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

Structuration Theory in Information Systems Research: Relevance and Rigour from a Pluralist Research Approach

This paper reflects on the theoretical aspects of an earlier ontological study. The study was a single case which explored the use of an agricultural decision support system by women cotton growers in the Australian cotton industry and the effect of its use on their farm management roles on family cotton farms. The study was informed through a multi-paradigmatic conceptual framework with structuration theory as a meta-theory, and diffusion theory and gender relations theory as lower level theories. This pluralistic research approach employed both theory and data triangulation. In this paper, the justification for a multi-paradigmatic framework is discussed as well as the relevance and rigour of the study

Co-evolution path model : how enterprises as complex systems survive on the edge of chaos

In this theoretical paper, we introduce and describe a model, and demonstrate its origins from the disciplines of Enterprise Architecture, cybernetics and systems theory. We use cybernetic thinking to develop a &lsquo;Co-evolution Path Model&rsquo; that describes how enterprises as complex systems co-evolve with their complex environments. The model re-interprets Stafford Beer&rsquo;s Viable System Model, and also uses the theorem of the &lsquo;good regulator&rsquo; of Conant and Ashby, exemplifying how various complexity management theories could be synthesised into a cybernetic theory of Enterprise Architecture, using concepts from the generalisation of EA frameworks.<br /

The view from the trenches : satisfaction with eHealth systems by a group of health professionals

The integration and adoption of eHealth systems within the health sector faces challenges. As health care practitioners are the end users of eHealth systems, their perceptions of these systems are critical in order to address the issues surrounding their implementation and application. This paper presents the views that a group of health care professionals hold regarding the eHealth systems that they use as part of their day to day work. These views were analysed according to the perceptions of satisfaction and dissatisfaction with eHealth systems that these professionals expressed. They expressed satisfaction with the information consistency, work efficiency, access to information, quality of information, and availability of technical support associated with their systems use. They expressed dissatisfaction with a lack of communication and compatibility between systems, deficiency in terms of system functionality, a lack of system reliability, a lack of initial and ongoing training, and a need to develop workarounds in order to achieve work goals. Overall this research indicates that satisfaction with eHealth systems is a complex issue, and that the negative aspects of system satisfaction need to be addressed and the positive aspects carefully built upon.<br /

The high seas (C’s) of music piracy in information systems : cost, convenience and choice

Systems and technologies used for unauthorised file sharing have received little attention in the Information Systems literature. This paper attempts to fill this gap by presenting a critical, qualitative study on the motivations for using unauthorised file sharing systems. Based on 30 interviews with music consumers, musicians, and the music industry, this paper reports on the decision of music consumers to &lsquo;pirate or purchase&rsquo;. This paper highlights file sharing from multiple perspectives of users, musicians, and representatives from the music recording industry. Three main themes emerged on the cost, convenience and choice as motivators for unauthorised file sharing.<br /

Harnessing Diversity: Individual Differences in the Use of Farm Management Software

This paper reports on an interpretive study which explores the influences of socio-cultural factors in the interplay between farm women and technology for farm management purposes on Australian family cotton farms. The study revealed growing support for the theory of individual differences of gender and IT in situations where women and men farm partners perform certain tasks for which they are neither biologically predetermined nor socially constituted. By harnessing the diverse skills of farm partners, decision making on the family farm is enhanced. This paper contributes to both theory and practice by extending the conceptual foundations for recognising and valuing gendered relationships and diversity in a global context

The High Seas (C\u27s) of Piracy in Information Systems: Cost, convenience and choice

Systems and technologies used for unauthorised file sharing have received little attention in the Information Systems literature. This paper attempts to fill this gap by presenting a critical, qualitative study on the motivations for using unauthorised file sharing systems. Based on 30 interviews with music consumers, musicians, and the music industry, this paper reports on the decision of music consumers to ‘pirate or purchase’. This paper highlights file sharing from multiple perspectives of users, musicians, and representatives from the music recording industry. Three main themes emerged on the cost, convenience and choice as motivators for unauthorised file sharing

Collaboration in Online Communities: Reconceptualising the Complex Problem of Unauthorised Music File Sharing

This empirical paper explores the complex problem space of unauthorised music file sharing, providing insight into collaboration activities in online communities. As many consumers now access their music through unauthorised file sharing, it is interesting to consider what makes such communities so attractive. This paper presents the debates surrounding music piracy/file sharing, using a critical perspective to consider ‘another way of doing things’. The arguments in this paper are based on a doctoral study involving 30 interviews, 3 focus groups, and 120 days of participant observation within an underground music file sharing community. Actor- network theory is useful in identifying the controversies in this complex problem space, encouraging a reconceptualisation of file sharers and the information systems they create. These new insights contribute to the literature of information systems development within the context of online communities

Women Working in the IT Industry: Challenges for the New Millennium

Despite increased female participation in the workforce, including some non traditional areas such as law and medicine, female participation in the Information Technology (IT) industry is declining. A longitudinal study (WinIT) commenced in 1995 has explored Australian student’s and working women’s perceptions and experiences, and the factors which have influenced them to enter and persist in the IT field. This paper reviews recent research and describes the latest results from the authors' study of professional women in the Australian IT industry, focusing on the contradictions in the way that women represent their experiences. These contradictions indicate that polarised views of gender in the IT workforce are being undermined, but also that IT personnel have difficulty reconciling their personal and work lives and coping with the rapid rate of change in the industry. The implications for human resources management in the volatile IT industry as well as some possible solutions to the problem are also discussed