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Frames and inscriptions: tracing a way to understand IT-dependent change projects
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF
PROJECT MANAGEMENT International Journal of Project Management 23 (2005) 415–420 www.elsevier.com/locate/ijproman
Frames and inscriptions: tracing a way to understand IT-dependent change projects Henrik C.J. Linderoth a
a,*
, Giuseppina Pellegrino
b,1
Department of Business Administration Umea˚ School of Business and Economics, Umea˚ University, 901 87 Umea˚, Sweden b Dipartimento di Sociologia e Scienza Politica, Universita` della Calabria, 87036 Arcavacata di Rende – Cosenza, Italy
Abstract The aim of the paper is to inquire how technology can be analysed in order to develop a deeper knowledge about the project process and the implications for management of IT-dependent change projects. Two Intranet projects, and one telemedicine project, are analysed from the perspective of social construction of technology (SCOT) and actor network theory (ANT). By using the concepts of technological frames, from SCOT, and inscriptions, from ANT, it has been possible to create a framework for describing technology and its role in the process of IT-dependent change projects. Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved. Keywords: Project management; Information technology; Technological frames; Inscription; Organizational change; Intranet; Telemedicine
1. Introduction In contemporary change projects information technology is an essential component as carrier of expected changes. Change has almost been considered as a Ôdirect consequenceÕ of IT implementations [1], supported by expectations about technology, delivered especially by vendors and massively circulating through both popular and technical literature [2]. However, when IT-systems meet the social context they are supposed to change, the transformation process is seldom as straightforward, or easy manageable as imagined [3,4]. Studies emphasising the social context and its impacts have increased the understanding of processes in IT-dependent change projects. But material aspects of the technology imposing the process have been neglected and the technology has more or less been taken for granted [5]. To cope with the intertwined relations between the social and the tech*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +46 90 786 7906; fax: +46 90 786 6674. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (H.C.J. Linderoth), [email protected] (G. Pellegrino). 1 Tel.: +39 984 492569; fax: +39 984 492598. 0263-7863/$30.00 Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.01.005
nical aspects of technology in change processes, sociotechnical perspectives have evolved during the last decades. The most interesting for our purposes are social construction of technology (SCOT) [6,7], and actornetwork theory (ANT) [8,9], earlier used by Linde and Linderoth [10,11] and Blackburn [12] in the analysis of project management processes. Thus, the understanding of IT-dependent change projects requires a specific analysis of technology with regard to how it influences the project process [5,10]. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to inquire how technology can be analysed in order to develop a deeper knowledge about the project process and the implications for management of IT-dependent change projects.
2. Theoretical aspects of the artefact Even if differences in assumptions and theoretical hypotheses can be clearly identified, both SCOT and ANT arose from the need to overcome technological determinism and standardized theories of innovation. Both SCOT and ANT recognize that our technologies
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H.C.J. Linderoth, G. Pellegrino / International Journal of Project Management 23 (2005) 415–420
mirror our societies; they reproduce and embody the complex interplay of professional, technical, economic, and political factors; technologies always embody compromise and are shaped by a range of heterogeneous factors [6, p. 3]. ANT gives the greatest importance to the notion of hybridity of social and material practices, as well as that of obduracy [13,14]. ANT dissolves all the boundaries between producers and users of technology to the extent that all the traditional hierarchies in technology production and use are overcome, whereas SCOT emphasizes the social and socially constructed dimension of technological innovation. In the SCOT perspective, the outcome of organizational membersÕ interactions and sense giving to a technology is labelled technological frames. It can be claimed that this concept can form a ground for an enhanced understanding of interactions between organizational members and an IT-system, and its implication for the project process, by uncovering roles and meanings that are ascribed to a technology. In this paper, technological frames are viewed as [15, p. 178]: ‘‘. . .the understanding that members of a social group come to have of particular technological artifacts and they include not only knowledge about the particular technology but also local understanding of specific uses in a given setting’’. Technological frames are, according to Orlikowski and Gash [15, p. 183f], constituted by the following elements: Nature of technology: peopleÕs pictures of the technology and their understanding of the technologyÕs opportunities and function. Technology strategy: peopleÕs perceptions why their organization has bought and implemented the technology. It includes an understanding of the motive or vision behind the adoption decisions and the technologyÕs eventual value for the organization. Technology in use: peopleÕs understanding regarding how the technology will be used day by day, and possible or actual pre-conditions and consequences connected with technology use. However, due to the interpretative flexibility of technology [6,7], technological frames will not remain static over time and space; instead, the meaning of technology will vary over time and between relevant social groups [16]. In accordance with this perspective, failed projects are explained by developed discrepancies of frames between relevant social groups. However, how are discrepancies constructed? It can be claimed that attention has not been paid to the interplay between the elements of technological frames and how this interplay shapes the process of an IT-dependent change project. It can be claimed that as long as frames related to nature of tech-
