Rikard Lindgren

Using Competence Systems : Adoption Barriers and Design Suggestions

This paper examines barriers to adopting competence systems in knowledge work practice. On the basis of a technology review and a user site investigation, the paper relates the technical features of the investigated competence systems to the adoption barriers identified in six user organizations. The multiple-case study shows that the competence systems can be described as merely traditional personnel administration systems complemented by features that passively archive formalized descriptions of competencies. Building on this observation, the general objective of the paper is to provide design suggestions that facilitate successful integration of competence systems in organizations. The main conclusion of this paper is that competence systems need to have features conveying a technology spirit more in line with the knowledge work practice found in organizations. By researching competence systems and their features specifically, this paper contributes technology-specific knowledge within the area of knowledge management systems.

Design Matters for Decision Makers: Discovering it Investment Alternatives

The literature has traditionally focused on how decision makers choose among alternatives based on rational behaviors, organizational politics, and organized anarchies. However, there is little research on decision making as a creative process where managers discover and evaluate alternatives. We address this gap by proposing a design approach to transform decisions in organizations. The approach views decision making as a creative and adaptive process in which managers recursively collect and interpret heterogeneous evidence, explore and test different ideas, and discover and evaluate alternatives. While the approach is rooted in the know-how of the involved stakeholders, its underpinning design attitude invites managers to better understand possible alternatives based on analyses of structured as well as unstructured data. To assess its utility, we applied the approach to IT investment evaluations through a Collaborative Practice Research project involving Swedish public organizations. Building on the project findings, we discuss the proposed approach and spell out its implications for transforming decision making in organizations.

Knowledge management and mobility in a semi-virtual organization: lessons learned from the case of Telia Nara

This paper reports ethnographical research in search of new ways of designing CSCW systems that support knowledge management in a semi-virtual organization. One such way, suggested in this paper, is the design of mobile CSCW systems from the perspective of the developed NIR-model. According to the principles of the NIR-model and the empirical findings three concrete areas are worth mentioning: there is a call for responsibility management; conflict management becomes important; and skill management seems to be of great importance. This paper ends by concluding the impact of the NIR-model as an analytical tool, as well as highlighting important aspects of knowledge management of particular concern when designing CSCW systems for semi-virtual organizations.

Competence Visualizer: Generating Competence Patterns of Project Groups

This paper describes and evaluates the design of competence visualizer (CV), which is a competence system generating competence patterns of project groups. The system provides novel features that: (1) make it possible to survey competence status of teams in different sizes at a specific moment; (2) handle information about both existing competencies and competence interests; and (3) manage snapshots of a particular point of time and development over a certain period regarding existing competencies and competence interests. The results from the system evaluation include fields of application, future design challenges, and organizational issues. A first conclusion is that competence systems need the potential to handle flexible visualizations of existing competencies as well as competence interests of organizational members. A second conclusion is that organizational issues, such as incentives and management, are critical in order to attain data quality in a competence system.

Managing Identity Tensions During Mobile Ecosystem Evolution

The idea of an ecosystem suggests a holistic framing of how heterogeneous actors relate to one another and of the dynamics of their relationships. Because of the dynamics some relationships will become uncertain, posing significant challenge to the identity of participating organizations. Unfortunately, the Information Systems (IS) literature has not examined how organizations develop and negotiate their identities during ecosystem evolution. We fill this void by exploring identity challenges that Swedish Road Administration (SRA) faced while implementing the Radio Data System – Traffic Message Channel (RDS – TMC) traffic information service. Through a longitudinal case study we follow how SRA’s inherited expectations, guiding norms, and standards of sense-giving about its identity prevented it from becoming a flexible service provider within an emerging mobile ecosystem. We record a constant clash – the identity tension – between the old inherited identity of a public road administrator and the aspiring new identity of a digital service provider. To enact a successful identity change, SRA had to engage in a series of change episodes whereby it deliberately implemented new routines that forged novel relationships with actors within the ecosystem. This permitted SRA to gradually align its identity to the evolving needs of the RDS-TMC service ecosystem. Our findings suggest that deliberate attempts to implement innovative mobile services – especially those involving public-private partnerships – trigger intriguing identity ambiguities and role dilemmas, and future research should therefore focus on effective strategies to identify, manage, and resolve inherent identity tensions.

