M.N. Ravishankar

Examining the Strategic Alignment and Implementation Success of a KMS: A Subculture-Based Multilevel Analysis

Two important gaps exist in the information systems (IS) alignment research. First, there is scant research on the potential of organizational culture, and specifically subcultures to influence the strategic alignment of IS and organizations. Second, there is a dearth of literature that considers the relationship between alignment and implementation success. In this paper, we address both of these gaps by considering the influence of organizational subcultures on the alignment of a specific IS---a knowledge management system (KMS)---with organizational strategy. Our analysis demonstrates the important roles played by three different subcultures---enhancing, countercultural, and chameleon---in the alignment of the KMS. The analysis also underscores the complementary nature of the alignment and implementation literatures and suggests that they should be used in concert to explain the success of an IS. Drawing on our analysis, we build a subculture model, which depicts the intersection of alignment and implementation. From a managerial perspective, the subculture model highlights three different approaches to managing alignment and implementation. From a theoretical perspective, our paper highlights the need for IS alignment models to be modified, so that subunit-level analyses are incorporated. It also illustrates that organizations confront challenges of alignment and implementation simultaneously rather than sequentially.

Research on information systems failures and successes: Status update and future directions

Information systems success and failure are among the most prominent streams in IS research. Explanations of why some IS fulfill their expectations, whereas others fail, are complex and multi-factorial. Despite the efforts to understand the underlying factors, the IS failure rate remains stubbornly high. A Panel session was held at the IFIP Working Group 8.6 conference in Bangalore in 2013 which forms the subject of this Special Issue. Its aim was to reflect on the need for new perspectives and research directions, to provide insights and further guidance for managers on factors enabling IS success and avoiding IS failure. Several key issues emerged, such as the need to study problems from multiple perspectives, to move beyond narrow considerations of the IT artifact, and to venture into underexplored organizational contexts, such as the public sector.

Information Technology Offshoring in India: A Postcolonial Perspective

In recent years India has become the information technology (IT) offshoring destination of choice for many Western organizations. From the perspective of vendor organizations in India, however, the IT offshoring phenomenon is more than just a business relationship with Western firms. It is also embedded within the context of the longstanding imbalances of power in the relationship between the West and the East, the implications of which have been largely ignored in empirical work on offshoring within the information systems (IS) discipline. Drawing on concepts from postcolonial theory and using data from our ethnographic fieldwork, we explore the experiences and responses of one Indian vendor organization to asymmetries of power in its relationship with Western client organizations. Our analysis demonstrates how a postcolonial reading and interpretation of IT offshoring adds an important new dimension to previous IS research and also helps to develop a more comprehensive understanding of the strategies deployed by vendor organizations.

Examining the influence of modularity and knowledge management (KM) on dynamic capabilities: Insights from a call center

Abstract Modularity in organizations can facilitate the creation and development of dynamic capabilities. Paradoxically, however, modular management can also stifle the strategic potential of such capabilities by conflicting with the horizontal integration of units. We address these issues through an examination of how modular management of information technology (IT), project teams and front-line personnel in concert with knowledge management (KM) interventions influence the creation and development of dynamic capabilities at a large Asia-based call center. Our findings suggest that a full capitalization of the efficiencies created by modularity may be closely linked to the strategic sense making abilities of senior managers to assess the long-term business value of the dominant designs available in the market. Drawing on our analysis we build a modular management-KM-dynamic capabilities model, which highlights the evolution of three different levels of dynamic capabilities and also suggests an inherent complementarity between modular and integrated approaches.

Public ICT Innovations: A Strategic Ambiguity Perspective

Public Information and Communications Technology (ICT) innovations are seen as having the potential to usher in a new era of technology-enabled models of governance in emerging economies. While it may be desirable for the implementation of such innovations to be underpinned by precise planning, structure and clarity, policy implementers in emerging economies are confronted instead by situations where ambiguous goals and means are standard. This paper considers high levels of ambiguity as a relatively enduring and intrinsic aspect of public ICT innovations in emerging economies. Drawing on an ethnographic study of Bangalore one, an innovative public ICT project implemented in Bangalore, India, the paper examines how strategic ambiguity is deployed by key public actors to chart the course of the implementation process and to steer it towards reasonable outcomes. Theoretically, the paper suggests that although strategic ambiguity is a precarious and unsettling condition in general, it can work effectively in contexts that are reasonably tolerant of ambiguous norms. The findings of the study also present arguments for why evaluation mechanisms need to be fundamentally reframed in order to assess the extent of implementation success of public ICT innovations in emerging economies.