nology and technology strategy are shared among the relevant social groups and connected with technology in use, as manifested in a project plan, the project process will develop as intended. But how can the process be understood where the interplay between the three elements shapes discrepancies between relevant social groups, and what imposes this process? With regard to the management of IT-dependent change projects, the issue is what affects peopleÕs over time shifting interpretations, and can interpretations be managed and imposed in order to prevent that system usage and intended changes fade away? 2.1. Making technology visible The concept of technological frames is related to how people give sense to a technology, but it does not distinguish in depth between frames developed in interactions with technology as an idea, or in interaction with technology as a mixture of ideas and artefacts. In order to understand how frames develop in interactions between people, and technology as a mixture of ideas and artefacts, the concept of inscriptions, from ANT, will be used. Inscription refers to desired programs of action, or patterns of use that someone inscribes into a medium such as a technical artefact [13, p. 205]. With regard to technological artefacts, technology producers try to define the potential user, his/her competencies and the context(s) in which artefacts would be used. In the case of IT-dependent change projects implementing open customisable technologies, it can be claimed that technology producers have assumed that actors in the user context would have skills to appropriate the technology. Producers delegate the task of appropriation to these actors. But the mode in which the artefact should be operated is delegated to the technology. Thus, inscriptions concerning situations in which technology is used are rather flexible, whereas inscriptions concerning how technology is operated are rather inflexible [17]. For example, if we think of an automatic teller machine, there is a degree of flexibility with regard to how much money we can get. But inscriptions also prescribe operations, and the ‘‘configuration’’ of the user, who should have a certain size, be able to read, possess a card and know where to insert it, and to follow a pre-defined (inscribed) path of operations. However, a series of different situations or modes of use come to be associated with the automatic teller machine. These situations are as multiple as the technology is, because of its interpretative flexibility. However, such flexibility is neither endless, nor taken for granted. It shapes the artefact especially in the first stages of its deployment, diminishing as the timeline and translations go on and the artefact becomes more and more taken for granted if we want to get cash. This process is what some social constructionists labelled as closure [7, p.
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86]. However, closure does not imply that the technology is used. Closure can also imply that a project is removed from the agenda. Thus, before the technology is put into use it can be claimed that translation of technology should lead to the creation of technological frames that allow actors in the relevant social groups to perceive the technology as a potential solution (the only solution if the translation has been successful) to some problem perceived by relevant social groups. When the technology is implemented in the context that is aimed to change, there has to be coherence between the frames developed around the technology as an idea and technology in use. It can be assumed that nature of technology and technology strategy will play an influential role ex ante when frames are developed, whereas technology in use will ex post have the largest influence on the frames developed. It can furthermore be assumed that the inscriptions in the technological artefacts will come to play an influential role for the frames developed ex post and influence the coherence with frames developed ex ante.
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could not be described in terms of success or failure, since in some clinics telemedicine use is included in the routines, in others use has faded away, and new projects have been initiated in other specialist departments, influenced by the studied project. The Intranet is often depicted as an internal and secure version of the Internet, even if its design and implementation is highly specific [19]. The two Intranet projects which were studied comprised an Italian and a British company, both of them medium sized and dealing with management and integration of Information Systems. In the Italian company, the Intranet was launched by an internal project team as a generalist, Internet-like site, and a laboratory to familiarize the company staff with web technologies. In the British case, Intranet was shaped as a Knowledge Management System to gather information from consultants working at client sites. The system was bought and delivered by an external vendor and the implementation process was managed through a joint project team [18]. In both cases the planned objectives of the change projects were not accomplished, due to multiple constraints linked with company history, work routines and habits, interorganizational issues affecting the process.
