Nathalie Mitev

A multiple narrative approach to information systems failure: a successful system that failed

We discuss the introduction of an information system where the dominant coalition claimed project success. While the key users did not use the system as intended and the project goals were not achieved, the project committee reported success to the top management board. Using a multi-methodological approach, we can follow how different stakeholders attributed different meanings to the system introduced over time. The rhetorical tools used are analysed using a narrative methodology. We draw on the social construction of technology and use the concept of relevant social groups to understand the different interests influencing the organisational dynamics. We complement this approach by employing the concepts of organisational power and cultural fit between the new system and the different subcultures. We found that this multiple approach explains well how the acceptance of the new software processes was interpreted differently within the organisation, and also by the software supplier. Although limited, our case study reveals the process of socially constructing the success or failure of an information system using this multiple research approach. We compare our results with the literature on IS failures and we consider the value of combining constructionist and critical approaches through a narrative methodology.

Reflexive Evaluation of an Academic–Industry Research Collaboration: Can Mode 2 Management Research Be Achieved?

We present a reflexive retrospective account of a UK government research council funded project deploying knowledge management software to support environmental sustainability in the construction industry. This project was set up in a form typical of a Mode 2 research programme involving several academic institutions and industrial partners, and aspiring to fulfil the Mode 2 criteria seen as transdisciplinarity and business relevance. The multidisciplinary nature is analysed through retrospectively reflecting upon the research process and activities we carried out, and is found to be problematic. No real consensus was reached between the partners on the ‘context of application’. Difficulties between industry and academia, within industry and within academia led to diverging agendas and different alignments for participants. The context of application does not (pre-)exist independently of institutional influences, and in itself cannot drive transdisciplinarity since it is subject to competing claims and negotiations. There were unresolved tensions in terms of private vs. public construction companies and their expectations of ICT-based knowledge management, and in terms of the sustainable construction agenda. This post hoc reflexive account, enables us to critique our own roles in having developed a managerial technology for technically sophisticated and powerful private industrial actors to the detriment of public sector construction partners, having bypassed sustainability issues, and not reached transdisciplinarity. We argue that this is due to institutional pressures and instrumentalization from academia, industry and government and a restricted notion of business relevance. There exists a politically motivated tendency to oppose Mode 1 academic research to practitioner-oriented Mode 2 approaches to management research. We argue that valuing the links between co-existing Mode 1 and 2 research activities would support a more genuine and fuller exploration of the context of application.

In and out of actor‐network theory: a necessary but insufficient journey

Purpose – This paper seeks to offer a retrospective look at an intellectual journey in and out of using actor‐network theory, which the author drew on to carry out an in‐depth case study of the troubled implementation of a computerised reservation system in a major transport company. The application of some key ANT concepts, i.e. human and non‐human actors, symmetry and translation, is reflected upon, highlighting their benefits and limitations.Design/methodology/approach – The papers aims are accomplished through a confessional account of how it was done, rather than a normative post hoc justification. Some empirical evidence is provided to illustrate the difficulties and problems encountered in travelling back and forth between theory, methodology and data.Findings – In particular, ANT was very useful in focusing the paper on how to look at IS success and failure symmetrically and how social and technical distinctions are socially constructed, for instance in the conception and application of yield man...

An Historically-Grounded Critical Analysis of Research Articles in IS

In order to explore scientific writing in Information Systems (IS) journals, we adopt a combination of historical and rhetorical approaches. We first investigate the history of universities, business schools, learned societies and scientific articles. This perspective allows us to capture the legacy of scientific writing standards, which emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries. Then, we focus on two leading IS journals (EJIS and MISQ). An historical analysis of both outlets is carried out, based on data related to their creation, evolution of editorial statements, and key epistemological and methodological aspects. We also focus on argumentative strategies found in a sample of 436 abstracts from both journals. Three main logical anchorages (sometimes combined) are identified, and related to three argumentative strategies: ‘deepening of knowledge’, ‘solving an enigma’ and ‘addressing a practical managerial issue’. We relate these writing norms to historical imprints of management and business studies, in particular: enigma-focused rhetorics, interest in institutionalized literature, neglect for managerially grounded rhetoric and lack of reflexivity in scientific writing. We explain this relation as a quest for academic legitimacy. Lastly, some suggestions are offered to address the discrepancies between these writing norms and more recent epistemological and theoretical stances adopted by IS researchers.

