, a framework for monitoring user involvement and participation in ERP implementation projects is proposed. And third, a Goals/Questions/Metrics preliminary plan is proposed to monitor and control user involvement and participation within ERP implementation projects.