Gamel O. Wiredu

The dynamics of control and mobile computing in distributed activities

Mobile technologies are increasingly finding a place in a multitude of organisational settings. As they are intimately associated with the individuals carrying them, they can potentially play a significant role in the remote control of activities. The aim of this paper is to analyse how the balance of control between local and remote authorities shapes the use of mobile technology in a distributed activity. Based on 1-year action research study of work-integrated learning within a British National Health Service (NHS) project, we discuss the use of mobile technology as a function of control and human mobility. The aim of the project was to pilot the establishment of a new NHS profession, the Perioperative Specialist Practitioner (PSP). The article explores how the contradicting goals of the London-based project management team and of the everyday activities of the surgical teams across Great Britain hosting the PSP trainees critically shaped the unsuccessful use of mobile technology in the project. Based on a theoretical analysis using Activity Theory we outline four analytical categories of local-remote control configurations; (1) territorial dispute; (2) strong local control; (3) strong remote control; and (4) shared harmonious control. We apply these in a discussion of how the use of mobile technology is shaped by contradicting or harmonious motives between object and advanced activities.

Information systems innovation in public organisations: an institutional perspective

Purpose – This paper aims to take an institutional approach to the analysis of organisational‐level challenges of information systems (IS) innovation in public organisations. It seeks to answer the question: how can the challenges of IS innovation in public organisations, presented by the interactions between IT and public bureaucracy, be explained and addressed?Design/methodology/approach – The paper is an empirical study approached with an interpretive philosophy that influenced the gathering of qualitative evidence.Findings – The analysis reveals the institutional tensions between the low‐entrepreneurial ethos of public organisations and the efficiency principle of information technology (IT).Practical implications – Public bureaucracy should be adjusted by de‐institutionalising its variable characteristics such as standardised and centralised employee roles and information. Information technology should be adjusted by restraining commitments to and expectations in public organisations.Originality/valu...

Distance and contradictory motives in distributed workplace learning for a new profession

In this article, I explain the practical learning challenges in distributed workplace learning (WL) that are engendered by distance and contradictory motives between distributed instructors. I draw lessons from an empirical study of the institution of a new profession in the British National Health Service that was operationalised through distributed WL. The practical learning challenges are explained from an activity‐theoretical perspective to show the need for balance between work practice outcomes on the one hand, and theoretical and accreditation outcomes of learning on the other hand. I argue that the practical learning challenges in distributed WL are rooted in: (1) multiple sources of instructions and remote separation of instructors; (2) pervasive and stronger contradictions between instructors’ motives; and (3) the coercion of learners’ core participation towards outcomes of practical learning by immediate (or local) instructors. I propose, further, that reducing the strength of contradictions between distributed instructors and increasing the co‐presence of the distant instructor are worthy strategies for managing distributed WL.

The reconstruction of portable computers: On the flexibility of mobile computing in mobile activities

Astract The remote distribution of contemporary activities has direct implications for the mobility of humans and associated actions. Remote distribution inherently entails parameters such as the mobility of individuals, artefacts, tasks and information; and potential conflicts between objective and personal motives of individuals. The interactions of these parameters bear directly on the range of mobile computing services derivable from the use of these artefacts. Based on an activity-theoretical perspective, this paper presents a discussion of the dynamics of mobile computing services through an analysis of the process of reconstruction of personal digital assistants (PDAs) in a mobility-saturated work-integrated learning project. Upon this analysis, I discuss the flexibility of mobile computing as a direct function of the reconstruction process and propose a conceptual framework for the analysis of flexible mobile computing in mobile activities.

An institutional perspective on the challenges of information systems innovation in public organisations

Public organisations are normally overwhelmed with sociotechnical challenges of Information Systems (IS) innovation at both organisational and institutional levels. However, most studies of these challenges adopt an organisational perspective, leaving the institutional perspective largely unanalysed. In this paper, the IS innovation challenges faced by a British local authority are analysed to explain the institutional roles of public bureaucracy and information technology (IT). The analysis reveals the tensions between the low-entrepreneurial ethos of public organisations and the efficiency principle of IT. The paper argues that the primary principle of IS innovation should be institutional adjustments of public bureaucracy and information technology. Suggestions on how both institutions can be adjusted are provided.

