Niall Hayes

Participation in groupware-mediated communities of practice: a socio-political analysis of knowledge working.

This paper adopts a communities of practice approach to examine how the introduction of a groupware application in a UK pharmaceuticals company enabled and constrained knowledge working. We will refine the analysis by distinguishing between participation that is undertaken in what is referred to as political enclaves, and participation that takes place in safe enclaves. We will discuss how the deliberate intervention of some employees moderated some of politicising, and facilitated increased participation. The paper concludes by suggesting ways in which existing theoretical conceptualisations of information systems and knowledge work may be expanded to consider socio-political issues in more depth.

On sociomaterial imbrications: What plagiarism detection systems reveal and why it matters

In the context of an increasingly mobile student population, and Greek students specifically, this paper opens up and reveals the manner in which a specific culturally situated human actor (the Greek student) and a specific culturally situated non-human actor (the plagiarism detection system) encounter, interpret and constitute each other within the situated context of the UK higher education system. Methodologically, we base our paper on a longitudinal in-depth case study that focussed on the teaching, learning and assessment practices in Greek public sector universities. Based on our Greek case example we specifically focus on how the delegation of plagiarism detection to a technical actor produces a particular set of agencies and intentionalities (a politics one might say) which unintentionally and unexpectedly conspires to constitute some students as plagiarists (who are not) and others as not (who are). We suggest that this is best explored by looking exactly at what is rendered visible and invisible in such imbrications. This has important implications for the design, implementation and use of IS in situated contexts.

Competing Interpretations of Computer-Supported Cooperative Work in Organizational Contexts

This paper will investigate the competing discourses between empowerment and control that surrounded the use of Lotus Notes in the UK selling division of a pharmaceuticals company called Compound UK. We will suggest that managing and using Notes in Compound UK was itself a rhetorical accomplishment, and that, by focusing on rhetoric, we can illuminate some of the contradictions that surround the management and use of the technology. We will also show how the political and normative context is deeply implicated in the reproduction of these competing interpretations. Finally, we will suggest that the introduction of the discourse of empowerment is implicated in changes in the work practices in Compound UK, at least to a minimal degree.

Conceptions of control and IT artefacts: an institutional account of the Amazon rainforest monitoring system

Based on Fligsteins (1990) work on ‘conceptions of control’ (broad managerial paradigms), this paper provides an analysis of the ways in which information technology (IT) artefacts shape and are shaped by institutional contexts. Specifically, we report on primary and secondary empirical data that spans a 44-year period pertaining to the uses made of the Amazon rainforest monitoring system (a set of satellite-based geographic information systems). This paper argues that: (1) the process of institutional change is conflictual, emergent and contested; (2) the design and use of IT artefacts tend to reflect the currently dominant conceptions of control; (3) that IT artefacts that emerge within a specific conception of control can be later reconfigured to serve the interests of other conceptions of control; (4) and finally, IT artefacts might unintentionally reinforce alternate conceptions of control and lead to institutional change.

Competing institutional logics and sustainable development: the case of geographic information systems in Brazil's Amazon region

This paper examines the possibilities that information and communication technology (ICT) provides for the achievement of environmental sustainable development – one of the key millennium development goals (MDGs). We base our paper on primary and secondary empirical data pertaining to the history of the governance of the Brazilian Amazon and the role of geographic information systems (GISs) in the region. Specifically, we argue that in order for the MDG to be achieved what is required is a thorough understanding of the differing institutional logics that have surrounded the past and current use of GIS in the Amazon region. We will argue that due to conflicting institutional logics the changes that have taken place in relation to the MDG of sustainability should be understood as being both emergent and contested. We will claim that the design and use of ICTs reflects the ways in which these conflicting logics are worked out at any moment in time. We conclude that in order for ICT to contribute to the MDGs, it is important to attend to the historical and contested institutional context and the potential for ICTs to be enacted in unanticipated ways.

Work-arounds and Boundary Crossing in a High TechOptronics Company: The Role of Co-operative Workflow Technologies

This study examines how some employeescoped with the exceptions that they encountered withtheir on-going use of a co-operative workflowtechnology in an optronics company. By drawing on thecase material, this paper will indicate thatapproaches which view work as being capable of beingplanned and managed through the formal authority ofthe hierarchy are insufficient. Instead, this paperwill suggest that exception handling, work-arounds andimprovisation are more characteristic of humanactivity. Computer supported co-operative work will beconceptualised as being embedded in a dynamicrelationship between the context it is situatedwithin, and the actors that engage in it. Theprinciples underlying ethnography have informed theresearch approach.

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.

Institutionalizing change in a high-technology optronics company: The role of information and communication technologies

This study examines how the introduction of a collaborative technology was utilized by some institutional groups to assert their dominance over other groups during boundary crossing encounters. To do this we detail an in-depth case study of the introduction of a collaborative workflow technology in a high-technology optronics company. The workflow technology sought to establish accountabilities and responsibilities, and engender quicker lines of communication between functions. Conceptually we draw on social constructivist literature on institutional theory and argue that in addition to looking to the broad socio-economic context, institutional change needs to be understood by attending to the fine-grained practices that are undertaken by staff in organizations. Specifically we will add to the limited accounts that have considered the ways in which ICTs are inextricably interlinked with institutionalization processes.

The Working Out of Modernization in the Public Sector: The Case of an E-government Initiative in Greece

It has become common place for governments to initiate electronic-government projects in order to reform public administration. This paper seeks to explore the ways in which an e-government project, as a potential mode of reformation, is established and made to work, and then, further, to account for some of its consequences for conventional public administration. To do so we draw upon a detailed empirical study of a Greek e-government initiative, the establishment of Citizen Service Centres (CSCs). CSCs represent a significant part of Greeces e-government strategy, which has sought to modernize public administration and make the provision of public services more efficient, accessible and responsive to citizens. Drawing upon Foucaults work on power/knowledge we show that the e-government initiative is established through various technologies of power that intend to discipline public sector staff towards a particular mode of working. We also illustrate that the establishment of these modernization practices is the outcome of considerable negotiation, improvisation and enactment as different occupational groups seek to collaborate (or not) across professional and institutional boundaries. Finally, we show and argue that rather than reforming the provision of public services, such e-government based modernization projects are more likely to reproduce, in more complex ways, the long established public sector practices it sought to change.

Narrowing down accountability through performance monitoring technology : e-government in Greece.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between performance monitoring technology and accountability in electronic government initiatives. Specifically, it aims to investigate how performance monitoring technologies are deployed in electronic government and the consequences that may arise from their implementation on public service accountability. Design/methodology/approach - The paper draws upon an in-depth empirical study of several Greek Citizens Service Centres (CSCs). CSCs are a central component of Greeces e-government strategy. Qualitative methods are deployed during fieldwork and data are analysed in line with the social constructionist paradigm. Findings - Contrary to the mainstream e-government literature, the paper argues that the introduction of performance monitoring technology does not always ensure accountability in the public sector. Overall, it suggests that performance technology may not necessarily lead to a form of accountability that always has the interests of the public at its heart. Instead it argues that it may lead to a narrowing down of accountability and the emergence of an instrumental rationality. Originality/value - The paper argues that the critical literature on management accounting provides important insights in understanding the consequences of performance monitoring in e-government projects and conceptualising the relationship between performance and accountability.