The uses of user resistance for the institutionalization of power in systems implementation

User resistance to the implementation of new information systems (IS) is a well-established feature of the IS literature. Much of this work takes a managerialist perspective, seeing user resistance as simply dysfunctional, seeking effective ways for system implementers to overcome resistance or concerned to understanding the roots of user resistance. Occasionally, user resistance is seen as having positive qualities. In this paper, however, we want to explore the wider, deeper, and subtler uses of user resistance for systems implementers. We have adopted Clegg’s “circuits of power” framework within a broader political process approach to change. Using this framework and the results of a small pilot study, we make a number of propositions that can be tested in forthcoming fieldwork. This paper forms part of a wider study of the institutionalization of the power of “internal consultants” in a higher education institution in Saudi Arabia.

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