3. Case descriptions The two technologies studied, telemedicine and the Intranet, can be characterized as open customisable technologies, meaning that they are developed with some basic features which have to be customised and appropriated in the local settings where the technology is deployed. Data collection has been conducted through comprehensive case studies, including interviews, participant observation and ethnographic approaches [17,18]. The telemedicine technology is basically a video conferencing system used in a health care setting. Optical medical equipment can be connected to the system in order to transmit live, or frozen pictures of, for example, a patientÕs skin, an ear-drum, or a frozen section, in situations when a physician wants further information. Other applications are different kinds of conferences, medical rounds and educational activities. Implementation of telemedicine has been studied at nine sites that could be interconnected: two health centres, three specialist clinics in two county hospitals, and four specialist clinics in one university hospital. The whole project
Strategy
4. From public discourses to material practice The analysis of the cases will be built up around the interaction between the three elements that shape technological frames, and how these elements shape each other during the project process. In the analysis of the cases three different stages in the process were revealed: project start up; project in action; and project ‘‘re-birth’’ (see Fig. 1). The thick arrows in Fig. 1 indicate the main influence of one element over another, in terms of reinforcement or re-shaping in the different stages, whereas dotted arrows indicate an optional influence. 4.1. Project start up At this stage of the project, the construction of frames is carried out especially acting on nature and strategy of technology. They shape the way the goals of the project are set up. Starting from nature of technology, it can be said this element of technological
Project start up
Project in action
Project re-birth
Nature
Nature
Nature
Use
Strategy
Use
Strategy
Fig. 1. Interplay between technology framesÕ elements during the project process.
Use
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frames is mainly constituted by public discourses about technologies circulating on mass-media, the Internet and more specialized or dedicated ÕchannelsÕ (e.g., technical literature and handbooks). With reference to telemedicine and the Intranet, actorsÕ perceptions of technology advantages and opportunities were shaped strongly by such discourses, especially during the early stages of the project. For example, discourses about IT-based Knowledge Management and the Intranet potential affected expectations and requests from British managers to the external provider of the Intranet system. Also the use and familiarity with the Internet shaped strongly perceptions and evaluations of the Intranet system performance. Managers in both sites considered the Intranet as a communication medium, with enormous potential in terms of information and knowledge sharing, improvement of internal communication etc. Similarly, telemedicine was primarily seen as a technology for reducing distances in time and space among different health care units. The expected consequences of technology use are increased access to knowledge of medical specialists, which would improve service to patients and development of general practitioners competencies. These opinions, which could be claimed to constitute the nature of technology and technology strategy, were shared among all the interviewed persons and were also the dominating discourse in the telemedicine literature in the mid 1990s. Consequently, the goals of the project in the county became the same as the expected impacts in the general discourse on telemedicine, but with the addition that the goals could also be considered as questions that should be answered, e.g., does telemedicine improve patient service? Furthermore, in all the cases, use is framed according to global discourse depicting technologyÕs advantages: since public discourses constituting nature of technology impose expectations and priorities on strategy and use, no deeper reflection about use is carried out, with some marginal exceptions. At best, technology in use is reflected in a narrow implementation plan. As a consequence, crucial conditions for appropriation of technology and success of the project are often overlooked (e.g., the absence of training of the Italian staff, not skilled on web technologies). 4.2. Project in action Since specific courses of action like standardized procedures and routines are inscribed in the technology, interaction with inscriptions is part of a progressive movement of adaptation of global discourses to the local organizational setting. Technology strategy, reflecting managersÕ intentions, plays a crucial role in such a movement, when reinforcing nature and use in order to create congruence between elements. Still does technology as an idea dominate the constitution of elements,