The continuity of underperforming ICT projects in the public sector

There is a growing body of research on the successes and failures of information and communications technology (ICT) projects in the public sector. However, this literature has rarely addressed the question of why some projects persist and continue despite functioning poorly in several areas. In this paper, we suggest that the notions of institutional logics and status differences provide useful insights into the structure and trajectory of this type of continuity. We build our arguments through an in-depth qualitative case study of a public information and communications technology (PICT) project in India. From our findings, we develop a process model of PICT project continuity. We explain how the employment of bureaucratic posturing - a manifestation of bureaucratic logic - as a tactic by high status groups could lead to poor performance on several fronts. The paper elaborates on two levels of continuity: policy-level continuity, which in our case was enabled by the logics of decentralization and technocracy, and operational-level continuity, which was achieved when groups with contrasting status-related motivations supported the project.

Examining Resistance, Accommodation and the Pursuit of Aspiration in the Indian IT-BPO Space: Reflections on Two Case Studies

This article is based on case studies of two organisations: an India-based information technology (IT) services company and a financial services company located in the UK and India. Although they operate in different sectors and have some notable contrasts, both can be seen as typifying aspects of Indias new economy. Our article explores the lived experience of working in this economy - a perspective that has been relatively neglected in the extant literature. Drawing on Homi Bhabhas notions of ambivalence and mimicry, and V. S. Naipauls powerful illustrations of these concepts in his fiction and non-fiction works, we report on how respondents talked about their aspirations within Indias emerging economy, and examine their mobilisation of particular discursive resources as forms of accommodation and resistance to the demands they face at work.

Impact sourcing ventures and local communities: a frame alignment perspective

Using qualitative methods, this paper explores how impact sourcing (ImS) ventures frame their activities to marginalized communities. In doing so, the paper attempts to unearth the social–psychological processes undergirding ImS strategies. The findings highlight the difficulties faced by ImS ventures in operationalizing their strategic intent. More specifically, the paper provides insights into how different and diverse framings are used by ImS ventures to influence the local community. From a strategic perspective, the paper suggests that framings related to progress, family, material benefit and egalitarianism can help overcome the inevitable tensions and misunderstandings with the community. Drawing on the findings, we develop a process model that describes how competing framings of an ImS venture and the community could eventually align. Theoretically, the paper illuminates the day to day micro‐processes of reality negotiation between socially driven information technology – business process outsourcing businesses and the local communities they seek to impact.

The Realignment of Offshoring Frame Disputes (OFD): An Ethnographic ‘Cultural’ Analysis

In Information Systems (IS) research on cross-cultural issues, cultural categories are typically introduced as analytical labels that explain why and how organizational groups in different parts of the world act and think differently. However, broad cultural categories can also be discursively mobilized by organizational members as strategic adaptive resources. Drawing on an ethnographic study of offshoring frame disputes (OFD) in an Indian subsidiary unit of a large Western information technology (IT) organization, this paper explores how members actively invoke a series of beliefs about Western culture and implicitly position them as the binary opposite of Eastern (or Indian) culture. The findings demonstrate how the mobilization of such beliefs eventually plays a vital role in the reconciliation of four different types of OFD. Drawing on this analysis, I build a social–psychological process model that explains how frame extensions trigger a cognitive reorganization process, leading to the accomplishment of OFD realignment. The paper argues that discursively invoked binary cultural categories help maintain non-confrontational definitions of situations and sustain working relationships in IT offshoring environments. Furthermore, interpretations linked to cultural notions seem to reflexively take the offshore–onshore power differentials into account.

Exploring situationally inappropriate social media posts: an impression management perspective

Purpose – Social media technologies are used by many organizations to project a positive image of their strategies and operations. At the same time, however, there are an increasing number of reports of slip-ups linked to poor situational awareness and flawed self-presentations on social media platforms. The purpose of this paper is to explore the triggers of inappropriate social media posts. Design/methodology/approach – Data were collected during a qualitative study of social media use in 31 organizations in the UK and interpreted using concepts from Erving Goffman’s theory of impression management. Findings – The findings point to a series of demanding triggers, which increase the likelihood of insensitive and contextually inappropriate posts and also damage fostered impressions. Originality/value – The authors identify four triggers linked to inappropriate social media posts, namely: speed and spontaneity; informality; blurred boundaries; and the missing audience. The authors also discuss how extendin...