2 research outputs found
Microemancipatory practicies in information system development
Different approaches on how to implement or deploy enterprise resource planning (ERPs) systems
exist. Although virtually nobody really doubts importance of ERPs for running a business today, there
is a sentiment regarding their implementation – both in terms of time and money. In this paper we
investigate relationship between factors influencing selection of a specific implementation approach
and companies’ ability to stay on budget when implementing ERPs. The question is: whether factors
influencing implementation approach then affects to what extent ERP system implementation costs
exceed planned costs for implementation. The questionnaire research, focused on this issue, was
conducted in Denmark, Slovakia and Slovenia. Dependent variables were percentage of actual ERP
system implementation costs and staying on budget vis-Ã -vis the planned costs and budgets. The
independent variables were implementation approach, country, company size, information strategy,
representation of the IT department on board level, and number of implemented modules. Main
conclusions are that number of modules influences selection of implementation approach and
companies with information strategy are more likely to stay on budget. However, implementation
approach does not significantly influences implementation costs and clear relationships between
factors influencing selection of implementation approach and costs for ERP implementation could not
be found
Microemancipatory practicies in information system development
The paper revisits the notion of emancipation in Information System Development (ISD) that seems to
have lost a battle against functionalist and managerialist approaches dominant in information system
(IS) research and practice. Unlike functionalist and managerialist views, the emancipatory view of
ISD, informed by Critical Theory, considers ISD as a site of organizational innovation, self-reflection
and a struggle for humanization of work and liberation from different forms of domination. Critics of
emancipatory project in IS and management literature question the very possibility of the
emancipation and deplore its intellectualism, naivety and negativism. The purpose of this paper is to
re-consider the notion of emancipatory ISD in the face of these criticisms and develop a more refined
and nuanced view of micro-emancipation in ISD that is meaningful in practice. Informed by Alvesson
and Willmott (1992, 1996) we explore, question, redefine and ground the micro-emancipatory ISD
processes based on a longitudinal (15 year) study of a retail company. Our analysis and critical
reflection demonstrate that micro-emancipatory ISD processes have real substance for the people
involved, and that their meanings are neither fixed nor universal, but rather local, emergent,
uncertain, and sometimes contradictory. This paper contributes an empirically grounded and
practically relevant reconceptualization of micro-emancipatory ISD projects which reveals both its
benefits and risks for all involved