Strategies for Dealing with Drift during Implementation of ERP Systems

Research on the relationship between Information Technology (IT) and organizations emphasizes the complexity of adaptation processes and the potential of drifting. Drifting means that an organization encounters unexpected circumstances that show the incompleteness and possible failure of an initial technological design without organizations having yet feasible alternatives. This conceptual and empirical paper investigates the origins and nature of drifting, and strategies for dealing with drift. Three strategies have been proposed to deal with drifting: control, incremental, and drift containment. We explore the third option that seems most realistic and relevant from an organizational point of view. We empirically investigated how drift containment could be accomplished in practice in a multi-site ERP implementation project. Our results suggest three phases of dealing with drift. Organizations must first recognize when drifting occurs. Next, they must develop a dual focus. On one hand, they must differentiate between a project’s overarching objectives (which remain relatively stable). On the other hand, they attend to and resolve their operational drifting experience. The dual focus thus means that while organizations stay focused on their objectives, they address the causes of drifting. During the final phase, lessons learnt during drifting resolution must be shared and applied to accelerate accomplishment of project objectives. Implications for research and practice are elaborated

Extending the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) Framework to the Digital World

The rapid rise of digital technologies forces us to re-think our current conceptualization of Information Technologies (IT) where recent theoretical approaches like complexity, evolutionary and network theories tend to remain silent on human (managerial and organizational) choices underlying the development of digital technologies. In this Research-in-Progress paper, we first describe the Social Construction of Technology (SCOT) framework, originating in the 1980s. We then propose extending the SCOT framework along four dimensions in order to ensure its suitability for the digital world: (1) Technology – focus towards digital technologies, (2) Interaction – focus on interpersonal, person-technology, technology-technology and technology-physical environment interactions (3) Social Groups – focus on networked individualism, and (4) Context – focus on socio-digital context. We conclude by proposing to co-develop and -test the extended framework as a joint effort across several academic disciplines in order to use it when conducting research on the social construction of digital ecosystems

Invisible Social Infrastructures to Facilitate Time-pressed Distributed Organizing

How do complex societal demands and time constraints posed by distributed temporary organizing affect organizational communication? Extending Bowker and Star’s (2002) work on infrastructures, we introduce two context-specific ‘invisible’, social infrastructures: organizational and relational. We empirically assess their role in an international, multi-site ERP-software implementation. We investigated how these infrastructures shaped organizational activities, aligned discourses, created order, and prevented divergent behaviours. We found that mutually interdependent organizational and relational infrastructures strengthened social relationships and saved time by facilitating non-routine collaboration and organizational communication under geographic and temporal constraints. We argue that the conceptualization of (infra)structural and process dynamics will help researchers and practitioners understand and handle organizational communication in distributed temporary organizations

A Phenomenological Exploration of Adaptation in a Polycontextual Work Environment

The rise of new ways of working through the use of information and communication technology brings about new phenomena that are powerful in the effects that they have on people. The potency of phenomenology lies in its philosophical simplicity and it provides the researcher with the ability to study the essence of an observable but scarcely understood phenomena: How do people perform effectively and efficiently in a geographically and temporally dispersed work environment? Collective action across multiple time zones continues to challenge both academics and practioners. This study provides a unique view of how globally dispersed participants achieve collective action. It throws light into how the creation of shared understanding is tempered by differences in time zones and how participants adapt through their choice of media, work practices and communication. Following an analysis of a case studied using phenomenology, this paper concludes with a model of adaptation in polycontextual work environments

Treatment quality in times of ROM

To assess (feasibility) of adherence to treatment guidelines among outpatients with common mental disorders in a routine Dutch clinical outpatient setting for common mental disorders with clinical treatment data. Also,we studied patient- and therapistfactors influencing guideline-adherence in clinical practice.We established certain characteristics that might hamper tretamnet according to guidelines and more research is needed to assess whether patient in clinical practice do benefit from guidelines. LUMC / Geneeskund

The international trade in launch services : the effects of U.S. laws, policies and practices on its development

Rockets or launch vehicles, though sharing the same technology, have both military and civil applications: they can be used as missiles or as 'ordinary' transportation vehicles. As a consequence, national security and foreign policy considerations stand in the way of the international launch industry becoming a normal service industry subject to free trade (GATS) principles. This dissertation discusses this conflict between national security and trade interests and the way it affects the United States launch trade relations with China, Russia and Europe. It also analyzes the extent to which the respective U.S. laws, policies and practices, in particular those relating to the export of satellites and launchers, restrict the development of these and other countries' commercial launch activities, and it reviews the prospects for a - GATS or space law-based - liberalization of the international trade in launch services.Lucht- en ruimterecht (Z) (1

Implementing packaged enterprise software in multi-site firms: Intensification of organizing and learning

Packaged enterprise software, in contrast with custom-built software, is a ready-made mass product aimed at generic customer groups in a variety of industries and geographical areas. The implementation of packaged software usually leads to a phase of appropriation and customization. As the associated processes remain ill understood, particularly for multi-site implementations, the objective of this paper is to understand the impact of packaged software in a multi-site organization. Adopting a case study method, this paper reports on a multi-site project that was analyzed at the group, site, and corporate level. Our findings suggest that as organizational units face the unsettling experience of having to implement a single source code across globally distributed sites, packaged software intensifies organizing and learning processes across these levels. The paper identifies specific processes for these levels and concludes with implications for research and practice. Our research extends IS research on packaged software implementation with an emphasis on multi-site firms

Shots fired! Why is switching between organisational practices so difficult?

Jan-Kees Schakel, Paul C. van Fenema and Samer Faraj study a covert operation by the Dutch polic