Theorization and translation in information technology institutionalization: evidence from Danish home care

Although institutional theory has become a more dominant perspective in information systems research, studies have only paid scant attention to how field dynamics and organizational processes coevolve during information technology institutionalization. Against this backdrop, we present a new conceptualization based on the “traveling of ideas” metaphor that distinguishes between theorization of ideas about IT usage across an organizational field and translation of such ideas into practical use of IT within particular organizations. Drawing on these distinct analytical views, we posit that IT institutionalization is constituted through recursive intertwining of theorization and translation involving both linguistic and material objects. To illustrate the detailed workings of this conceptualization, we apply it to a longitudinal study of mobile IT institutionalization within Danish home care. We demonstrate how heterogeneous actors within the Danish home care field theorized ideas about mobile IT usage and how these ideas translated into different local arrangements. Further, our account reveals a complex institutionalization process in which mobile IT was first seen as a fashionable recipe for improvement but subsequently became the subject of controversy. The paper adds to the emerging process and discourse literature on IT institutionalization by shedding new light on how IT ideas travel across a field and within individual organizations, how they transform and become legitimized over time, and how they take on different linguistic and material forms across organizational settings

Bullying - transformative potentiality?

In this article, I argue that a person’s experience of having been bullied as a child can holdtransformative potentiality. This means that childhood exposure to bullying can both producenegative effects and provide fuel for transformative intention and actions. By exploring twoseparate narratives, I demonstrate how these individuals’ different ways of handling past incidentsare entangled with both present and future, as well as how they are closely connected to both thespecific situations and contexts in which the person lives and his/her movements across suchsituations and contexts. The concept of dynamic effectuality is introduced to describe thisphenomenon. Furthermore, I claim that, by analysing the dynamic effectuality of individuals’ pastexperiences with bullying and their present adult lives, certain processes can be found – includingrevenge, transformative intention and collective transformative actions

Perspektiver på kvinders dagligdag i danske fængsler: ‐ Erfaringer med kvinders og mænds fælles afsoning

Denne rapport omhandler udvalgte dimensioner af, hvordan etnisk danske kvinder lever deres liv, imens de er indsat i danske fængsler. Undersøgelsen er gennemført ved DPU, Aarhus Universitet og er finansieret af Direktoratet for Kriminalforsorgen

Music and Philosophy

Carl Nielsen’s youth covered a period when art was no longer an integrated part of daily life but rather a commodity functioning as a kind of status-symbol. The article discusses Nielsen’s attitude to this new situation, stressing the fact that for him art was still a compelling necessity, as expressed in his famous dictum prefacing the Fourth Symphony: “Music is life”. With reference to Nielsen’s own writings the article re-assesses his somewhat controversial attitude to programme music and the “meaning” of music

Designing Engaged Scholarship: From Real-World Problems to Research Publications

oai:commons.case.edu:emr-1000Engaged scholarship is a participatory form of research for studying complex real-world problems based on the different perspectives and understandings of key stakeholders. As such, it affords researchers the opportunity to contribute to practical problem solving while at the same time developing new theoretical insights. Although there is significant research methodology available to support engaged scholarship, we lack practical knowledge on how to navigate the complex and uncertain process from engagement with a real-world problem to publication of research results. In this essay, I present a tutorial on how you can design engaged scholarship by iterating between the key components of a study and the structure of the resulting publication. The approach helps you manage the complexities and uncertainties involved in engaged scholarship by designing your research activity and your research publication and by iteratively moving back and forth between these artifacts as you engage in your research and develop your publication. The approach draws on extant research methodology and on my practical experience coaching other researchers. I illustrate the different parts of this design approach to engaged scholarship and offer guiding principles to help you adapt and use it

The Infurgic Manifesto

Abstract not available

Organizational Change Perspectives on Software Process Improvement

Many software organizations have engaged in Software Process Improvement (SPI) and experienced the challenges related to managing such complex organizational change efforts. As a result, there is an increasing body of research investigating change management in SPI. To provide an overview of what we know and don’t know about SPI as organizational change, this paper addresses the following question: What are the dominant perspectives on SPI as organizational change in the literature and how is this knowledge presented and published? All journals on the AIS ranking list were screened to identify relevant articles and Gareth Morgan’s organizational metaphors (1996) were used to analyze this literature considering the following dimensions of each article: organizational perspective (metaphor), knowledge orientation (normative versus descriptive), theoretical emphasis (high versus low), main audience (practitioner versus academic), geographical origin (Scandinavia, the Americas, Europe, or the Asia-Pacific), and publication level (high versus low ranked journal). The review demonstrates that the literature on SPI as organizational change is firmly grounded in both theory and practice, and Scandinavia and the Americas are the main contributors to this research. The distribution of articles across Morgan’s metaphors is uneven and reveals knowledge gaps that present new avenues for research. The current literature offers important insights into organizational change in SPI from machine, organism, and brain perspectives. Practitioners may use these articles as a guide to SPI insights relevant to their improvement initiatives. In contrast, the impact of culture, dominance, psychic prison, flux and transformation, and politics in SPI have only received scant attention. We argue that these perspectives offer important insights into the challenges involved in managing change in SPI. Researchers are therefore advised to engage in new SPI research based on one or more of these perspectives. Overall, the paper provides a roadmap to help identify insights and specific articles related to SPI as organizational change.Software Process Improvement; Organizational Change; Organizational Metaphors; Images of Organization; Literature Review

Managing Uncertainty in Organic Development Projects

A variety of organic models for systems development have been recommended for more than three decades. These models rest on the assumption that the uncertainty is high and additional team capabilities have to be developed during the project life-cycle. In contrast to the single-pass and document-driven waterfall model, organic models impose less rigid structure on the process, and they are geared toward exploration. We know little, however, about how uncertainties are managed over the life-cycle of organic systems development projects. In response to this challenge, we adapt task uncertainty theory to conduct a qualitative study of management practices in a project based on two-phase funding, staged delivery, and a combination of prototyping and specifications. We provide detailed narratives of how uncertainties emerged, interacted, and were addressed in the project. The subsequent analyses suggest that the adopted organic model facilitated management of uncertainty, but it also introduced surprising and demanding management challenges that were not accounted for in the model. The study adds to our understanding of management practices in organic systems development. It shows how combinations of offensive and defensive responses can help managers address the uncertainties they face. In addition, managers are advised to differentiate between developing know-what and know-how capabilities and to dynamically adapt their uncertainty response mode to fit a project’s evolving context

Networking During Strategic Change in Small Organizations

Managers recognize change as their number one challenge with the vast majority of their initiatives ending in failure. Managers of small organizations are particularly challenged because these organizations have limited resources and they are particularly vulnerable to environmental dynamics. Against this backdrop, we conducted a qualitative, longitudinal study into a small organization that struggled with strategic change over a seven-year period. We draw on concepts from Actor Network Theory to reveal the importance of effective, conscious, and proactive networking with internal stakeholders and with the powerful, external players upon which small organizations depend. This perspective also emphasizes that managers must pay attention to influential, non-human actors such as optimistic budgets, alluring drawings and pictures, persuasive presentation materials, and attractive spaces and buildings that operate very subtlety to frustrate or support change efforts. We conclude by proposing a model for strategic change in small organizations that focuses on aligning the interests of internal and external actors through comprehensive networking, triggered by destabilizing tensions, and affected both adversely and positively by powerful non-human actors