1.

The challenge: organization, innovation, technology

Effy & Sosik: ”Why information systems are abandoned”

Why IS projects fail:

1. Lack of corporate leadership
2. Poorly communicated goals
3. Inadequate skills and means
4. Poor project management
5. Deviation from timetable/budget

Things that are connected to leadership, clear goals and clear

communication are more associated with failure of IS than
hardware/software.

Brynjolfsson & Lorin: “Beyond computation”

How investments in information technology are linked to higher

productivity and organizational transformation. IT owns the ability to
enable complementary organizational investments (ex: business
processes). These investments, in turn, lead to productivity increases by
reducing cost. It is also enabling increase output quality in the form of
new products etc.
Investments in IT have more effect in the long term than the short term.
It takes multiple years of adaption and investment before the influence is
maximized.
2. Concepts of organization and technology

Star & Ruhleder: “Steps toward an ecology of infrastructure”

Infrastructure is fundamentally and always a RELATION, never a thing. All

work can be observed and routinized. Users are sources of requirements,
and eventually become the systems receivers.
Choices and politics are embedded in organization systems which
becomes expressed components. Hermeneutics (= interpretation.
Hermeneutic circle = the whole text and the individual part cannot be
understood without reference to one another) plays an important role in
organizational communication. This shows that no artifact is a
standalone thing. Its development and use are defined by complex
relationships. (Project artifact, documented outputs and work products specific to a
project implementation).
Problems with infrastructure should not be seen as “user resistance” or
“success/failure”. Rather, they are organizational and learning
challenges.

Bateson’s levels of learning and communication:

1.First level issues: (issues which may be solved with a redistribution or

increase of existing resources, including information).
Informational issues: Potential users need to find out about the system,
and need to determine the requirements for its installation and use.
Issues of physical access: physical access is a critical issue.
Baseline skills and Computing expertise: skill-related issues can be cast as
an access issue just as much as space or location.

2. Second level issues: (issues which result from unforeseen or

unknowable contextual effects, for example from the interaction of two
or more first-level issues)
Technical choices and a clash of cultures
Paradoxes of infrastructure
Tensions between a discipline in flux and constraints as resources

3. Third level issues: (these issues are essentially political; they involve
problems whose resolution is dependent upon social or cultural norms.
Meta-message)
Triangulation and definition of objects
Multiple meanings and data interpretation
Network externalities and electronic participation
Tool building and the reward structure

Infrastructure IS context for both communication and learning regarding

computing (the using and development of computer technology) 
computers, people and tasks all contribute to messages effectiveness.

Need to consider two aspects:

1) The relationship between technology and work
2) The relationship between the tool and user
(UPS considered 1), wanted to improve efficiency and customer service
through developing the DIAD. Neglected 2) as not enough training was
provided for the end user – the driver).

Schmidt: “The organization of cooperative work”

Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) = how collaborative

activities and their coordination can be supported by means of computer systems.

Modern work organizations must be able to adapt rapidly to changes in

environmental conditions and demands, and at the same time be able to
coordinate and integrate their distributed activities in an efficient and
effective way  modern work organizations need support from advanced
information systems that is capable of helping horizontal coordination of
distributed decision making.
Transaction cost = the most central issue is the relationship between
organization and market.
Common’s concept of “cooperation”: Cooperation does not arise from a
presupposed harmony of interest – it arises from the necessity of
creating a NEW harmony of interests, or at least order.
Common – the transaction is the unit of economic activity.

Coase’s point: Firms exist where the cost of conducting a transaction

within the firm is less than the cost of conducting the same transaction in
the market.

Williamson’ view: cooperative work arrangements and transactions are

complementary units of analysis. The cooperative work arrangements
are joined under “common ownership”.

The general conception of organization developed by the Transaction

Cost Approach is: ORGANIZATIONS ARE ENTITIES OF COMMON
OWNERSHIP.

Critique towards the Transaction Cost Approach:

- In the transaction cost world, individuals only interact as opportunistic
actors trying to maximize their own individual gains.
- It is difficult to view an organization with the common ownership
aspect, as for example, employees regard their desks as their OWN.
- Neglecting the fact that cooperative work arrangements are constituted
by interdependencies of different natures.