Evaluation of Information System Investments: A Value Dials Approach to Closing the Theory-Practice Gap

Failed or partially failed information systems (IS) investments continue to be a problem in both public and private sectors. Although there are many causes of such failure, lack of clarity about the goals and benefits expected and how they are to be realized is one of the major contributors. This is particularly so in the public sector where the purpose of IS investment is not to increase profits, but to accomplish social and political goals. One way of reducing failure and wastage rates is to have ex-ante evaluation. Over the past three decades IS research has proposed a plethora of new theoretical approaches to improving ex-ante evaluation, but with a few exceptions, these have had little impact on practice. This paper presents a way to address this gap between theory and practice. It proposes a way in which managers can improve IS investment evaluation by changing perspective from a focus on traditional analytic tools towards a design attitude that seeks to develop multi-criteria IS evaluation approach based on contextual experience and prior knowledge. The proposed approach enables organizations to design and develop a value case using value dials as a common language that defines what constitutes the value of particular IS investments for a specific context. To assess its effectiveness, this approach was applied using a multilevel dialogical action research project within a Swedish public organization. The findings show that managers in this organization significantly improved the effectiveness of their evaluation of IS investments.

Applying Options Thinking to Shape Generativity in Digital Innovation: An Action Research into Connected Cars

Although extant research convincingly argues that managers can change product innovation practices by exploiting new forms of generativity afforded by digital technology, the literature has so far been silent on how incumbent firms may conceive of and implement requisite generative capability. Against this backdrop, we report from an action research study into a digital innovation initiative aimed at developing connected cars. The managers in charge of the initiative engaged us as they faced considerable skepticism and push-back from the organization. To help the firm embrace new innovation norms and practices, we therefore infused innovation theory and options thinking into the group of managers as a means to conceive of and implement generative capability. As a result, we present and validate an integrative theoretical model of how incumbent firms may leverage digital options thinking to shape their organizational and technological resources into requisite generative capability. In conclusion, we discuss the contributions of the model and the empirical results to extant literature on generative capability in digital innovation.

Algorithmic Agency in Information Systems: Research Opportunities for Data Analytics of Digital Traces

The complex networks of today involve algorithms, humans, machines, and tools. As a consequence of their digital and sociotechnical nature, they increasingly exhibit autonomous and intelligent characteristics. This development puts prevailing assumptions about information systems at stake. In this paper, we specifically engage with a radical reframing of past conceptualizations of machine intelligence or agency. Based on our theorizing, we advance and substantiate a novel algorithmic agency perspective that centers around three key characteristics: algorithmic interpretation, data generativity, and input translation. These characteristics pave the way for a new wave of research in information systems. Our proposed research opportunities for data analytics of digital traces address conditions for, features of, and approaches to algorithmic agency.

Transport Coopetition for Environmental Sustainability: Guiding Vertical Standard Design

IS researchers have so far developed conceptual propositions rather than empirical insights into what it takes to green an industry in practice. This paper analyzes an ongoing ten-year action design research effort, which seeks to leverage transport competition for environmental sustainability by guiding vertical standard design. Drawing on extensive field data, the paper theorizes about design challenges that surround attempts to tie together people, technologies, and processes into integrated IT solutions. In doing so, it illustrates the usefulness of a competitive lens for understanding these challenges and their effects on the evolution of such solutions. The paper also suggests that the action design research approach helps IS researchers to guide technology development in real-world situations.

Building Digital Infrastructures: Towards an Evolutionary Theory of Contextual Triggers

Past IS research suggests it is challenging to build digital infrastructures and then make sure they grow. While more users, innovative services, and new partners spur infrastructure evolution, we know little of the specific contextual triggers that set these generative mechanisms in motion. To this end, we conduct a case study of a digitalized public transport infrastructure to identify such triggers and explore their impact on its evolution. Our study contributes to the extant literature on digital infrastructure evolution in two distinct ways. First, we analyze, define, and propose three contextual triggers that improve our understanding of the generative mechanisms behind infrastructure development and growth. Second, we rely on this conceptual basis to sketch out the initial contours of a novel evolutionary theory of digital infrastructure triggers.