An Empirical Study of Internet Usage and Difficulties among Medical Practice Management in the UK

Considers the use of information technology in the UK National Health Service (NHS) as the government pledges to connect every doctor or general practitioner (GP) to the NHS’s information superhighway by the year 2002. This paper uses a case study of a particular UK health authority as a vehicle to illustrate the complexity of the social and technical considerations surrounding this issue. At a grass roots level, the adoption and diffusion of information technology within general practices (surgeries or groups of GPs) is highly varied and there are huge contrasts in the levels of commitment to information management. Within the case study this is evident on an individual level, in that some GPs enthuse about technology, while others are positively “technophobic”. On the general practice level, there are other elements to consider, especially in relation to the levels of financial support available. Non‐fund holding general practices in socially deprived areas are far less willing to embrace information ma...

Small businesses and information technology: risk, planning and change

Some of the factors contributing to the risks SMEs take when implementing information technology were investigated in a questionnaire survey of 18 small businesses in the Greater Manchester area, complemented by interviews with the advisers working at the Greater Manchester Business Innovation Centre. New technology can seem a threat to small business owner‐managers and there is a link between business growth and the use of IT. There has been increased adoption of all categories of software, from databases, CAD‐CAM and presentation packages, to spreadsheets and communications software, but respondents expressed dissatisfaction with software, more than with hardware. There is a perceived lack of expertise in the planning process as well as the technology itself. Responses were split over loss of managerial control: SME owner‐managers want to remain in control, IT may be associated with growth, and some may resist growth. A strong need for impartial advice, independent from computer vendors, has been expres...

Seizing the opportunity: towards a historiography of information systems

Historical perspectives are only timidly entering the world of IS research compared to historical research in management or organisation studies. If major IS outlets have already published history-oriented papers, the number of historical papers – although increasing – remains low. We carried out a thematic analysis of all papers on History and IS published between 1972 and 2009 indexed on ABI and papers indexed in Google Scholar™ for the same period. We used a typology developed by theorists Üsdiken and Kieser, who classify historical organisation research into supplementarist, integrationist and reorientationist approaches. We outline their links with the epistemological stances well known in IS research, positivism, interpretivism and critical research; we then focus on their differences and historiographical characteristics. We found that most IS History papers are supplementarist descriptive case studies with limited uses of History. This paper then suggests that IS research could benefit from adopting integrationist and reorientationist historical perspectives and we offer some examples to illustrate how that would contribute to enriching, extending and challenging existing theories.

Applying and theorizing institutional frameworks in IS research: A systematic analysis from 1999 to 2009

