Managing Understandings: Politics, Symbolism, Niche Marketing and the Quest for Legitimacy in IT Implementation

This paper focuses on the political processes through which legitimacy was sought for a large information technology system by its sponsors and key supporters. It is suggested that this was accomplished by means of a niche marketing campaign in which key stakeholder groups were fed radically differ ent explanations regarding the motivations which prompted investment in the system and its likely implications for them and the organization. The system was legitimated by a combination of 'rational' arguments which appealed to stakeholder self-interest and cultural norms, control over the flow of informa tion, and symbolic action. The research contribution this paper makes is to illustrate the symbolic and political processes, some of which can be inter preted as hypocritical, by which a select group attempted to manipulate other actors' understandings of a large and complex IT system.

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