5,207 research outputs found

    The complexities of electronic services implementation and institutionalisation in the public sector

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    This is the post-print version of the final paper published in Information & Management. The published article is available from the link below. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. Copyright @ 2013 Elsevier B.V.Electronic service implementation (ESI) in the public sector attempts to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of governmental departments. Despite having provided the necessary infrastructure and investment, many governments have struggled to realise such aims due to the various forces that challenge implementation and institutionalisation. Using institutional theory as a lens, we explored the forces influencing the implementation and institutionalisation of ESI in the public sector. While our results reinforced previous research in IT implementation and organisational transformation, they showed that the dynamic nature of technology poses unanticipated pressures, and that these can impede the implementation and institutionalisation process

    Digital-enabled service transformation in public sector: Institutionalization as a product of interplay between actors and structures during organisational change

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    The derailment of large scale Digitally-Enabled Service Transformation Projects (DEST) in public sector has generated much attention and debate among the research community. However, most of the debates focus on the technology imperatives and/or strategic choices view. The micro-process of institutionalisation involving interplays between actors and structures in forming an institutionalised approach is hardly brought to the surface. Complex structure of government institutions, interaction of actors from various contexts and integration of multiple resources during DEST implementation has made the process of institutionalisation difficult. Combination of Institutional Theory (IT) and Structuration Theory (ST) concepts are used in this paper to examine an exemplar DEST project in the UK - 'Tell Us Once' (TUO). Findings show that actors and structures played significant roles throughout the institutionalisation stages. The actors reinforced or modified existing structures to suit their actions, and in return, the structure governed the actors' actions, to form desired behaviour. This social phenomenon happened recursively over period of time until a common practice emerged and the desired objective is achieved. The findings provide useful insights on good institutionalisation practices concerning the role of actors and structures within the institutionalisation process

    Making sense of the sharing economy: a category formation approach

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    The sharing economy (SE) has drawn significant attention from several society stakeholders in the last five years. While business actors are interested in financial opportunities to meet consumer needs, new business models, academia and governmental organisations are concerned with potential unintended effects on society and the environment. Despite its notable global growth, there is still a lack of more solid ground in understanding its origins and respective mechanisms through which it has been evolving as a category. This research addresses the problematics of the origins and ascendency of the SE by examining the process by which it is arising as a new category, searching for conceptual clarification, and pinpointing the legitimacy granted by stakeholders. Our guiding research questions are: how the SE was formed and evolved as a category, and as a category, is the SE legitimate? Additionally, we attempt to identify the nature of the SE as a category. Making a historical analysis of the expression SE and its equivalents, this paper deepens the discussion about the SE’s nature by providing evidence that it has predominantly been formed by emergence processes, comprising social movement, similarity clustering, and truce components, which render the SE a particular case of category formation and allow communication, entrepreneurship, regulation, and research about what it is. Moreover, the findings reveal a generalised legitimacy granted to the SE by a vast number of stakeholders, although still lacking the consolidation of socio-political legitimation. The SE’s nature seems to fall into a metaphorical approach, notably, the notion of radial categories.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

    Call centres: constructing flexibility

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    "The development of call centres as a flexible interface between firms and their environments has been seen as exemplary or even symptomatic of flexible capitalism (Sennett 1998). We are going to point out that they do not just stand for organisational change but also for changes of institutions towards deregulation. Employers and managers hoped for gains of flexibility, decreasing labour costs, and market gains by an expanded 24-hour-service. Surveillance and control by flexible technology would be based on clearly structured communication work. Low skill requirements would make an easy hiring and firing of employees possible. On the other side, unionists and workers representatives feared the loss of worker participation and co-determination (Mitbestimmung), a decline of working conditions not protected by collective agreements, low payment standards without bonus payment for night work and weekends, and even breaches of health and safety regulations, e.g. for on-screen work. In this paper, we argue that de-institutionalisation is only part of the story. A close examination of organisational and institutional change in the emerging organisational field of call centres reveals that initial moves of de-institutionalisation are followed and complemented by tendencies of re-institutionalisation. We are presenting preliminary results from the project 'Call centres in between neo-taylorism and customer orientation' which explores the establishment and development of call centres on the levels of institutions, organisations and work. As research methods we employ interviews with institutional and management experts and with call centre agents, six case studies of call centres in contrasting industries, and a survey of call centre workers' demography, careers and work experience. In this paper we present an initial institutional analysis and draw on case studies of two banking call centres, both of which belong to large banks in Germany. They handle telephone requests for their banks' branches, operate a support hotline for online banking, and offer directbrokerage services by phone. Bank 2 offers telephone banking as well. Both employ between 300 and 600 call centre agents." (excerpt

