Ameliorating ERP Workflow Using a Sociomaterial Lens

Many companies struggle with implementing and calibrating prepackaged and configurable enterprise resource planning (ERP) business process workflows, especially master data creation and maintenance. The objective of this paper is to refine the understanding of ERP process workflow adaptability and usage through the lens of sociomateriality. The research aims to explore the degree and the associated consequences of employees’ resistance to packaged ERP workflows. Presenting research on agencies and assemblages derived from ERP system utilization, we conducted a content analysis of 98 interviews, made up of 50 ERP users dealing directly with ERP workflow usage and 48 ERP users involved in master data workflow usage, programming, and administration, to explore how material agencies emerge temporally in practice through a dialectical process of resistance and accommodation. The insights gained from this research may be particularly valuable in researching the expansion of management knowledge related to ERP best practices in everyday organizational life

The digital workplace and its dark side: An integrative review

An intensification of digital working driven by Covid-19 has brought into sharp focus both the beneficial nature of digital workplace technologies and their potential dark side. Research has burgeoned in this area in recent years, but an integrated view across fields, technologies, dark side effects and outcomes is lacking. There are potential insights to be gained from compiling and comparing results and theoretical approaches. Following integrative review procedures, 194 studies were analysed to understand unintended negative consequences of a range of workplace technologies across disciplines and methodologies. The results demonstrate that considerable insight has been uncovered regarding certain dark side effects, stress in particular, in relation to e-mail and smartphones. However, a broader view of how they might manifest in relation to employees’ holistic digital experience of work beyond certain information and communication technologies (ICTs) is lacking, including a clear picture of objective demands of the technology with which these effects are associated. Much remains to be understood across the full range of dark side effects in relation to the digital workplace including the associations between them and how they relate to cognitive and affective outcomes. The importance of both theoretical rigour and diversity is highlighted

Examination of risks in AI/ML applications

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) systems powered by Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Computer Vision (CV) are permeating across industries and in our daily lives. Due to novelty of technology, AI/ML applications expose organizations to social, legal, and financial risks. Notable examples: Amazon’s AI hiring tool, Microsoft’s chatbot, Uber’s autonomous car accident. New regulations are being introduced across the world to govern AI applications. This dissertation explores the causes of these risks and mitigation strategies through three essays. Essay 1 uses grounded theory approach to propose a unifying theoretical framework for unintended consequences in AI projects. In this essay, 840 quotes from key informants about 30 unique AI cases using multiple news articles for each case were analyzed. The analysis of media discourse revealed signals of intended actions concerning the implementation of AI tools, which led to unintended consequences through various linking mechanisms. Essay 2 provides a conceptual framework using socio-technical systems theory to study effects of risk factors on AI project risk assumed by organization in developing and implementing AI systems. Essay 3 attempts to explore risk factors disclosed by AI oriented organizations in their annual disclosures using a dataset of 112 SEC annual 10-K filings. Together, this dissertation attempts to contribute to risk management literature in context of AI. Expected findings can inform organizations of critical sources of risk in AI projects and help mitigate them

Operational Business-IT Alignment in Healthcare: Theoretical Foundation and Empirical Evidence

