Chris Westrup

Jordan and ICT-Led Development: towards a competition state?

This paper describes Jordans strategy to develop a strong ICT sector that will be internationally competitive. This strategy is analysed in two ways. First, by a comparison with two countries, Ireland and Singapore, with similarities as nation states and which are widely seen as successful in promoting and sustaining strong ICT sectors. Second, through an analysis of Jordan as a competition state where the role of the state is being redefined so as to implement policies in a globalising world. It is found that Jordan exhibits many of the characteristics of a competition state in terms of the promotion of mixtures of public and private partnerships and in developing relations with international agencies and multinational enterprises to create a strong ICT sector. Using these analyses, the prospects for Jordans initiative are assessed and issues that will be of importance for its success are pointed out.

Making ERPs work: accountants and the introduction of ERP systems

In the last 10 years, the majority of large companies have attempted to install Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, replacing functional systems with a standardised company-wide system. However, making an ERP system work, we contend, is more than an issue of technical expertise or social accommodation: it is an ongoing, dynamic interaction between the ERP system, different groups in an organisation and external groups, such as vendors, management consultants and shareholders. This paper builds this argument using the example of management accountants in the U.K. based on evidence from a survey and several case studies. Drawing on work by Scarbrough and Corbett, we apply and develop a model, the technology power loop, linking technology, the control of technology and expertise to explain issues of how ERP systems are made to work and how expert groups seek to influence this development. We show, using empirical evidence from a survey and several case studies, that the relationship of accountants and technologies such as ERPs has become increasingly intertwined, but accountants continue to use their position to reshape their professional expertise wherever possible. However, our evidence also shows that neglect in this area allows other groups to wrest control from management accountants and make ERPs work for themselves.

Egypt and ICTs: How ICTs bring national initiatives, global organizations and local companies together

The aim of the paper is to move beyond globalisation as a concept and explore processes of globalisation that are linked to ICTs, using Egypt as an example. The paper explores how ICTs have been linked to economic and social development by international agencies such as the UNDP and the World Bank. It focuses on the national initiatives of the Egyptian government to facilitate development through ICTs and shows the variety of agents – other governments, multinationals, international development agencies, new government agencies, local companies – necessary in these plans. We argue that ICT facilitated development has led to the formation of new, and more complex, networks of relations where ICTs act as a common point of interest and where the roles of these diverse actors are redefined in this process. The example of Oracle and the installation of an ERP system in an Egyptian company are used to illustrate these points.

Both global and local: ICTs and joint ventures in China

Abstract.  The expansion of global firms, supported by extensive information and communication technology (ICT) systems, is frequently seen as leading to the spread of best practices to different regions of the world. Some argue that these practices are bound up with the national origins of these firms, while others propose that local circumstances in specific economies are of prime importance. According to the first perspective, global firms will use ICTs in China that reflect their national origins, but the second approach emphasizes the importance of the Chinese local context in how and what ICTs are used. Based on evidence from two case studies of global UK multinationals with Chinese joint ventures, this paper argues that the ICTs used by these companies do relate to their national roots and that China is seen by them as a very unusual setting that is treated as a special case. For example, one company was prepared to roll out a global enterprise planning system elsewhere but refused to implement it in China, while the second company cordoned off their ICT systems in China from their other, more global systems. Cultural frames of reference are advanced as an important explanation of differences in the usage of ICTs in China. Building on these ideas, this paper argues that how difference is recognized, accommodated and (re)affirmed is significant for the performance of formal business processes. Formal and ICT‐enabled systems ‘work’ by being embedded in changing Chinese cultural practices such as guanxi, though this is frequently not recognized by Western managers. While the global nature of global firms may be overplayed, the local arrangements of joint ventures are very important in how ICT systems are implemented in which the embedding and disembedding require an understanding of sited cultural practices that underpin the performance of formal systems. What is at stake is how global firms and their ICT systems are able to adapt to Chinese circumstances, and, in the longer term, how Chinese joint venture partners, often previously state‐owned enterprises, adapt to different forms of control mediated by ICTs.

