Social-Technical Issues in Organizational Information Technologies
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Item Simulating the Impact of Cooperation and Management Strategies on Stress and Economic Performance(2019-01-08) Daňa, Josef; Kopeček, Ivan; Ošlejšek, Radek; Plhák, JaromírIn this paper, we study the impact of the management evaluation strategies that are aimed at achieving a balance between rewarding the cooperative behavior of employees and their economic performance. We developed a model in the NetLogo simulation environment that incorporates many socioeconomic aspects such as the stress, effort, and productivity of employees as well as insights into managing cooperativeness and the performance of individual workers. We conducted a series of simulations, each representing a 10-year lifespan of an organization, and the results reveal that organizations achieve the highest performance when management prefers to reward the cooperative behavior of employees instead of performance. The detailed results are provided and discussed in the paper, as are the future directions that the research could take as well as possible extensions of the model presented.Item Prioritizing Tasks in Code Repair: A Psychological Exploration of Computer Code(2019-01-08) Alarcon, Gene; Jessup, Sarah A.; Wood, David W.; Ryan, Tyler J.; Capiola, AugustThe current study explored the influence of task prioritization on how computer programmers reviewed and edited code. Forty-five programmers recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk downloaded and edited a computer program in C#. Programmers were given instructions to review the code and told to prioritize either the reputation, transparency, or performance aspects of the code, or were given no prioritization instruction. Code changes and remarks about their changes to the code were analyzed with a between-within multivariate analysis of variance. Results indicate prioritizing an aspect of the code leads to increased performance on that aspect, but with deficits to other aspects of the code. Managers may want programmers to prioritize certain aspects of code depending on the stage of development of the software (i.e., testing, rollout, etc.). However, managers should also be cognizant of the effects task prioritization has on programmer perceptions of the code as a whole.Item The Creativity Model of Age and Innovation with IT: How to Counteract the Effects of Age Stereotyping on User Innovation(2019-01-08) Tams, Stefan; Dulipovici, Alina MariaOlder users shy away from the post-adoptive use of information technologies much more often than their younger counterparts. This situation is alarming given that the workforce is aging rapidly and that organizational technologies are proliferating at the same time. Yet there is no clear explanation for older users’ lower post-adoptive use, which limits practitioners’ understanding of what can be done to assist them. This lack of understanding is especially problematic vis-à-vis user innovation. Successful firms like Microsoft, 3M, or Nike encourage their employees to innovate with IT in order to realize the full potential of their existing IT infrastructure. Thus the present paper advances the creativity model of age and innovation with IT. This model indicates that age differences in user innovation are accounted for by negative age stereotypes and their impacts on creative IT self-efficacy. The model further proposes that the indirect effect of age through creative IT self-efficacy on user innovation can be lessened by contextual factors, namely job control, IT support, and user enjoyment. The paper offers much-needed implications both for managers and for systems designers.Item Self-Organizing is not Self-Managing: A Case Study about Governance Challenges in an Agile IT Unit and its Scrum Projects(2019-01-08) Simard, Magali; Lapalme, JamesThis paper presents a case study on the internal governance of Scrum projects and their relationships with their organization’s governance within a rich research setting: an IT agile unit and its mature Scrum project teams. This study reveals ambiguities about the meaning of self-organizing versus self-managing, and the associated challenges for governance processes, especially those related to HR governance, which can lead to unresolved issues and conflicts. Interestingly, these ambiguities are also found in the current IS literature, which rarely differentiates self-organizing from self-managing in agile projects. Thus, this paper enhances our knowledge of governance processes and associated challenges, particularly for mature Scrum project teams, which are still little covered in the IS literature.Item IT Infrastructures Maintenance and Evolution in Public Sector Organizations: Main Challenges(2019-01-08) Bourdeau, Simon; Coulon, Thibaut; Vieru, Dragos; Boissieres, ElodieIn the face of rapid and constant technological evolution, the management of IT infrastructures in an effective and sustainable manner represents a major challenge for any organization and even more for public sector organizations (PSOs) who often lack IT resources and expertise. PSOs are social and economic actors who must spend taxpayers' money in a responsible and efficient manner. Despite the importance of these challenges for practitioners and academics alike, there is a limited number of studies in this field. The present study seeks to fill this gap through a systematic review of the literature followed by a Delphi study. Outcomes of this literature review are presented along with preliminary results of