Enterprise Systems Adoption : A Sociotechnical Perspective on the Role of Power and Improvisation

Enterprise wide integrated systems (ES) have been extensively procured in large organizations but much research fails to develop sociotechnically informed approaches that facilitate their implementation within complex organizational environments. In this paper the authors take a critically informed sociotechnical approach to power and improvisation in ES implementation. A review and synthesis of the pertinent literature, has led to the development of an analytical framework. This framework has been used to explore these concepts through a longitudinal, ethnographic study of an ES within a UK university. The contribution of this paper is a combined ‘circuits of power-improvisation' (CPI) framework which can facilitate a better understanding of ES implementation, sociotechnical theory and practice. Lessons learnt from the study may potentially be used to avoid some of the problems experienced due to the lack of recognition of the important role of power and improvisation in what may be misrepresented as planned strategic and deliberate organizational change.

[1]  Spirituality: A Path to Healing for Children in Rural Communities , 2016 .

[2]  D. Silverman.  Doing Qualitative Research , 2009 .

[3]  Richard Heeks,et al.  Health information systems: Failure, success and improvisation , 2006, Int. J. Medical Informatics.

[4]  K. Weick.  The Collapse of Sensemaking in Organizations: The Mann Gulch Disaster , 1993 .

[5]  K. Weick.  Theory Construction as Disciplined Reflexivity: Tradeoffs in the 90s , 1999 .

[6]  Henry Mintzberg,et al.  The Fall and Rise of Strategic Planning , 1994 .

[7]  Xiaobin Li.  ICTs in Chinese Distance Higher Education: Increased Opportunities and Continuous Challenges , 2010, Int. J. Inf. Commun. Technol. Hum. Dev..

[8]  BILL DOOLIN,et al.  Information technology as disciplinary technology: being critical in interpretive research on information systems , 1998, J. Inf. Technol..

[9]  Rudy Hirschheim,et al.  Symbolism and Information Systems Development: Myth, Metaphor and Magic , 1991, Inf. Syst. Res..

[10]  R. Deem.  The Knowledge Worker, the Manager-Academic and the Contemporary UK University: New and Old Forms of Public Management? , 2004 .

[11]  Kathy McGrath,et al.  Doing critical research in information systems: a case of theory and practice not informing each other * , 2005, Inf. Syst. J..

[12]  Christine Moorman,et al.  The Convergence of Planning and Execution: Improvisation in New Product Development , 1998 .

[13]  Lars Mathiassen,et al.  Improvisation during process-technology adoption: a longitudinal study of a software firm , 2010, J. Inf. Technol..

[14]  Ken Kamoche,et al.  Minimal Structures: From Jazz Improvisation to Product Innovation , 2001 .

[15]  Bernd Carsten Stahl,et al.  ETHICS, Morality and Critique: An Essay on Enid Mumford¡¯s Socio-Technical Approach , 2007, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[16]  Amany R. Elbanna,et al.  Implementing an integrated system in a socially dis-integrated enterprise: A critical view of ERP enabled integration , 2007, Inf. Technol. People.

[17]  Leiser Silva,et al.  Epistemological and theoretical challenges for studying power and politics in information systems , 2007, Inf. Syst. J..

[18]  Nikolay Mehandjiev,et al.  Tailoring as Collaboration: The Mediating Role of Multiple Representations and Application Units , 1999, Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW).

[19]  S. Barley.  Images of Imaging: Notes on Doing Longitudinal Field Work , 1990 .

[20]  Kevin J. Brehony,et al.  Management as ideology: the case of ‘new managerialism’ in higher education , 2005 .

[21]  Enid Mumford,et al.  The story of socio‐technical design: reflections on its successes, failures and potential , 2006, Inf. Syst. J..

[22]  Wanda J. Orlikowski,et al.  Improvising Organizational Transformation Over Time: A Situated Change Perspective , 1996, Inf. Syst. Res..

[23]  Teri Taylor,et al.  Considering complexity in simple solutions: what’s so complicated about Skype? , 2014 .

[24]  Kee-Young Kwahk,et al.  Moderating effects of localization differences on ERP use: A socio-technical systems perspective , 2010, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[25]  Gerardine DeSanctis,et al.  Capturing the Complexity in Advanced Technology Use: Adaptive Structuration Theory , 1994 .

[26]  Kalle Lyytinen,et al.  Institutionalizing enterprise resource planning in the Saudi steel industry: A punctuated socio-technical analysis , 2009, J. Inf. Technol..

[27]  Alan Fowler,et al.  A Framework for Stakeholder Integration in Higher Education Information Systems Projects , 2003, Technol. Anal. Strateg. Manag..

[28]  Chris Higgins,et al.  Top management support of enterprise systems implementations , 2009, J. Inf. Technol..

[29]  W. Orlikowski,et al.  An Improvisational Model of Change Management: The Case of Groupware Technologies , 1996 .

[30]  Kaveri Subrahmanyam,et al.  Mobile Phone Multitasking and Learning , 2015 .

[31]  F. Bell,et al.  Using bricolage to integrate business and information technology innovation in SMEs , 2006 .

[32]  S. Clegg,et al.  Improvisation as “real time foresight”☆ , 2012 .

[33]  Amany R. Elbanna,et al.  The validity of the improvisation argument in the implementation of rigid technology: the case of ERP systems , 2006, J. Inf. Technol..

[34]  T. Watson.  Ethnography, Reality, and Truth: The Vital Need for Studies of How Things Work in Organizations and Management , 2010 .

[35]  J. V. Maanen,et al.  The Fact of Fiction in Organizational Ethnography. , 1979 .

[36]  Leiser Silva,et al.  Outsourcing as an Improvisation: A Case Study in Latin America , 2002, Inf. Soc..

[37]  K. Weick,et al.  Introductory Essay : Improvisation As a Mindset for Organizational Analysis , 1998 .

[38]  Davide Nicolini,et al.  Stretching out and expanding work practices in time and space: The case of telemedicine , 2007 .

[39]  Kalle Lyytinen,et al.  Explaining information systems change: a punctuated socio-technical change model , 2008, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[40]  R. Coombs,et al.  Culture, Control and Competition; Towards a Conceptual Framework for the Study of Information Technology in Organizations , 1992 .

[41]  Kathy McGrath,et al.  Power, Rationality, and the Art of Living Through Socio-Technical Change , 2007, MIS Q..

[42]  James Cornford,et al.  ERP systems and the university as a "unique" organisation , 2004, Inf. Technol. People.

[43]  M. Cunha,et al.  Organizational improvisation: what, when, how, and why , 1999 .

[44]  J. Wishart.  Encyclopedia of Mobile Phone Behavior , 2015 .