دانلود رایگان مقاله تمرکز حواس جمعی در فرایند انطباق سیستم اطلاعات پس از اجرا

Abstract

The organizational consequences of implementing information systems (IS) in organizations have primarily been studied during the implementation or early post-implementation phase. We argue for the need to study the continuous organizational adaptation of evolving IS because of the challenges such processes pose for users, as well as the organizational capabilities they demand. We report from a qualitative study in a hospital setting in which a scanning project was initiated two years after the initial implementation of an Electronic Health Record system. The project was initially conceived to be minor, but led to thorough redesign of work processes and routines. We give a detailed account of the challenges encountered and the actions taken as part of the users' sensemaking in this project. By describing how the making, giving, demanding, specification, and breaking of sense were carried out, we identify the way in which the organizational capability we call “collective mindfulness” was achieved. Being aware of how to practically achieve collective mindfulness, managers may be able to better facilitate mindful handling of post-implementation IS adaptation processes.

7. Concluding remarks

IS implementation studies have, to a limited degree, focused explicitly on the post-implementation phase where new systems get more fully integrated into the organization. The prevalent emphasis on project management and reception in the organization has generated valuable insights, e.g., IS researchers have demonstrated the importance of top-level management support (Myers, 1994), the role of users' resistance due to various reasons, such as badly designed systems or organizational politics (Keen, 1981; Markus, 1983; Jasperson et al., 2005), the importance of learning from previous experience (Lyytinen & Robey, 1999), and the need for learning-oriented and adaptive approaches (Orlikowski & Hofman, 1997). Our study leads us to agree with these insights, and we posit that an emphasis on minor instances of interactions and interdependencies is complementary to these studies. Our study shows that such details are important in any project, although they may be overlooked or abstracted away in the accounts that are produced. We believe that the challenges of such processes are widely encountered and practically significant. Achieving organizational change constitutes a particularly challenging aspect of leveraging information systems. Yet, just as it often happens “below the radar” of management, it may also slip outside IS researchers' focus. In addition to bringing these issues to light, we have sketched what a more mindful approach to the organizational sensemaking could look like. This study has a few limitations as well. First, the findings pertain to a healthcare context and thus have a limited generalizability to other contexts. We encourage other IS scholars to translate our findings concerning the capabilities of collective mindfulness to other settings and to come up with new principles. Second, while we contend that sensemaking processes and collective mindfulness capabilities are important in the continuous adaptation of IS, we recommend other scholars to also investigate the postimplementation adaptation process using other theoretical angles to single out other aspects. In conclusion, we believe that it is valuable for managers, including project managers and change agents, to be aware of the challenges that such mundane, post-implementation change entails in order for them to support, facilitate, and make these sensemaking processes more mindful.