but technology inscriptions gradually start imposing the interaction between users and the system. As a result of interactions elements are re-shaped or reinforced. Congruence between elements can remain if vital inscriptions are disclosed in advance and action taken, e.g., prescribed by a project plan constituting technology in use. For example medical round between gynaecologists and pathologists was perceived as a success. Inscriptions prescribed a mutual presence of actors, but identification of tasks and organization of routines and resources was delegated to actors in the local context. Elements reinforced each other due to the project managerÕs ability to identify a task (the type of medical round) and imagine necessary action to be taken, which was expressed in his informal plan for the project. By these actions a context specific usefulness of technology was created by making it indispensable to accomplish the specific task. If vital inscriptions deviating from technology in use appear during the project process, which is very likely, technology in use can be re-shaped and by that the other elements as well. For example did, in the British case, the emphasis diminish on Intranet technology as a collaboration tool for supporting tacit or informal knowledge sharing between specialized communities. The collaboration tool was an off-line medium, implying that no guarantee could be obtained about time of answer, which made the tool conceived as a question–answer forum. As a consequence this application was marginalized, since inscribed routines did not support the creation of frames where a context specific usefulness was perceived. Marginalization was also reinforced by the fact that the company size (100 staff) was enabling personal communications and relationships, so that Ôeverybody knows who is the expert and gives her a ringÕ. Thus, when inscriptions come into play frames can be re-shaped and incongruence among social groups appears due to a clash between technology in use as planned in the early stages of the project, and technology in use as emergent and enacted by users. However, incongruence does not have to be permanent, with a marginalization as consequence. Adaptation of local context and technology can create congruence between social groups, if significant actors in the groups manage to establish effective communication channels. However, this is not a guarantee for avoiding incongruence. An exemplary episode concerning inscriptions and local adaptation of a global discourse is offered by the ÔstoryÕ of the Intranet search engine in the British project. Problems arose in setting up the search engine tool, which Ôlooks like Google but does not work like GoogleÕ, eventually turning it into a ÔWindows-like file systemsÕ. Multiple ÔmisunderstandingsÕ between the vendor and the joint project team brought the vendor to change the original software system proposed to the company, and the company to clarify its ÔvisionÕ of the Intranet. The first
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translation, based on the ÔGoogle-likeÕ approach was, therefore, abandoned and marginalized in favour of a list-file system. 4.3. Project re-birth Incongruity between elements does not necessarily lead to a marginalization of technology use, if action is taken to make it possible for elements to reinforce each other, by a ‘‘delivery of promises’’, or elements are re-shaped due to experiences emerging from the interactions. However, the prerequisites for reinforcing, or re-shaping elements, is the presence of a significant actor who: (1) has access to – and an ability to align him/herself with – project sponsors, and/or decisions makers having an influence over the project process; (2) has an ability to identify tasks appropriate to be solved by the new technology; (3) acquires and organizes resources in order to create a context specific usefulness, and by that shape the element ‘‘technology in use’’, which in turns re-shapes the other elements. An example of the re-shaping of elements can be found in one department at the university hospital, where nature of technology shifted during the stages from something that could create equal delivery of health care services to citizens, to an intruder in the daily operations, and finally, to something that released physicians from an uncomfortable task. During the project in action stage, physicians viewed the technology as an intruder in the daily operation, since they did not have equipment at the department and they had to go to another part of the building. If this condition had remained, technology use would have probably been marginalized when the project finished. However, at the end of the first project period a new physician got the responsibility for telemedicine activities and she later became the head of the department. She saw new opportunities for task solving, instead of consultation between the department and health centres that had been the main activity during the project. The task identified was controls of patients with, e.g., chronicle skin diseases at a county hospital 140 km away from the university hospital. At the outset, four to five physicians followed a rotating schedule, and commuted by bus two or three times per week to the county hospital. This activity was not appreciated, even if physicians got a day off as compensation. The new head of the department saw a possibility to use telemedicine consultations instead of sending physicians by bus. A new project was initiated where physicians got training in using the equipment and a nurse was trained at the remote hospital to make pictures, operate the equipment and ‘‘direct’’ patients during consultations. The project was very successful in the sense that the department now mainly is doing video consultation and only ‘‘difficult’’ patients are sent to the university hospital. This re-shaping of telemedicine use and by
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that, the change of operations at the department, occurred due to re-shaping of technology in use. In turn, the nature of technology element changed, which made the physicians involved to view the technology as something useful that replaced a non-appreciated activity.
