Essays on enterprise social media: moderation, shop floor integration and information system induced organizational change

The digital transformation increases the pressure on innovation capabilities and challenges organizations to adapt their business models. In order to cope with the increased competitiveness, organizations face two significant internal challenges: Enabling internal digital collaboration and knowledge sharing as well as information system-induced change. This dissertation will investigate seven related research questions divided in two main parts. The first part focuses on how an organization can foster digital knowledge exchanges and collaboration in global organizations. Enterprise social media has attracted the attention of organizations as a technology for social collaboration and knowledge sharing. The dissertation will investigate how organizations can moderate the employee discourse in such platforms from a novel organizational perspective and provide insights on how to increase the encouragement for employees to contribute and assure content quality. The developed framework will provide detailed moderation approaches. In addition, the risk of privacy concerns associated with organizational interference in the new digital collaboration technologies are evaluated. The second part of the dissertation shifts the focus to the shop floor environment, an area that has faced substantial digital advancements. Those advancements change the organizational role of the shop floor to a more knowledge work-oriented environment. Firstly, a state of research regarding technology acceptance and professional diversity is presented to create an enterprise social media job-characteristic framework. Further, a unique and longitudinal shop floor case study is investigated to derive organizational challenges for enterprise social media and potentials for empowerment. To validate the future shop floor environment needs use cases for the shop floor are derived and a user profile is established. The case study is extended by expert interviews to focus on conceptualizing organizational information systems-induced change. In this regard, the role of work practices, organizational and employee mindset and information system change are integrated into a holistic organizational change model that targets employee empowerment. This dissertation provides a comprehensive overview of enterprise social media from an organizational management and shop floor perspective. It contributes to understanding new digital needs at the shop floor and the information systems-induced change journey towards digital employee empowerment

Discourses on ICT and development.

Research on ICT and development (ICTD) involves assumptions on the nature of ICT innovation and on the way such innovation contributes to development. In this article I review the multidisciplinary literature on ICTD and identify two perspectives regarding the nature of the ICT innovation process in developing countries - as transfer and diffusion and as socially embedded action - and two perspectives on the development transformation towards which ICT is understood to contribute - progressive transformation and disruptive transformation. I then discuss the four discourses formed by combining the perspectives on the nature of IS innovation and on the development transformation. My review suggests that ICTD research, despite its remarkable theoretical capabilities to study technology innovation in relation to socio-economic context, remains weak in forming convincing arguments on IT-enabled socio-economic development.

A model of the dynamics of organizational communication

We propose a model of the dynamics of organizational communication. Our model specifies the mechanics by which communication impact is fed back to communication inputs and closes the gap between sender and receiver of messages. We draw on language critique, a branch of language philosophy, and derive joint linguistic actions of interlocutors to explain the emergence and adaptation of communication on the group level. The model is framed by Te'eni's cognitive-affective model of organizational communication

Qualitative software engineering research -- reflections and guidelines

Researchers are increasingly recognizing the importance of human aspects in software development and since qualitative methods are used to, in-depth, explore human behavior, we believe that studies using such techniques will become more common. Existing qualitative software engineering guidelines do not cover the full breadth of qualitative methods and knowledge on using them found in the social sciences. The aim of this study was thus to extend the software engineering research community's current body of knowledge regarding available qualitative methods and provide recommendations and guidelines for their use. With the support of an epistemological argument and a literature review, we suggest that future research would benefit from (1) utilizing a broader set of research methods, (2) more strongly emphasizing reflexivity, and (3) employing qualitative guidelines and quality criteria. We present an overview of three qualitative methods commonly used in social sciences but rarely seen in software engineering research, namely interpretative phenomenological analysis, narrative analysis, and discourse analysis. Furthermore, we discuss the meaning of reflexivity in relation to the software engineering context and suggest means of fostering it. Our paper will help software engineering researchers better select and then guide the application of a broader set of qualitative research methods.Comment: 30 page

Unlocking medical leadership’s potential:a multilevel virtuous circle?

Background and aim: Medical leadership (ML) has been introduced in many countries, promising to support healthcare services improvement and help further system reform through effective leadership behaviours. Despite some evidence of its success, such lofty promises remain unfulfilled. Method: Couched in extant international literature, this paper provides a conceptual framework to analyse ML's potential in the context of healthcare's complex, multifaceted setting. Results: We identify four interrelated levels of analysis, or domains, that influence ML's potential to transform healthcare delivery. These are the healthcare ecosystem domain, the professional domain, the organisational domain and the individual doctor domain. We discuss the tensions between the various actors working in and across these domains and argue that greater multilevel and multistakeholder collaborative working in healthcare is necessary to reprofessionalise and transform healthcare ecosystems

