Information technology and organizational effects: supporting the sales process with workflow technology

This paper explores the Language/Action approach by reflecting on an explorative case study from a small Swedish company in the IT-sector. The company is using Lotus Notesm in combination with Action WorkflowTM to increase the efficiency of the sales processes. This includes communication with customers as well as intraorganizational communication between people involved in the sales process. We address some of the issues raised in the debate about the Language/Action perspective. Does application of the Language/Action perspective automatically lead to control and routinization of work tasks, or could we find other implications? We propose a framework, identifying important characteristics of technology and work, which can be used in discussing effects of introducing new technology to improve efficiency in processes.

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