Making sense of telebanking information systems: the role of organizational back ups

Abstract A case study of a telebanking information system located within a state-owned European bank is described and analysed. Findings indicate that while the information system supports the operators’ work practice in routine situations, it fails to do so when the work flow is disrupted. The case demonstrates how a pervasive pattern of stability is achieved through a variety of back-up mechanisms enacted and improvised in the work setting. The paper concludes with the implications of these findings for the theory and practice of information systems design.

[1]  Brian T. Pentland,et al.  Organizing Moves in Software Support Hot Lines , 1992 .

[2]  Shoshana Zuboff.  In the Age of the Smart Machine , 1988 .

[3]  Geoff Walsham,et al.  Interpreting Information Systems in Organizations , 1993 .

[4]  B. Latour.  Social Theory and the Study of Computerized Work Sites , 1996 .

[5]  W. Orlikowski,et al.  Information Technology and Changes in Organizational Work , 1996, IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology.

[6]  K. Weick.  Technology as equivoque: sensemaking in new technologies , 1990 .

[7]  Claudio U. Ciborra,et al.  Groupware and teamwork: invisible aid or technical hindrance? , 1997 .

[8]  S. Barley.  Technology as an occasion for structuring: evidence from observations of CT scanners and the social order of radiology departments. , 1986, Administrative science quarterly.

[9]  Edwin Hutchins,et al.  Organizing Work by Adaptation , 1991 .

[10]  Wolfgang Streeck.  Book Reviews : Andrew Pettigrew: The Awakening Giant. Continuity and Change in ICI 1985, Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 542 pages , 1986 .

[11]  H. Thomas,et al.  Competitive Groups as Cognitive Communities: The Case of Scottish Knitwear Manufacturers Revisited , 1989 .

[12]  Wanda J. Orlikowski,et al.  Studying Information Technology in Organizations: Research Approaches and Assumptions , 1991, Inf. Syst. Res..

[13]  J. Brown,et al.  Organizational Learning and Communities-of-Practice: Toward a Unified View of Working, Learning, and Innovation , 1991 .

[14]  C. Ciborra,et al.  Groupware and teamwork in new product development: the case of a consumer goods multinational , 1997 .

[15]  Harry Scarbrough,et al.  Technology and organization : power, meaning, and design , 1992 .

[16]  Paul S. Goodman,et al.  Technology and Organizations , 1990 .

[17]  Terry Winograd,et al.  Understanding computers and cognition - a new foundation for design , 1987 .

[18]  Lucy Suchman.  Plans and situated actions: the problem of human-machine communication , 1987 .

[19]  Gerardo Patriotta,et al.  Disassembling Frames on the Assembly Line: The Theory and Practice of the New Division of Learning in Advanced Manufacturing , 1996 .

[20]  A. Kellerman,et al.  The Constitution of Society : Outline of the Theory of Structuration , 2015 .

[21]  D. Wellman,et al.  Talking About Machines: An Ethnography of a Modern Job. , 1997 .