COOPERATIVE WORK – 4 main perspectives:

1) The cooperative work arrangement:

- Constituted by the fact that multiple actors are transforming or
controlling complex objects or processes.
- Because of the actors’ interdependence, they must
coordinate/schedule their respective activities.
- Cooperative work relations are formed because of the limited
capabilities of single human individual, when handed a complex task.
- Cooperation justifies itself, as it is overcoming the limitations of the
individual’s capability.
- Combination of specialties: a mix of people provides a wide range of
specialties.
- Cooperative work arrangements may facilitate multiple problem-solving
tactics and interpretations of problems, hence a more objective decision
is provided in the end. Multiple perspectives helps problem-solving.
- Cooperative work arrangements are dynamic networks.

2) The work organization

- Need for identifying likely and skilled partners – who is going to do
what with what responsibility?
- Cooperative work is normally organized.

3) The formal organization

- Cooperative work arrangements involves multiple individuals ,
motivated by individual interests and aspirations and pursuing individual
goals. Everyone wants to know “What’s in it for me?”.
- In a formal organization, the arrangements can be forced through legal
and administrative means.
- The FORMAL organization is therefore, essentially a governance
structure influencing the behaviors of individuals in accordance to both
internal and external stakeholders.

4) The firm, the network

- The legal sense of an entity of ownership within which resources are
common property.
3. A) E-business, E-government

Ciborra: “Reframing the role of computers in organizations”

The transaction cost approach = links the notions of information,

uncertainty and organization in an original way. Resistance to change
and retention of information is seen as factors and behaviors which can
be rationally understood and carefully anticipated. Information
technology is used as a means to lower transaction costs.

The data approach = when implementing an information technology, it is

only necessary to consider the data flows and files in that organization.
Ignores economic and social nature.
The decision approach = information technology is support to decision
making. Managers facing complex tasks and environments use
information in order to reduce the uncertainty associated with decision
making.

The market, the hierarchical firm and the group are the most efficient
organizational mechanisms for solving the fundamental problems of
organizing.

The costs of organizing are decreased by information technology which

can streamline all or part of the information processing required in
carrying out an exchange.
Lee, Tan & Trimi: “Current practices of leading e-government countries”

E-government practices mirror each country’s information

communication technology diffusion and government efforts toward
political reform. An effective e-government program requires successful
and seamless integration of appropriate ICT, quality information,
engaged public employees, good administrative processes, and
government leadership.
E-government should be implemented because advanced ICT provides
enormous new opportunities to improve public services for citizens and
to enhance the efficiency of government operations.
B) Document management, electronic patient records, workflow
management

Berg: “Implementing information systems in health care organizations”

Inadequate design of an information system (ex: inadequate user interface) or

its poor performance (ex: slow response time) will reduce its chances of being
implemented successfully.
The question whether an implementation has been a success/failure is socially
negotiated (meaning it is not a technical matter).
Organizational issues are key because technical difficulties can be the result of
poorly managed development processes. When users are not sufficiently
involved in the design process, the user-interface may become illogical from
the users’ point of view. (THE SOCIO-TECHNICAL APPROACH).
Success factors:
- economically (UPS success)
- system is up and running on time (UPS failure)
- appreciation of the users (UPS failure)

Success of a system becomes the question of success FOR WHOM 

success is a dynamic concept.

Information system implementation should not be run as ‘mere’ technical

project. It should be managed as a process of organizational development.
Crucially, both representatives from future users and representative from top
level management should be involved in the implementation process. User
involvement should be taken much more extensively under consideration (ex:
let them try out the system in their work setting).

Business process redesign or reengineering (BPR) – the sure route to

competitive advantages and organizational survival. BPR states that managers
should be willing to radically redesign business processes to optimize the
processes’ effectiveness and efficiency.
The most ‘successful’ implementation processes appear to be those in which an
obsession for control and planning is replaced by an obsession for
experimentation and mutual learning.

Ellingsen & Monteiro: “Seamless integration”

The force for organizational integration translates into an issue of technical

information system integration.
Integration of information systems could be acknowledged as a socio-technical
issue. There is a rich repertoire of proposed technical mechanisms for achieving
tight or “seamless” integration but few socio-technical analysis’s.
Lacking integration presently established may be acknowledged, but the
AMBITION of integration remains.
Problems with implementation processes – for example: insufficient user
involvement.
(To make an implementation successful, it is necessary for it to have become
fully integrated; otherwise it will not be able to carry out all of its capabilities).
The article implies that a local setting is no longer local, but is dependent on
design in other settings. This implies that truly user-led development is
impossible to achieve in large-scale integration projects. (ARGUMENT FÖR
DETTA!?)

