Why Managers Tolerate Workarounds – The Role of Information Systems

Workarounds as deviations from defined routines in business processes challenge standardization and thus the performance improvements expected from information systems. Literature associates workarounds predominantly with performance losses. Only few studies report on performance improvements from workarounds. However, what characterizes situations in which managers tolerate workarounds to yield potential performance improvements? This study examines situations in which managers are able to decide whether to tolerate or to prohibit workarounds. We report on a multiple case study in two organizations and use existing research on workarounds to structure our analysis. Building on this, we show that expected efficiency gains, exposure to compliance risk and perceived process weakness have an effect on the willingness of management to tolerate workarounds. We develop a model that illustrates important aspects of situations that influence this willingness and outlines the role of information systems in understanding workarounds

Workaround Aware Business Process Modeling

Workarounds are an omnipresent part of organizational settings where formal rules and regulations describe standardized processes. Still, only few studies have focused on incorporating workarounds in designing information systems (IS) or as a part of management decisions. Therefore, this study provides an extension to the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN) by conducting a metamodel transformation, which includes workarounds. As a result, the Workaround Process Modeling Notation (WPMN) (1) leads organizations in designing workaround aware systems, (2) supports managers in deciding how to deal with workarounds, and (3) provides auditors with visualizations of non-compliance. We exemplify how this technique can be used to model a workaround in the process of accessing patient-identifying data in a hospital. We evaluated the model and find it particular suitable as an empirically grounded BPMN extension

A SITUATIONAL PERSPECTIVE ON WORKAROUNDS IN IT-ENABLED BUSINESS PROCESSES: A MULTIPLE CASE STUDY

Workarounds are still one of the most puzzling phenomena in business process management research and practice. From a compliance perspective, workarounds are studied as control failure and the cause for inferior process quality. From a process reengineering perspective, however, workarounds are studied as an important source of process improvement. In this paper, we advance recent theory on the emergence of workarounds to resolve this puzzle by analyzing empirical evidence from a multiple case study. Our analysis reveals that employees utilize workarounds based on a risk-benefit analysis of the situational context. If the realized benefits (efficiency gains) outweigh the situational risks (exposure of process violations), workarounds will be perceived as process improvement. Erroneous risk-benefit analysis, however, leads to exposure of the same workaround as control failure. Quite unexpectedly, we found that information systems serve as critical cus for the situational balance of benefits and risks. Our result suggests that process-instance-level workarounds are treated as options that are engaged if the situation permits, in contrast to process-level workarounds that manifest as unofficial routines. We also contribute the notion of situational risk-benefits analysis to the theory on workarounds

Toward an Ontology of Workarounds: A Literature Review on Existing Concepts

While workarounds are studied frequently in information systems research, a coherent and interrelated structure to organize the knowledge of the field is still missing. In this study, we provide a first step towards an ontology of workarounds in order to enable researchers to study the relationships among the core concepts. By identifying existing literature, we discover three gaps in workaround research: (1) lack of conceptual consensus, (2) fragmentation and (3) static perspective. To advance theory, we provide an overview of different types of workarounds that are frequently used in literature. Based on these findings we derive core concepts of workarounds that are used in literature and provide an ontology of workarounds

Prevent, Redesign, Adopt or Ignore: Improving Healthcare Using Knowledge of Workarounds

The complex and variable nature of healthcare work makes alignment of health information systems to healthcare processes a challenge, causing the emergence of workarounds. We developed three artifacts to use knowledge of workarounds to address this misalignment and enable the improvement of work systems. (1) The Workaround Snapshot, in which the necessary social and technical information about a workaround is captured, such as motivation, impact on the work system, and possible actions that can be taken. (2) The Workaround Action Impact Matrix, which illustrates the possible decisions that can be made. (3) The Workaround Snapshot Approach, a socio-technical approach that uses the previous artifacts to enable continuous improvement. Following the principles of design science, the artifacts are demonstrated and evaluated through a case study at a Dutch hospital, where we identified and examined twelve workarounds. The approach has proven to enable the organization to make well-informed decisions on actions to be taken, which at times result in direct improvement of the work system. We contribute to existing research in moving past the identification and categorization of workarounds, towards utilizing explicit knowledge of workarounds to improve the work system

Beneficial Noncompliance and Detrimental Compliance: Expected Paths to Unintended Consequences

This paper explores the possibility that compliance and noncompliance to process specifications, software usage procedures, business rules, and best practices could be beneficial or detrimental. After introducing different types of compliance and noncompliance, it uses a simple 2 x 2 matrix to postulate four types of situations: beneficial compliance, detrimental compliance, beneficial noncompliance, and detrimental noncompliance. It provides examples that illustrate subcategories within all four possibilities, thereby bringing into question the common assumption that compliance is beneficial and noncompliance is detrimental. It presents a model that explains decisions related to intentions toward compliance and noncompliance. It concludes with implications for management and for systems analysis and design. An underlying theme throughout is that beneficial noncompliance and detrimental compliance can be viewed as expected paths to unintended consequences

A Workaround Design System for Anticipating, Designing, and/or Preventing Workarounds

Idealized system design produces requirements reflecting management intentions and “best practices.” This paper proposes a workaround design system (WDS) for anticipating, designing, and/or preventing workarounds that bypass systems as designed. A WDS includes a process and an interactive “workaround design tool” (WDT) for identifying and evaluating foreseeable workarounds based on work system theory and a theory of workarounds. This paper summarizes the conceptual background and explains the form, use, and implications of the proposed WDS and WDT. The idea of WDS addresses significant gaps in practice and research. Designers should have methods for identifying likely obstacles and anticipating and evaluating a non-trivial percentage of plausible workarounds. Methods for identifying workarounds might help in training work system participants. Researchers might use WDS to explore why specific responses to obstacles did or did not occur. The lack of methods related to anticipating, designing or preventing workarounds implies that WDS may prove fruitful even though it is impossible to anticipate all possible workarounds

ADOPTED GLOBALLY BUT UNUSABLE LOCALLY: WHAT WORKAROUNDS REVEAL ABOUT ADOPTION, RESISTANCE, COMPLIANCE AND NON-COMPLIANCE

We undertake an exploratory case study to investigate how warehouse employees work around an Enterprise Resource Planning software that cannot be used as designed due to work practices required by local conditions. Our research illustrates how long-standing approaches to studying IS innovation, adoption and diffusion in relation to fixed IT artefacts say little or nothing about important phenomena and practical issues. We draw on theories of work systems and IT innovation, adoption and adaptation to explain both why workarounds are required and how they are enacted. Our context involves the local Hong Kong operations of a global retailer of home textiles. Our 29 interviews at the site reveal many perspectives about how an inadequate information system failed to support essential work practices and how employees at the site responded by creating shadow IS that helped them pursue their business responsibilities and objectives. We draw on a compliance view of technology use to suggest that unreflective compliance can be counterproductive; paradoxically, reflective non-compliance may bring greater benefit to both the organisation and its customers. We conclude with nine implications of our findings for practitioners and for researchers interested in IS innovation, adoption, and diffusion