Bill Doolin

Evaluating the use of the Web for tourism marketing: a case study from New Zealand.

Abstract The information-intensive nature of the tourism industry suggests an important role for the Internet and Web technology in the promotion and marketing of destinations. This paper uses the extended Model of Internet Commerce Adoption to evaluate the level of Web site development in New Zealands Regional Tourism Organisations. The paper highlights the utility of using interactivity to measure the relative maturity of tourism Web sites.

Enterprise Discourse, Professional Identity and the Organizational Control of Hospital Clinicians

Recent reform of the healthcare sector in New Zealand involved the corporatization of public hospitals, and the contractualization of social relations between and within institutions. Various attempts were made to incorporate hospital clinicians within some system of organizational control in order to make them accountable for the resources consumed as a consequence of their treatment decisions. This paper considers how the general intention of government to control, curtail or influence the professional autonomy of hospital clinicians was played out in the context of a single New Zealand hospital. It considers the possibility that power effects of discourses associated with such neo-liberal programmes of reform could influence the subjectivity of hospital clinicians, aligning their clinical behaviour with the broader goals of the governmental programme. It explores how individuals manoeuvre in relation to these discourses of management and enterprise, whether in acceptance, resistance or compromise. The resulting outcomes are complex and varied, as individuals negotiate dominant discourses in the construction of identity and self.

To reveal is to critique:actor-network theory and critical information systems research

It has been suggested that, in order to maintain its relevance, critical research must develop a strong emphasis on empirical work rather than the conceptual emphasis that has typically characterized critical scholarship in management. A critical project of this nature is applicable in the information systems (IS) arena, which has a growing tradition of qualitative inquiry. Despite its relativist ontology, actor–network theory places a strong emphasis on empirical inquiry and this paper argues that actor–network theory, with its careful tracing and recording of heterogeneous networks, is well suited to the generation of detailed and contextual empirical knowledge about IS. The intention in this paper is to explore the relevance of IS research informed by actor–network theory in the pursuit of a broader critical research project as defined in earlier work.

Information technology as disciplinary technology: being critical in interpretive research on information systems

This paper argues that interpretive researchers need to consciously adopt a critical and reflective stance in relation to the role that the information technologies which they describe play in maintaining social orders and power relations in organizations. The concern of the paper is to highlight-potential shortcomings in the treatment of technology in interpretive research on information systems, but also to present a specific approach to studying information technology and organization which may overcome these weaknesses. By utilizing a perspective drawn from the discursive and disciplinary work of Foucault and recent work on the sociology of technology, we can complement the thick description of interpretive research with the broader sweep of critical social theory.

Casemix Management in a New Zealand Hospital: Rationalisation and Resistance

This paper discusses the use of a ‘casemix’ information system to rationalise and scrutinise clinical activity in a corporatised New Zealand hospital. The implementation of the casemix system was part of a management strategy to influence clinician behaviour by making visible the financial implications of clinical decisions. Clinicians were able to resist the application of this comparative surveillance system by challenging or diverting the information produced.

Sociotechnical networks and information management in health care

Abstract In this paper, the notion of a sociotechnical network is used to illustrate the mutuality of technology and organisation. The paper tells the story of the proposed implementation of an executive information system in a newly corporatised hospital. In order to build a coherent and stable network, diverse interests of heterogeneous actors had to be accommodated within the executive information system. Ultimately, the failure to unify the multiplicity of interpretations surrounding the proposed system meant that the project ceased to exist.

Managerialism, information technology and health reform in New Zealand

Recent health reform in New Zealand has transformed public hospitals and related health services into Crown Health Enterprises (CHEs), which have a statutory objective to operate as successful and efficient businesses. Examines managerialist interpretations of a proposed executive information system (EIS) at one CHE. Arguably, the use of computerized information systems signals managerial competence and rationality, and there was an implicit assumption among senior CHE managers that “business‐like” and “efficient” management required the use of information technology. In the end, in the context of continuing organizational restructuring, the EIS was never implemented.

Introducing system contradiction to effect change in the public sector

The purpose of this paper is twofold. The first part introduces a theoretical argument from Giddens to help explain the way in which accounting systems and systems of accountability have changed abruptly in New Zealand’s health care sector. The changes are proceeding, surrounded by controversy and the second part used Habermas’s theory of communicative action to assess the benefits or otherwise of reform and restructuring of the public health of New Zealanders. What counts as valid evidence is contentious. The reforms have been socially divisive, and surrounded by ideology and rhetoric. There appears to be little evidence to demonstrate that the reforms have improved or will ever improve access to health care by those without personal wealth.

Use of the web for destination marketing by regional tourism organisations in the Asia-pacific region

The information-intensive nature of the tourism and travel industry suggests an important role for Web technology in the promotion and marketing of destinations. This paper evaluates the level of Web site development in Asia-Pacific Regional Tourism Organisations. The study uses the extended Model of Internet Commerce Adoption (eMICA) (Burgess and Cooper 2000), and highlights the utility of using interactivity to evaluate the relative maturity of commercial Web sites.

A framework for interpreting decision support system use in organisations

Traditional definitions of decision support systems emphasise their support role in individual decision making and utilise notions of rational choice. By considering decisions as an organisational activity, the interpretation of decision support systems use in organisations can move beyond this technical rational understanding, to include potential political and legitimating roles for these systems. These three possible interpretations are discussed in relation to the implementation of a large decision support system in a local government context described by Dutton (1981). In its technical role, the system was used as part of a rational planning agenda. However, the system was clearly also used politically, to promote particular interests and as a lever in negotiations between various groups. Part of the appeal of the decision support system was the appearance of rationality and technical neutrality that it gave to the planning and decision making process, and the legitimation it provided with external c...