Grinter: “Workflow systems”

Workflow systems have emerged as one solution to the problem of

coordinating events, artifacts and people. Attempts to reduce the complexity of
coordination.
Three basic steps of workflow management:
1) The work to be done is reduced to a basic form through a process of
categorization.
2) The categorization breaks up work into elements such as activities,
documents and roles.
3) Once categorized, relations among the different components can be
properly defined.
 The power behind this process is that the formalization of the categorization
can be programmed into a computer = automation.

Workflow management remains a seductive technology for many corporations.

Many companies are continually looking for ways to reduce the time and cost
associated with their products and services. Workflow systems have been
suggested as one way of managing these challenges. It is also used to support
work processes, through the use of information technology such as workflow
systems. Workflow systems have a challenge: to find ways to support the works
of individuals in a useful manner.

Critique: Workflow systems are a resource, that helps individuals orient

themselves to actions, but they cannot predict or protect those engaged in the
actual work from emergencies that arise.

Schmidt: Two different uses of plans -

- a map guiding its user towards a potential outcome
- plans that serve as scripts, guiding the actions of individuals much more
directly
He argues that these kinds of “plans” (standardization) is required when
developing projects. Furthermore, he argues that this is especially true when
the group working on the activity increases in size.

Software engineering = understanding and improving development.

Software crisis = the enormous complexities of developing large systems.

Configuration Management (CM) = organizing hardware (now also software)

projects. It is a way of tracking all the pieces of the products during
development.

Modern CM systems also manage the relationships among components and

support the development of multiple product variants.

Problem Management = development of solutions to specific problems that

need fixing.

Process Management = providing the same functionality for all the entities in
the system (ex: documents, libraries etc).
4. Knowledge management

Ciborra & Andreu: “Sharing knowledge across boundaries”

The learning ladder: a model for the single firm  internal learning
processes. People learn by doing. A firm’s competitive strength is a
process that develops core capabilities. Knowledge management at this
level, results in a continuously improving set of capabilities – specialized
ways of using resources for given purposes. 3 learning loops on the
ladder:
1) Routinization learning loop – basic, routinizes work practices while
using resources.
2) Capability learning loop – combines work practices and organizational
routines in order to form capabilities.
3) Strategic loop – gives meaning to capabilities in the context of the
firm’s competitive environment and business mission, thus allowing the
selection of core capabilities.

Knowledge management should be used for creating occasions for the

effective mixing of inside and outside knowledge.

Interorganizational learning ladders  knowledge becomes shared

across separate organizations and new knowledge is developed in the
process.

Cultural aspects and values is an important aspect of knowledge sharing.

It determines to what extent possibility can become reality.

Markus: “Toward a theory of knowledge reuse”

One of the key themes in knowledge management is the role of

information technology (IT) in the transfer of knowledge between those
who have it and those who don’t.
Explicit knowledge – captured knowledge, documented (the only
knowledge that is province of IT).
Tacit knowledge – knowledge that resides in people’s heads.

Knowledge reuse – sharing best practices or helping others solve

common technical problems.

Basic concepts in knowledge reuse:

Knowledge reuse process:
- Capturing and documenting knowledge
- Packaging knowledge for reuse
- Distributing knowledge
- Reusing knowledge

Roles:
- Knowledge producer = originator and documenter of knowledge
- Knowledge intermediary = prepares knowledge for reuse by
indexing/summarizing it
- Knowledge consumer = the knowledge reuser who retrieves the
content and applies it in some way.

When people knowingly create records for the use of others who are
quite dissimilar, the records they create will be quite different from the
ones they create for themselves.

Orlikowski: “Learning from NOTES”

Because people act towards technology on the basis of their

understanding of it, people’s technological frames often need to be
changed to accommodate a new technology. When people don’t
appreciate the purposes of a new technology they may use it in less
effective ways. This suggests that a crucial aspect of implementing new
groupware is ensuring that future users have an appropriate
understanding of the technology  the new technology is embraced as a
collective rather than a personal tool. Learning groupware collectively
may foster joint understanding and expectations.
This article implies that in the early adaption of a new technology,
cognitive and structural elements play an important role in influencing
how people think about and assess the value of the technology. And
these significantly influence how they choose to use the technology.