Transformative Capacity, Information Technology, and the Making of Business ‘Experts’

This paper explores the making of experts and the basis of claims to expertise in corporate organisational settings. The performance of expertise within organisations is increasingly associated with the implementation and use of integrated business information systems which purport to abstract the world into an informational form to make businesses run more efficiently. We argue that as these systems are put to work to replace the calculations of human experts, we are required to rethink how expertise is constituted as a political and performative process. We focus on the provisos and qualifications that surround the use of calculative techniques and the worries and scepticism over the correctness, accuracy and interpretation of numbers and figures derived from systems of calculation. Rather than identifying expertise as the capacity to make calculations and to abstract ‘representations’ from the ‘real world’, a job increasingly done by information systems, we find expertise being performed in the transformation of things of different orders which enables representations to be returned to the world through allusions to their transformative effect.

Something happened: Spectres of organization/disorganization at the airport:

The article explores the practical accomplishment of organization at an international airport during the course of a number of ‘security alerts’ that disrupted routine ‘modes of ordering’ (Law, 1994). Airports, we suggest, invite us to re-think ‘organization’ as the partial, contingent and always-incomplete outcome of complex order(ing)s and disorder(ing)s played out across various spaces, agencies and materials. When ‘something happens’ we begin to see how spaces, agents and materials are subject to unexpected becomings: objects appear treacherous, spaces mutable, agencies ineffectual and informants unreliable. Following the work of Weick we might say that in such moments of uncertainty we are forced to reconsider our customary ways of thinking about objects, subjects and systems. We argue this thinking requires a relational understanding of organization so that we can better grasp how organizations are continuously being made and un-made through an on-going co-creation and dispersal of parts.

Knowledge, legitimacy and progress? Requirements as inscriptions in information systems development

Given the importance placed on requirements analysis for success in systems development, this paper seeks to illuminate some of the underlying issues common to requirements techniques. This view is offered as a contrast to frameworks that identify an apparent diversity of requirements techniques, on the one hand, and those that portray differences in requirements techniques based on a progressive improvement of these techniques. The central argument of the paper is that most requirements techniques share common characteristics with inscription devices, by translating problematic organizational situations into agreed representations on paper or on computer. These inscriptions are commonly seen as providing legitimate knowledge of the organization that cannot be shown to be ‘correct’ but which act as resources to resolve tensions in requirements formulation and enable information technologies to be implemented successfully in organizations. A consequence of this argument is that portrayals of progressive improvement in requirements techniques have more rhetorical force than historical accuracy, and this assertion is illustrated by comparing SOP (Study Organization Plan), a 1960s requirements methodology, with ‘state‐of‐the‐art’ object‐oriented analysis. Finally, given the problematic role of requirements techniques as inscription devices, guidance is given to those engaged in requirements analysis that focuses as much on the context of the application of the requirements technique as the requirements technique itself.

The play of information systems development: Drama and ritual in the development of a nursing information system

Seeks to show the ritual and dramatic elements in an ostensibly rational and technocratic process; that is, the formulation of nurses’ information requirements prior to the introduction of a computerized nursing information system in a large hospital. Suggests that ritual is an important social process in times of change within organizations and that there are close affinities between ritual and theatrical performance. What is interesting is that a process of intensifying the measurement of performance and the monitoring of work, apparently attributes of rational managerial practice, appear to be enacted in conditions which are redolent of ritual and of theatre. It is this somewhat paradoxical juxtaposition of the introduction of new technologies, replete with scientific allusions and the decidedly non‐rational social practices that accompany them, which lead to a questioning of the efficacy of notions of efficient and rational management and the role of new technologies in supporting these ideals.

Power/Knowledge and Impact Assessment: Creating New Spaces for Expertise in International Development

Impact assessment is an important methodology in information and communication technologies for development. It presents the potential to change power knowledge relations between donors, non-governmental organizations and beneficiaries. Impact assessment offers a new and subtle form of control - shaped by and shaping expertise - influencing how we understand and undertake development.

Reassessing social inclusion and digital divides

Purpose – Digital and social inclusion are becoming more talked about as approaches to what has been discussed as the digital divide. But what is digital or social inclusion? The purpose of this paper is to explore the notion of social exclusion as a variety of, sometimes conflicting, social programmes which embody ideas of what society should be. Becoming more aware of this variety of approach can give insights into programmes addressing the digital divide and the political, cultural and social aspects of policies of social inclusion.Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyses the notion of social inclusion as a variety of social policies to address social exclusion and develop the nation state. It uses an example of a telecentre in Jordans knowledge station (KS) programme to illustrate and extend this analysis.Findings – The analysis and discussion of the KS initiative shows how different notions of social and digital inclusion are important features of strengthening the Jordanian state and are us...