Tricks or Trompe L\u27Oeil? An Examination Workplace Resistance in an Information Rich Managerial Environment

Management information generated by workflow information systems is often used for planning, costing, decision making and other management activities. By application of the principles of Grounded Theory, this paper summarises studies of acceptance of workflow systems and finds that user resistance is manifest in many forms. The paper also finds that previous divisions of this resistance are simplistic and fail to address the issue of data integrity. The paper attempts to add to the literature on user resistance to surveillance and to categorise the ways in which users work around systems resulting in information that is not a true reflection of actual activities. Thus management decisions are based upon an illusion of actuality and not on the reality of workplace activities. This leads to the usage of the Trompe L’Oeil, a decorative technique translating literally from French as ‘trick of the eye’ and used for example where a window with curtains and view is painted onto a wall to look like a real window and the observer perceives a window where no window exists

Resist, comply or workaround? An examination of different facets of user engagement with information systems

This paper provides a summary of studies of user resistance to Information Technology (IT) and identifies workaround activity as an understudied and distinct, but related, phenomenon. Previous categorizations of resistance have largely failed to address the relationships between the motivations for divergences from procedure and the associated workaround activity. This paper develops a composite model of resistance/workaround derived from two case study sites. We find four key antecedent conditions derived from both positive and negative resistance rationales and identify associations and links to various resultant workaround behaviours and provide supporting Chains of Evidence from two case studies

Secondary user relations in emerging mobile computing environments

Mobile technologies are enabling access to information in diverse environ.ments, and are exposing a wider group of individuals to said technology. Therefore, this paper proposes that a wider view of user relations than is usually considered in information systems research is required. Specifically, we examine the potential effects of emerging mobile technologies on end-­‐user relations with a focus on the ‘secondary user’, those who are not intended to interact directly with the technology but are intended consumers of the technology’s output. For illustration, we draw on a study of a U.K. regional Fire and Rescue Service and deconstruct mobile technology use at Fire Service incidents. Our findings provide insights, which suggest that, because of the nature of mobile technologies and their context of use, secondary user relations in such emerging mobile environments are important and need further exploration

Covert end user development: A study of success

End User Development (EUD) of system applications is typically undertaken by end users for their own, or closely aligned colleagues, business needs. EUD studies have focused on activity that is small scale, is undertaken with management consent and will ultimately be brought into alignment with the organisation's software development strategy. However, due to the increase pace of today's organisations EUD activity increasing takes place without the full knowledge or consent of management, such developments can be defined as covert rather than subversive, they emerge in response to the dynamic environments in which today's organisations operate. This paper reports on a covert EUD project where a wide group of internal and external stakeholders workedcollaboratively to drive an organisation's software development strategy. The research highlights the future inevitability of external stakeholders engaging in end user development as, with the emergence of wiki and blog-like environments, the boundaries of organisations' technological artifacts become increasingly hard to define. Copyright © 2007, Idea Group Inc