This thesis examines IT-related change in healthcare. Building on and extending prior research on operational business-IT alignment, new insights are derived that enable practitioners to align IT and medical reality to realize expected potentials of health IT. The results posit that strong social capital mitigates the challenges that come with structurally decoupled organizations and facilitates identification and implementation of necessary IT-related change in hospitals. Likewise, shared understanding about how health IT will affect and is affected by socio-organizational complementarities is found to be a critical requirement for effective change processes. Strong linkages between IT and medical professionals as well as sufficient shared understanding enables effective change processes. These processes are characterized by reciprocal adaptations to HIS and other elements of interrelated organizational activity systems, in which IT is embedded in. The empirical results demonstrate that iterative resolution of contradictions and mitigation of tensions within and between activity systems increases the efficiency of IT and leads to sustained alignment. Overall, this dissertation extends prior theories on alignment, helps scholars understand and account for the unique and complex characteristics of the healthcare domain and offers actionable guidance for practice.Diese Dissertation untersucht IT-bezogene Veränderungsprozesse in Krankenhäusern. Aufbauend auf dem Stand der Forschung zum operativen Business-IT Alignment erarbeitet diese Dissertation neue Erkenntnisse, die es Praktikern ermöglichen, IT und medizinische Realität bestmöglich aufeinander abzustimmen und damit den Wertbeitrag der IT in dieser Domäne zu steigern. Die empirischen Ergebnisse zeigen, dass starkes Sozialkapital die Herausforderungen strukturell entkoppelter Organisationen ausgleicht und die Identifikation und Realisierung notwendiger IT-bezogener Veränderungen in Krankenhäusern erleichtert. Ebenso ist ein gemeinsames Verständnis der Beteiligten darüber, wie sich die Gesundheits-IT auf die komplementären sozio-organisatorischen Charakteristika auswirkt und von diesen beeinflusst wird, eine entscheidende Voraussetzung für effektive Veränderungsprozesse. Enge Verbindungen zwischen IT- und Medizinern sowie ein ausreichendes gemeinsames Verständnis begünstigen effektive IT-bezogene Veränderungsprozesse. Diese Prozesse sind gekennzeichnet durch wechselseitige Anpassungen an der IT und anderer Elemente zusammenhängender organisatorischer Tätigkeitssysteme, in welche die IT eingebettet ist. Die empirischen Ergebnisse zeigen, dass die iterative Lösung von Widersprüchen und der Abbau von Spannungen innerhalb und zwischen Aktivitätssystemen die Effizienz der IT steigert und zu einer nachhaltigen Business-IT Alignment führt. Insgesamt erweitert diese Dissertation das theoretische Wissen zu operativem Business-IT Alignment und verbessert das Verständnis über die Charakteristika und Komplexitäten der Domäne Krankenhaus und bietet praktische Hilfestellungen zur Gestaltung IT-bezogener Veränderungsprozesse

An Information Infrastructure to Improve International Containerized Shipping

This thesis applies theoretical perspectives from the Information Systems (IS) research field to propose how Information Technology (IT) can improve containerized shipping. This question is addressed by developing a set of design principles for an information infrastructure for sharing shipping information named the Shipping Information Pipeline (SIP). Review of the literature revealed that IS research prescribed a set of meta-design principles, including digitalization and digital collaboration by implementation of Inter-Organizational Systems based on Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) messages, while contemporary research proposes Information Infrastructures (II) as a new IT artifact to be researched. Correspondingly, this thesis applies the concept of and design theory for II to improve containerized shipping. Activity Theory has guided the analysis of containerized shipping, following avocados on their journey from the trees in Africa, to the retail shelves in Europe, revealing the plethora of organizations, activities and documents involved. The implication being that containerized shipping becomes inefficiently; costly, unreliably, and risky. These are posited as the major impediments to creating a more efficient shipping industry, and a number of critical issues are identified. These include that shipments depend on shipping information, that shipments often are delayed due to issues with documentation, that EDI messages account for only a minor part of the needed information, that multiple fragmented II are used throughout, and finally, that there is an unleashed potential for IT to support containerized shipping. Based on the above, the SIP was designed, prototyped and evaluated which, through Internetenabled collaboration on shipments, ameliorates the previously mentioned critical issues and major impediments. This is accomplished primarily through increased transparency into the containerized shipping process and through providing direct access to source information about the shipments. Based on the prototypes an accumulated set of design principles for the design of SIP are articulated. In the particular context of Internet-enabled II utilizing the World Wide Web, an extension of design theory is proposed through the formulation of an additional metadesign principle: share meta-information only and govern access to detailed information by the source. Finally, the practical implications of SIP are estimated, including how it facilitates more efficient containerized shipping and in turn sustainable international trade. The positive acknowledgements of SIP prototypes support how II designed in accordance with the developed set of design principles can be used to significantly improve containerized shipping