IFIP Working Group 8.2

Information Technologies in Organizational Processes: Field Studies and Theoretical Reflections on the Future of Work
St Louis, Missouri, USA
31 May - 3 June 1999

Within the last five years we have seen the rapid deployment of some relatively new technologies, for example, Enterprise Resource Planning systems (SAP, BAAN, PeopleSoft, etc.), the Internet and Intranets. These technologies follow a wave of advancements in new information technologies that are precipitating profound changes in how organizations carry out their activities. These technologies are enabling a wide range of social transformations such as: (a) global distribution of work; (b) radical re-engineering of organizational work processes; (c) interorganizational partnerships and collaborations; and (d) networked and virtual organizational structures. These radical social transformations of organizations are taking place at such speed that they are overwhelming for academic researchers. In this regard we are interested in field studies that discuss social and organizational issues around the implementation and use of these new technologies in organizational processes. Submissions were sought for both traditional and critical empirical research that includes (but is not limited to): investigations of management and worker conflicts, power shifts, dislocation of workers, work reorganization, global distribution of work, worker responses, information security and access rights.

Questions of interest are:
1. How are various types of organizations using these new technologies?
2. What types of changes are these new technologies precipitating in organizations?
3. What are some of the key organizational issues in implementing these technologies?
4. What impact is the implementation of these technologies having on workers?
5. How are organizational power relations affected?

These papers appear in New Information Technologies in Organizational Processes: Field Studies and Theoretical Reflections on the Future of Work, edited by Ojelanki K. Ngwenyama, Lucas D. Introna, Michael D. Myers and Janice I. DeGross, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston 1999

Table of Contents

1 Building on a Decade of Research on IT and Organizations
Ojelanki K. Ngwenyama, Lucas D. Introna and Michael D. Myers

Part 1: Critical Reflections
2 Nations, Identities, and Global Technologies
Mark Poster

3 Knowledge and Methods in IS Research: From Beginnings to the Future
Heinz K. Klein

4 The Tyranny of Space in Organizational Analysis
Richard J. Boland, Jr.

5 Distinctions Among Different Types of Generalizing in Information Systems Research
Richard Baskerville and Allen S. Lee

6 Research and Ethical Issues Arising from Ethnographic Interviews of Patients’ Reactions to an Intelligent Interactive Telephone Health Behavior Advisor
Bonnie Kaplan, Ramesh Farzanfar and Robert H. Freeman

7 The Potential of the Language Action Perspective in Ethographic Analysis
Heinz K. Klein and Minh Q. Huynh

Part 2: Field Studies
8 Identification of Necessary Factors for Successful Implementation of ERP Systems
A. N. Parr, G. Shanks and P. Darke

9 Hunting for the Treasure at the End of the Rainbow: Standardizing Corporate IT Infrastructure
O. Hanseth and K. Braa

10 Reengineering the Supply Chain Using Collaborative Technology: Opportunities to Change in the Building and Construction Industry
C. Sauer, K. Johnston, K. Karim, M. Marosszeky and P. Yetton

11 Organizational Disposition and Its Influence on the Adoption and Diffusion of Information Systems
Brian O’Donovan

12 Key Role Players in the Initiation and Implementation of Intranet Technology
Rens Scheepers

13 A Hermeneutic Interpretation of the Effect of Computerized BPR Tools on Redesign Effectiveness in Two Organizations
Suprateek Sarker and Allen S. Lee

14 Understanding E-Commerce Through Genre Theory: The Case of The Car-Buying Process
Sue Conger and Ulrike Schultze

15 Balancing Flexibility and Coherence: Information Exchange in a Paper Machinery Project
Helena Karsten, Kalle Lyytinen, Markku Hurskainen and Timo Koskelainen

16 The Role of Information Technology in the Learning of Knowledge Work
Valerie Spitler and Michael Gallivan

17 Incorporating Social Transformation into the Information Systems and Software Development Lifecycles
Christopher J. Hemingway and Tom G. Gough

Part 3: Panels
18 The Uses and Abuses of Evaluative Criteria for Qualitative Research Methods
Richard Baskerville, Steve Sawyer, Eileen Trauth, Duane Truex and Cathy Urquhart

19 Re-evaluating Power in Information Rich Organizations: New Theories and Approaches
Ole Hanseth, Susan V. Scott, Leiser Silva, and Edgar A. Whitley