Purpose – This paper investigates how Information Systems (IS) researchers apply institutional theoretical frameworks. The purpose of this paper is to explore the operationalization of meta-theoretical frameworks for empirical research which can often present difficulties in IS research. The authors include theoretical, methodological and empirical aspects to explore modalities of use and suggest further avenues. Design/methodology/approach – After an overview of institutional concepts, the authors carry out a thematic analysis of journal papers on IS and institutional frameworks indexed in EBSCO and ABI databases from 1999 to 2009. This consists of descriptive, thematic coding and cluster analysis of this textual database, this combined qualitative and quantitative method offers a unique way of analyzing how operationalization is carried out. Findings – The findings suggest three groups of publications which represent different methodological approaches and empirical foci: “descriptive exploratory approaches,” “generalizing approaches,” and “sociological approaches.” The authors suggest that these three groups represent possible patterns of the use of “meta” social theories in IS research, reflecting a search for disciplinary legitimacy. This helps us analyze papers according to how they use and apply theories. The authors identify the “organizing vision” and the regulatory approach as two institutionalist “intermediary” concepts developed by IS researchers. Furthermore, the authors find that institutional theoretical frameworks have been used in “direct,” “intermediary” or “combined” conceptualizations. The authors also confirm the dynamism of the IS institutional research stream, as evidenced by the increase in number of articles between 1999 and 2009, and identify a maturation process of the IS field in investigating a social theory. Originality/value – The evolution the authors identify in the application of institutional theoretical frameworks in the IS field reveals conformity in methodological, theoretical and empirical terms. By identifying these patterns, it becomes possible to understand institutional reasons for their existence and legitimacy; and to propose other avenues of exploration in future IS research, such as combining different theoretical lenses in institutional frameworks. The methodological contribution is to provide an innovative methodology which helps describe categories and levels of institutional theoretical frameworks used, leading to the identification of gaps and proposing further avenues of research.

Beyond health warnings: risk, regulation, failure and the paradoxes of risk management

H elga Drummond cleverly focuses in her article on risk registers, which enables her to clearly spell out their dysfunctional effects. She thoroughly explores their ‘dark side’ and how, although based on purposes of efficiency and control, over-relying on them can lead to difficulties. She shows how they reduce reality and exclude managers’ feelings, intuition and context, beguiling them into making decisions based on incomplete data. She insists that risk remains an elusive, unpredictable and dynamic entity, and that risk management techniques such as risk registers legitimate and privilege one way of seeing to the detriment of others. They are not amenable to translation, and their notation becomes the way of seeing risk, leading to an illusion of control. She uses recent examples to illustrate her point further, such as Toyota’s product failure and recall of faulty cars. Suggesting that risk registers should carry a health warning, she offers novel metaphors (ghosts/shadows, mutation, imp and irony) as a way to warn managers of their dangers. This is fundamentally sensible advice. Her main argument is that information and knowledge can only be seen as ‘perspectival’ and thus that risk registers are metaphors rather than full representations of reality. This is a well-known argumentation, fully articulated by science and technology studies scholars in particular. Here, Drummond uses instead a concept associated with systems theory, ‘metonymy’, to explain how some things become obscured, and registers are only partial representations. She combines systems and informational perspectives to critically examine managers’ experiences in creating, maintaining and using risk registers, and how social and economic connotations are merely translated into descriptors and numerical probabilities. She also combines these informational and systemic aspects (sum of parts, surplus reality, aggregation and standardization) with psychological concepts such as perception, bias, symbolism, rituals, demonstration of competence and information overload as a way of explaining the difficulties managers encounter when producing, interpreting, and acting upon risk registers. Through this analysis, Drummond finally makes the case that only risk that can be known, predicted and managed tends to be taken into consideration in risk management. This is done convincingly and resonates with much IS research on the limitations of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to support (if not automate) managerial decision-making, from early Management Information Systems (MIS) (Ackoff, 1967) to knowledge management (Walsham, 2001). But there is a difference between managerial technologies at large and risk management in particular. Beyond the usual limitations identified and clearly illustrated by Drummond, risk management is part of a broader societal change, which has been explored by various scholars and deserves to be related to the limitations of scientific representation and the illusion of control exposed in her article. The following briefly outlines some of the main concepts from the literature on risk overlooked in Drummond’s analysis, which can lead to a more comprehensive understanding of risk management and its many paradoxes.

Organizational and Implementation Issues of Patient Data Management Systems in an Intensive Care Unit

Health and medical informatics encompass a very broad field that is rapidly developing in both its research and operational aspects. The discipline has many dimensions, including social, legal, ethical and economic. This book, Effective Health care Information Systems puts a special emphasis on issues dealing with the most recent innovations such as telemedicine, Web-based medical information and consulting systems, expert systems and artificial intelligence.