a Delphi study realized with 40 IT infrastructure experts.Item The Role of Institutional Work in Platform Establishment: An Investigation of Digital Innovation Practices for Creating, Maintaining and Disrupting Institutions(2019-01-08) Jadaan, TalineWhile the significance of digital platforms for contemporary organizations has been demonstrated both in theory and practice, how they emerge is less understood. We argue that one source of digital platform emergence is the recombinatorial innovation processes individuals enact in organizational work practices. We draw on theory on institutional work to empirically examine how innovation processes led to the emergence of a digital platform in the Swedish transport administration. We find that actors engage in work aimed at creating, maintaining and disrupting socio-technical structures. These work practices involve exploring the possibilities of specific digital resources, their combinatorial options, and how new resources can be generated. The analysis contributes to the literature on digital platforms by (1) demonstrating the role of digital malleability in bypassing institutional resistance, (2) identifying temporal patterns and dependencies of activities, and (3) detecting distinct emphasis in types of institutional work.Item Change Agents and Resilient Practices: The Power of Symbolic Capital in a Post-Merger Integration Context(2019-01-08) Vieru, Dragos; Rivard, Suzanne; H. Westergren, Ulrika; Bourdeau, SimonThis study analyzes the interactions among mandated change agents within a post-merger integration context and examines the implications of their practices as they attempt to engage with others in a cross-boundary information system implementation project. We examine the case of the Metropolitan Healthcare Center, where three previously independent centers were merged into one, and follow the individuals who were appointed to ensure the integration of a new, mutual information system across the three center sites. We draw on a practice perspective and the notion of symbolic capital to shed light on post-merger practices and their outcomes. Our analysis suggests that one of the change agent’s practices of boundary consolidation through influence tactics were legitimized through discourses of authoritative knowledge and ‘group-making’. This facilitated the construction of symbolic boundaries between the merging parties, thus contributing to the resilience of pre-merger practices despite the planned intention to create change.Item Understanding Virtual Embodiment: A Phenomenological Lens(2019-01-08) Vidolov, Simeon; Vidolov, IvanThe paper develops a phenomenological perspective on virtual interactions, which focuses on the centrality of the human body for developing meaningful engagements and relationships in virtual settings. From such a stance, the paper problematizes the extant perspectives that are being premised either on the physicality of the human body and thereby face-to-face interactions, or on the negligence of the body and its reduction to digital text in virtual interactions. In contrast, by drawing on the work of Merleau-Ponty, this paper sets a middle ground, which emphasizes the relationship between the phenomenal (lived) body, and the objective (image) body, which also constitutes our engagements with others. The findings of the paper, based on an analysis of an in-depth, longitudinal, exclusively-mediated software development relationship, identify the importance of inter-orienting and inter-presencing practices. These practices show that virtual interactions are qualitatively distinct mode of engagement, which is more-than-linguistic and more-than-task-oriented. This perspective of virtual embodiment is valuable for addressing the research contradictions in the area of virtual interactions, and offering important insights to the recent IS discourse on performativity and ontological inseparability.Item Out of Sight, Out of Mind: Turnover Intentions through an eLeadership Lens(2019-01-08) Lovelace, Kevin; Dantu, RamakrishnaThe basis for this research is founded on the emerging eLeadership theory and the need for retention of qualified leadership in organizations that either are required to or elect to adopt information communication technology (ICT). Development of the eLeadership theory is still in its nascent stage and thus the use of theoretical foundations it is built upon are used to measure and understand the influencing factors of an eLeader's turnover intention. The researchers in this study propose a research model of eLeader’s turnover intention and develop propositions using eLeader’s relationship with followers, transformational leadership ability, technology self-efficacy, and organizational engagement as its core constructs. Data from this research is proposed to be collected using qualified surveys and findings. This research is expected to make a significant contribution and enrich the developing body of eLeadership literature so that more empirical data is available for future researchers interested in measuring constructs related to eLeadershipItem The Effect of CIO Virtues on CIO Role Effectiveness(2019-01-08) Chatterjee, Sutirtha; Sarker, Suprateek; Moody, Gregory D.; Lowry, PaulThis paper aims to contribute to the concept of ethical CIO leadership through a distinctive focus on virtue ethics. Our research investigates the theoretical significance of CIO virtues on two CIO capabilities and their corresponding influence on the CIO’s role effectiveness in organizations. Contributions and implications of this work are discussed.