Users as professionals: A study of IT deployment and its relationship to professional Autonomy

It has been argued that the rise of professions in society has been on the increase for over a century, to the extent that they are seen as integral to post-industrial society. Yet, within information systems minimal research has considered users as professionals. Instead, professions and professionalism as units of analysis have usually been intertwined with discussions of IT workers and systems development. In this paper, we focus on professionals as a user group and consider the implications of the deployment of IT in such contexts. In particular, we attend to the influence of technology on a central feature of professional identity – autonomy. In order to do this, we discuss the deployment of a module of an enterprise-wide student information system in a department of a UK university. From this come insights into regulation through inscription, the deskilling of work, system acceptance in the face of self-interest, the retention of autonomy in a regulated environment and the overt exercise of professional power. Whilst the student information system had an effect on professional identity, within our study, it appears that any encroachment upon autonomy has, overall, been viewed as minimal or easily managed. We suggest that future work might focus upon much more contentious sites of IT roll out where professionals exist – where they feel and experience much more significant effects

Striking the professional pose : professional identity in the development and utilisation of information systems

This thesis explores how professional identity figures in the enactment of IS and focuses on groups of professionals as users and developers of information systems and investigates how they relay their professional knowledge via the system to retain identified aspects, in this case autonomy, of their professional identity. The study looks at how these professional groups of staff control, tailor and maintain important modules within an information system and how this facilitates the appropriation of it into their everyday working practices. It has been argued that the rise of professions in society has been such that they are seen as integral to post-industrial society. Yet, within information systems, minimal research has considered users as professionals and moreover users as developers. Instead, professions, professionalism and users as developers as units of analysis have usually been intertwined with discussions of IT/IS workers/professionals and codes of conduct via systems development. Additionally, many still propose the technologically deterministic route of rolling out information and communications technologies (ICTs) expecting that users will, and indeed can, 'download' what they know into a system. This approach is usually underpinned by the predominant assumption that the system will be developed by one group (developers) and used by another group (users). Therefore this study focuses on two professional developer-user groups within environments populated with skilled professional workers and considers the implications of the deployment of IS in such contexts. In particular, the author attends to the influence of technology on a central feature of professional identity - autonomy. The melding of professional workers, who often enjoy a particularly autonomous status in organisations, with information systems that have the potential to erode this, offers a fruitful site for investigation. This study looks at contact centre and academic environments and therefore, investigates how professional identity figures in situations where it would be expected that officially sanctioned autonomy, is as a rule minimal, within a contact centre environment and typically normal practice within an academic environment. In order to do this, the author draws on case study data, which provides insights into the deployment of a module of an enterprise-wide student information system in a department of a UK university and a scripting module in a HR contact centre.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

User-led innovation in call center knowledge work

So called “knowledge work” is seen as integral to post-industrial society and, for some, information and communications technologies (ICTs) are critical enablers of the associated practices. Many still propose the technologically deterministic route of rolling out ICTs and expecting that users will, and indeed can, “download” what they know into a system that can then be used in a number of ways. This approach is usually underpinned by the predominant assumption that the system will be developed by one group (developers) and used by another group (users). In this paper, we report on an exploratory case study of the enactment of ICT supported knowledge work in a human resources contact center which illustrates the negotiable boundary between the developer and user in local level innovation processes. Drawing upon ideas from the social shaping of technology, we examine how discussions regarding producer-user relations in innovation processes require a degree of greater sophistication as we show how users often develop (or produce) technologies and work practices in situ—in this case, to enable knowledge work practices and contribute to the project of constructing the knowledge component of professional identity. Much has been made of contextualizing the user; further work is required to contextualize the developer as a user and understand the social actors in ICT innovation environments who straddle both domain

Contingency Framework for Addressing Failure in Information Systems

Projects to implement new Information Systems are activities marked by a high degree of failure. Public and private sectors have both provided examples of extreme failure, leading to considerable loss of revenue. The National Health IT programme in the UK, for instance, cost an estimated £10 billion in a critical project delivery failure [1]. The failure of systems to deliver the required improvements and, in some instances, keep key customer data secure, has also led to further organisational costs, in terms of time, reputation, revenue and opportunity. The requirement to achieve success has become greater for IT projects as organisations' value chains are increasingly dependent on technology to deliver goods and services, hence obtain competitive advantage or maintain market position. The approach to IT project implementation problems has, generally, been focussed on critical success factors and risk analysis. This paper examines the alternatives via empirical research and an analysis of key themes in the literature to propose a holistic approach, based on a systemic perspective of project management. An outline contingency framework is proposed, highlighting critical areas to address, in order to plan and resource projects. The objective is to reduce the impact of failure on the organisation, hence limit the resources wasted on IT project failure. The systems viewpoint allows a holistic perspective and in terms of this research, it is based on the premise of the social construction of risk, where the failure of IT projects is rooted in the societal context, rather than simple mono causal attribution. This environmental perspective allows a deeper understanding of such failure to be accessed and should permit the creation of measures to assist future projects and reduce or prevent the occurrence of wasted resources in such activities