    Conditioned emergence: a dissipative structures approach to transformation

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    This paper presents a novel framework for the management of organisational transformation, defined here as a relatively rapid transition from one archetype to another. The concept of dissipative structures, from the field of complexity theory, is used to develop and explain a specific sequence of activities which underpin effective transformation. This sequence integrates selected concepts from the literatures on strategic change, organisational learning and business processes; in so doing, it introduces a degree of prescriptiveness which differentiates it from other managerial interpretations of complexity theory. Specifically, it proposes a three-stage process: first, the organisation conditions the outcome of the transformation process by articulating and reconfiguring the rules which underpin its deep structure; second, it takes steps to move from its current equilibrium and, finally, it moves into a period where positive and negative feedback loops become the focus of managerial attention. The paper argues that by managing at the level of deep structure in social systems, organisations can gain some influence over self-organising processes which are typically regarded as unpredictable in the natural sciences. However, the paper further argues that this influence is limited to archetypal features and that detailed forms and behaviours are emergent properties of the system. Two illustrative case-vignettes are presented to give an insight into the practical application of the model before conclusions are reached which speculate on the implications of this approach for strategy research

    Sports Teaching, Traditional Games, and Understanding in Physical Education: A Tale of Two Stories

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    Unlike Dickens’s novel, this is not a tale of light and darkness, order and chaos, good and evil…It is, though, a story worth to be told about two standpoints about games and sports, teaching and research, physical education simply put, that have pursued similar interests on parallel tracks for too long, despite their apparent closeness and shared cultural grounds. The objective of this conceptual analysis is to try and reconcile two perspectives, namely motor praxeology and teaching games for understanding (TGfU), born in the last third of the XX century in France and England with the intention to rethink the foundations of physical education (PE) and sports teaching. Pierre Parlebas, from the French side of the English Channel, claimed in 1967 that sports make part of PE, that team sports must be considered from a specific, sociomotor point of view, and that motor conducts (i.e., the significative organisation of motor behaviour), not sports techniques, are the corner-stone of PE and sports coaching. In the early 1980s, from the English side of La Manche, Almond, Thorpe, and Bunker made a plea for a shift in the way to teach games (sporting collective duels mostly), deeply concerned by the negative impact of the traditional technics-centred approach on motivation, competence and attained level of the least able in school situations. Our conclusion is that TGfU, or game-based approaches to sports coaching and teaching, can take great advantage of the motor-praxeological rationale for three reasons: firstly, because concepts like understanding, game sense and action principles are operatively, semiotically linked to the reality of the playing process; secondly, because the inner structures of the games that constrain players and guide their motor conducts, permit to integrate games in the general system of sporting games, no matter their level of institutionalisation; finally, because any motor intervention process is better thought of and more systematically developed upon the operational concepts of internal logic and expected practical effects of game playing. This time, Paris could be the place to go to in search of solutions, not the city to run away from in hope of consolation.

    "An organisation gets the intranet it deserves": Institutionalisation as a process of interplay between technology and its organisational context of use.

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    This study contributes to the IS literature with a distinctive explanation of the process of institutionalisation of technology in organizations. The research analyses the role of micro level processes of interplay in embedding an intranet in the formal functioning of an organisation and in the habits and routines of its employees. Findings identify two types of processes of interplay underpinning this process of institutionalisation. The first operates at the level of constitutive expectations and refers to mutual changes to the governance, policy and control mechanisms which foster the perception that the intranet is part of the expected formal functioning of the organisation. The second operates at the level of background expectations and refers to mutual changes that make the intranet look more familiar, functional and easier to use, fostering its embedding in the routines and habits of the employees. The study unravels processes of mutual transformation to an intranet and its hosting organisation, a bank in the UK, by following their evolution over a period of five years. It uses the single longitudinal case study research strategy and is informed by Markus (1983) to support the longitudinal reconstruction of the intranet in the bank. Institutional-based trust theory (Zucker 1986) is used to inform the interpretation of data. This theory is enhanced by the work of Schutz (1962) in developing the concept of background expectations and Garfinkel (1967) in developing the concept of constitutive expectations. The study aims to motivate more research on institutionalisation as a micro level process of ongoing interplay and gradual development of institutionalised behaviour

    Institutionalising XBRL for financial reporting:resorting to regulation

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    By integrating and streamlining financial information within and among various organisations, eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) has been developed with a view to enhancing the efficiency, accuracy, and transparency of corporate accounting information. Taking an inter-organisational focus, this paper investigates the process of how XBRL was institutionalised. It explains and offers insights on how institutional arrangements emerge and become relevant as heterogeneous organisations consider adopting accounting innovations while evidence concerning their benefits is unavailable. The original and overall contribution of this study is that it improves current understanding of coal-face actors' perceptions, behaviours, and strategies as they interact in the organisational field and become engaged in developing accounting innovations to produce the macro-level observations documented in existing institutional theory studies