T-government for benefit realisation

This paper proposes a model for t-Government and highlights the research agenda needed to increase understanding of transformational government and the processes involved in furthering the agenda of the t-Government. In particular, both an operational and a conceptual model for the effective involvement of citizens and businesses in government functioning have been proposed. This will help to define an agenda for t-Government research that emerges from national UK strategy and policy for e-Government. The main threads of t- Government encompass: (1) A citizen-centric delivery of public services or e-inclusion, (2) A shared services culture to maximize value added to clients, (3) The effective delivery and management of resources and skills within government or professionalism. All three threads should be addressed principally from the perspectives of delivery, evaluation and participation in view of benefit realisation as envisioned by Government strategic planning and policy directives (CabinetOffice, 2005). The management of change dimension of these phenomena have been included in the research agenda. In particular, research is needed to reshape the discourse towards emphasising a citizen centric approach that defines, develops, and benefits from public service. Decision makers in Government will need models of Governance that fulfil transformational objectives. They will also need models of benefits realisation within a strategic Governance framework. It has been argued that t-Government research should be addressing these relative voids

Epoch, Epistemology and the Virtual Organization

This paper engages with contemporary discussions of ?the virtual organization?. Starting with some influential accounts that were published in the 1990s, the paper highlights the continued significance of control ration alities in the increasingly dispersed and disaggregated organizations of the advanced industrial societies. The paper also takes issue with the ?epochalist? tendency to equate virtuality with the ?end of organization?, and it puts the case for a more historically situated view of technology in ?post bureaucratic? or ?virtualised? organizational settings

Unpacking the "institutional portfolio" theoretical elements for an analysis of institutional change through objectification of resources and habitus

The "social kill" (Fligstein, 1997 and 2001) attributed to social entrepreneurs is ont sufficiently explicit as regards their dispositions for engaging in actions of change. After placing the status of change in the context of institutionalist literature, the author intend to show how, with the help of Pierre Bourdieu's theory of field and habitus, it is possible to develop what he call an institutional portfolio allowing a micro-individual analysis of the capacity of some individuals to undertake institutional transformations without losing sight of the evolution - at a macro-analytical level - of the structure of the field in which these individuals operate. In this respect, the author intend to contribute to the various attempts at overcoming the paradox of the "embedded agency" and to give a more precise account of institutional change.neo-institutionalism; institutional entrepreneurship; field; habitus; resources; institutional portfolio

Post-bureaucracy and reanimating public governance: A discourse and practice of continuity?

Purpose 'Seeks to examine changes in the environment in which public policy and public management operate and the claim that bureaucracy has been replaced by post-bureaucracy as a result of these changes. Design/methodology/approach – It proposes reanimated public governance as a concept that occupies the space between public administration and restructured public governance (including reinvented government and New Public Management (NPM). Rather than accepting the existence of post-bureaucracy, per se, the paper argues that there has been a process of extending bureaucracy that cuts across public and non-public boundaries rather than the development of post-bureaucracy per se. Findings – In examining the claims for post-bureaucracy, we are witnessing a discourse and practice of continuity rather than difference. The need for economies of scale and scope, standardisation and the existence of indivisibilities in public services suggest that public sector reforms and proposals for new governance models establish extended or flexible forms of bureaucracy rather than post-bureaucratic organisational forms. Attempts to introduce ICT-based services and the need for regulatory agencies to oversee the contracts with private and non-profit service providers reinforce these findings. Research limitations/implications – The arguments in this paper are based on marshalling the literature and debates surrounding public sector reform to advance a central thesis. It draws on real world examples but does not advance direct empirical evidence. There is scope for internationally comparative case-studies of different public service functions and discourses and practices in different countries Practical implications – Policy makers and managers should treat the clarion call of post-bureaucracy as a way of liberating public services from a lack of creativity, innovation and accountability with healthy scepticism. In particular, the view that public sector reforms through post-bureaucratic re-organisation will lead to efficiencies is one to be challenged. Reforms in any service driven organisations are not zero-cost and any implied operational cost saving should be considered against increased transaction costs. Originality/value – There have been heroic claims made for post-bureaucracy in many organisations enabled by developments associated with the concepts of information society and knowledge society. By locating public sector reforms under the rubric of 'restructured public governance' a deeper investigation of the implications for the discourses and practices associated with public sector reform is advanced

Management Accounting Practices and Discourses Change: The role and use of Management Accounting Systems

This paper aims to trace the development of management accounting systems (MAS) in a Portuguese bank, where an activity based costing system (ABC) has been trialled for implementation over the past few years, as a means to improving the economy, efficiency and effectiveness of employee activity. This initiative can be located in a wider cultural change in Portuguese banking towards global (i.e. US derived) strategies and processes, but within an organizational world where older traditions remain powerful. The research undertaken here is a longitudinal case study of organisational change in one institution based on a criticalinterpretive model. Although drawing on the interpretive tradition since it is concerned with actors’ perceptions, interpretations and beliefs, it also draws on a more historically focused Foucault-inspired critical framework of the kind developed in the work of Hoskin and Macve (e.g. 1986, 1988, 1994, 2000), and in the research into the financial sector undertaken by Morgan and Sturdy (2000). The particular model developed here is designed to enable the exploration of the effect of accounting practices on change across time from three perspectives – changing structures, changing discourses and the effect of both of these processes on power relations. The research highlights the increase in visibility and perceived importance of accounting in the banking sector, and how accounting is significant beyond its technical roles. The study provides new insights into how management accounting practices, along with other organisational systems, play an important role questioning, visualising, analysing, and measuring implemented strategies. As the language and practice of management have shifted towards strategy and marketing discourses, patterns of work, organisation and career are being restructured, in often under-appreciated ways, by accounting practices.