Bansler & Havn: “Knowledge sharing in heterogeneous groups”

Reasons for the risk of a implementation of knowledge sharing to failure:

- Pressure of time (heavy burden of communication already)
- Motivation (if people are going to spend time on something – they need
a motivation to do it. “Knowledge hoarding” is a common problem in
many organizations)
5. Doing innovation

"An 'innovation' is the implementation of a new or significantly improved

product (good or service), or process, a new marketing method, or a new
organisational method in business practices, workplace organisation or
external relations."

Akrich, Callon & Latour: “The key to success in innovation Part I”

Innovations are more and more the result of a collective activity rather
than one inspired and dedicated individual. The individual qualities of
insight, intuition, skillfulness etc. MUST ALL be reinvented and
reformulated in the language of the organization.

Innovation resembles a union process but it is of a particular nature since

the two elements brought together – market and technology – evolve in
an unpredictable way.

An innovation in the making reveals a multiplicity of confused decisions

made by a large number of different (and sometimes conflicting) groups.
(Stakeholders who want to have their say in the matter?).

The innovation is a course which, from decision to decision, will lead you
to the right market with the right product at the right time. This constant
pressure is necessary for the innovation process.

The decisions involved in an innovation process are made in the middle

of uncertainties amongst which it is practically impossible for a sure case
to be guaranteed. Innovation is created by instability, by unpredictability
which no method will manage to master entirely.

Cost/profitability – in case of innovation this is nothing more than

argument for some stakeholders.
If an innovation succeeds, it is because it satisfies a demand.
One way of securing successful innovation is to have a good relationship
with customer, in order to discuss problems which they encounter, their
projects and their expectations. Of course, this is not enough to settle all
problems. Innovation NEEDS space of uncertainty to trigger beneficial
reorganizations. Hence, market research or contact with users is a
necessary “hunt”.

Model of diffusion: spreading of innovation. Either resistance or

“embrace” of the new innovation. Both failure and success depends on
the mutual adaption of a well defined product and a clearly identified
public. The innovation must integrate itself into a network of actors who
take it up, support it, diffuse it – all of this depends on the technical
choices made.
Model of interessement: sets out all of the actors who embrace the
object (innovation) or turn away from it.

Akrich, Callon & Latour: “The key to success in innovation Part II”

The diffusion model – the innovation becomes widespread due to its

fundamental properties. To adopt an innovation is to adapt it – a
collective elaboration and the key for a growing interessement.
The model of interessement – the fate of the innovation depends on the
active participation of all those who have decided to develop it.

The innovator is perfectly free to believe in his product, but then he must
be able to show that he is capable of turning the resistance while finding
new allies  importance of being able to master a socio-economic
context.

The whirlwind model:

The innovation transforms itself in every “loop” – redefining its
properties and its public. Several passes are necessary, in general
(Meaning: give a proposal, get turned down, restructure, propose again
etc. etc.). Establishes the art of compromise and the capacity of
adaption.

The fate of innovation, its content but also its chances of success, rest
entirely on the choice of representatives or spokespersons who will
interact, negotiate to give shape to the project and to transform it until a
market is built. The innovation which succeeds is the one which comes to
master it by choosing good speakers. The fate of the innovation depends
on the spokespersons’ constant negotiations. To choose a spokesperson
is to define, or implement, strategic direction, but it is also to choose
what is to be innovated and the problems which will need to be resolved.

The innovator can only put himself in the hands of some rare speakers,
of whom he never completely knows who or what they are representing.
Doubt, trust, then gratitude and admiration are at the heart of
innovation. The innovator constantly assesses the people he meets or
works with.
POINTS FOR ORAL EXAM:

- As this was the fourth version of the DIAD, UPS management might have
assumed that drivers were used to the technology (since the previous versions)
 therefore did not see reason for extensive training of drivers. (Concepts of
Organizational Technology)
- Akhrich suggests that innovation is made from a collective point of view. Was
this the case with UPS? Or was it more a top decision. (Doing innovation)
- Critique towards Workflow management. Technology can only do so much. It
is not able to resolve the problematic nature of unpredictability etc. UPS might
have relied too much on the DIAD, instead of ensuring that the complex human
beings (the drivers) were fully integrated with the project.
- Was it really a FAILURE for the drivers? They were still able to do their jobs;
however they found the DIAD IV irritating.