Historical perception as a complementary framework for understanding the usability of mobile computers

This paper suggests a social-psychological framework for understanding the usability of mobile computers. This framework complements and extends extant sociological explanations of mobile computing. Sociological explanations satisfy principles of pragmatism and ubiquity in judging the usability of mobile computers. The paper argues that sociological explanations are inadequate, and draws upon the historical epistemology of perception to propose social-psychological explanations to complement them. By this epistemology, a user’s perception is deemed as a mode of action that is mediated by historical or functional representations. These issues are illustrated in an empirical case of the use of personal digital assistants (PDAs) in hospitals of the British National Health Service. The historical epistemology of perception suggests the principle of representation to complement the existing principles of ubiquity and pragmatism. This suggestion is derived from an analysis of the complementation between the user’s perception, work and movement which are conscious actions enacted concurrently during the use of mobile computers. Implications for the implementation and evaluation of mobile computing projects are provided.

Information Systems Implementation and Structural Adaptation in Government-Business Inter-Organization

The adaptation of inter-organizational structure occasioned by organizational and information technology agency in government-to-business (G2B) relations has been quite under-researched. Drawing upon structuration and transactions costs theories, this paper analyzes how and why IS implementation causes structural adaption. Based on analysis of a case of an inter-organizational implementation of a financial management information system, the paper argues that: legitimation structural adaptation is occasioned by the need to balance efficiency and effectiveness between governance and IT sourcing; domination structural adaptation is occasioned by the need to balance efficiency and effectiveness between governance and business IT capability; and signification structural adaptation is occasioned by the need to achieve cost efficiency of shared goals and by availability of IT to preserve what is achieved over the long term. It is argued that this implementation perspective on structural adaptation deepens our understanding of socio-technical shaping of structure. It also offers far-reaching benefits to structure conception and its organizational application than the previous ones.

The Co-evolution of Organization, Technology and Personality

Understanding both the nature and the character of human personality in relation to organization and technology is important for the epistemology of mobile usability being espoused by this book. This has become necessary especially because of the fact that mobile computers are invariably personal technologies. They are personal in the sense of how they shape and are shaped by the evolution of personality. However, personality-based user needs are seldom considered in existing accounts of mobile usability. For instance, one of the motivations behind the espousal of this book’s thesis is that extant theories are bereft of cognitive ideas about the user’s means of existence and survival such as learning, development, personal information management and timely notifications of dangerous circumstances (Blom and Monk 2003). Furthermore, from the organizational perspective, mobile work now associates organizational role taking of the Weberian bureaucratic order with the personality of particular modes of a person’s being. This is because mobile computing is underpinned by diverse software applications and it engenders organizational services innovation. These attributes of mobile computing have induced the inclusion of workers’ persons in the organizational frame.

Mobile Foreign Exchange Trading and Computing in a Bahrain Bank

This chapter offers details on the MideastBank, and provides contextual perspectives pertaining to its environment in which this case study was undertaken. The context serves as the background for the bank’s adoption of mobile ICTs for foreign exchange trading. The information presented in this chapter is an extracted and edited version of Chaps. 5 and 6 of Adel Al-Taitoon’s Doctor of Philosophy dissertation (Al-Taitoon 2005). Having obtained permission from him to reproduce aspects of his work in this book, my extraction and editing for my arguments may inadvertently distort his original results. Therefore, I take responsibility for the information presented in this Chapter.

Mobile Learning and Computing in the British NHS

The objectives of this study, as set out in Chap. 1, orient towards the achievement of this requirement. The task demands a re-conceptualisation of the whole idea of distribution of activities based on an empirical study.