    Exploring the impact of institutional forces on social sustainability of logistics service providers : Insights from a highly terrorism-affected region

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    This author accepted manuscript is deposited under the Creative Commons Attribution Non commercial International Licence 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0), and that any reuse is allowed in accordance with the terms outlined by the licence. To reuse the AAM for commercial purposes, permission should be sought by contacting [email protected] reviewedPostprin

    Organisatsiooniline kontroll ülikoolide juhtimises: mitmeparadigmaline lähenemine Tartu Ülikooli näitel

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    Tuginedes erinevate teadusfilosoofiliste paradigmade (modernistlik, sümbolistlik ja postmodernistlik) sünteesile on doktoritöö eesmärgiks välja töötada teoreetiline raamistik organisatsioonilise kontrolli mõistmiseks Tartu Ülikooli näitel. Antud eesmärgist kantuna, esimene ehk teoreetiline peatükk hõlmab organisatsioonilise kontrolli alaste käsitluste teadusfilosoofilist korrastamist paradigmade lõikes. Viimast silmas pidades tekib teoreetilises osas kontrollialase kirjanduse süstematiseerimine, mis annab lugejale ülevaatliku pildi sellest, kuidas vastavalt omaksvõetud teadusparadigmale on teadlased seni kontrolli olemust ja toimimist mõistnud. Teine ehk empiiriline peatükk rakendab kolme paradigmat Tartu Ülikooli juhtimisreformi uurimisel ning kolmas peatükk, sünteesides nii teoreetilist kui empiirilist peatükki kujundab metatasandil teoreetilise raamistiku organisatsioonilise kontrolli paremaks mõistmiseks. Doktoritöö tulemusena ilmnes, kuidas organisatsioonilise kontrolli loomus sõltub suuresti tekkinud dominantsetest diskursustest ülikoolis. Doktoritööst selgus, kuidas sisuliselt juhtimisreformi raames tekkinud diskursused keskendusid olemasolevate tähenduste hoidmisele (nt identiteediküsimused), samas põrkuvad otsese vajadusega harjunud tähendusi muuta (nt harjutamine valdkonnapõhise identiteedi vormis mõtlemisega). Kokkuvõttes tõi doktoritöö välja, kuidas olulised muutused ülikoolis ei ole mitte pelgalt komplekssed, vaid tulenevalt ülikoolide traditsioonilisest töökorraldusest sageli ka poliitilistel võimumängudel baseeruvad. Kuna suuremastaabilisi muudatusi juhitakse tsentraalselt tippjuhtkonna poolt, siis võib muudatuste taga peituv argumentatsioon tavatöötajast kaugele jääda. Seetõttu, kuigi muudatuste mõju on hilisemalt kõigile tuntav, ent vähese dialoogi tekkimise tõttu loob see viljaka pinnase ebakindlust ja ärevust sütitavate ning organisatsioonilist kontrolli haarata püüdvate dominantsete diskursuste tekkeks.The aim of the thesis is to offer a framework of organisational control that bases itself on the synthesis of multiple paradigms (modernism, symbolism and postmodernism) on the example of University of Tartu. That said, chapter one will tackle with complex nature of organisational control by mapping the fragmentation of existing control studies, then bringing out the essence of control via multiple paradigms in theory. Second chapter bases itself on multiparadigm research, which applies multiple paradigms witnessed in literature to study organisational control in university management. Finally, metaparadigm theory building chapter can be regarded as a conclusion and discussion that summarises both theoretical and empirical study in order to provide novel theoretical insights at the metalevel. Dissertation led to show how organisational control manifests in finding a strategic fit between sensegiving and sensemaking, a process, which is facilitated and negotiated by a paradox of sensekeeping and sensebreaking. By coupling sensekeeping with sensebreaking results in a paradox or a contradictory state of affairs where at one side there might be a need for a change, possibly with great reasons, yet from another side, these reasons or explanations are not strong enough to undermine the need to keep existing arrangements as they are. According to empirical phases of the thesis, strategic change processes tend to be not only highly complex and politically laden (since they have a great effect of large parts of the organisation), but due to the fact that as a rule they are driven by upper level managers, the communication over the argumentation for and about the essence of the change may stand too far from the organisational members (interpretive realities). Thus, as fundamental change in organisation has wide effects to many, yet the change process is usually managed by few there are lot of hidden possibilities of resistance and dominating discourses to emerge as an attempt to seek organisational control over the perceived uncertainties
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