5. Conclusions and implications for project management The analysis of the Intranet and telemedicine cases showed how the management of IT-dependent change projects is highly sensitive to the process of building up technological frames and how materiality of the technological artefact is part of the framing process by the impact of inscriptions. Conceptual stages in the process of frame construction shift over time and have different importance in building expectations and defining the project process as threefolded. At each stage, an element of the frame will have a prevailing role (e.g., nature in the start-up, strategy in the action, use in the re-birth), even if the interplay among elements is crucial in determining the project process and outcome. Worth mentioning is that conceptual stages have a varying duration in time and space, an issue not dealt with in this paper. The shaping of technological frames in the project process follows a pattern through which shaping impacts shift from global to local contexts, from public discourses about technology to specific arrays situated in organizational settings. At the outset, frames were mainly shaped by the Ônature of technologyÕ element, which was heavily imposed by global discourses regarding ITÕs potential of improving organizational performance and local discourses regarding expected benefits of the particular technology to be implemented in the organizational setting. However, when actors start interacting with the technology in the local contexts, frames are mainly and not surprisingly shaped by the element ‘‘technology in use’’, which is imposed by actorsÕ interactions and their interpretations of inscriptions in the technology. As a consequence of actorsÕ interactions with inscriptions in the artefacts, use can re-shape, or reinforce, both nature and strategy of technology, and reshape projectÕs goals and benefits. Consequently, project plans expressing technology in use, might also be reconsidered when inscriptions come into play and re-shape technology in use. A re-shaping of elements and frames is dependent on effective communication aimed at sharing frames among social groups. In fact miscommunication or lack of communication increase incongruity among social groupsÕ frames as well as discrepancies among elements of such frames. Thus, conditions and contexts for communication need to be set up, in order to facilitate shared frames among relevant social groups. Drawing on the conclusions and analysis of the cases, a few lessons can be learned for the management of IT-dependent change projects:
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Theorizing the artefact reveals the role of technology as driving and affecting the project process rather than mere product to buy or to outsource. It is neither a mere tool nor an accident in the project, because IT provides frames and inscriptions through which the project itself is deployed. Project managers should always be aware of the fact that technological frames are changing and vary over time and space, especially when inscriptions come into play, which might have an impact on pre-defined project plans. Identify non-negotiable aspects of technology (e.g., material constraints and routines inscribed) in order to adapt strategy to them. Otherwise, work around inscriptions will occur and technology use will be likely marginalized. ‘‘Local’’ advantages need to be built up as an outcome of the project, by adapting the global discourse about IT potential to the local setting they operate in. Project managers need to align themselves with decision makers/resource owners, in order to reconcile incongruence, especially when re-shape of technology in use has the potential to transform the other elements.
Acknowledgement This research was partly funded by European UnionÕs regional development fund. The paper is a result of a joint effort and continuous collaboration between the two authors. Introduction and conclusions were jointly written. Linderoth wrote the paragraphs 2, 2.1, 4.1, and 4.3 and Pellegrino wrote the paragraphs 3, 4, and 4.2.
References [1] Markus ML, Benjamin RI. The magic bullet theory in IT-enabled transformation. Sloan Manage Rev 1997;38(2):55–68. [2] Flichy P. LÕinnovation technique: re´cents de´veloppements en sciences sociales, vers une nouvelle the´orie de lÕinnovation. Paris: La De´couverte; 1995. [3] Sahay S. Implementation of information technology: a time-space perspective. Organ Stud 1997;18(2):229–60.
[4] Lucas Jr HC. Why information systems fail. New York: Columbia University Press; 1975. [5] Orlikowski WJ, Iacono S. Research commentary: desperately seeking the ‘‘IT in IT research – A call to theorizing the IT artifact. Inform Syst Res 2001;12(2):121–34. [6] Bijker WE, Law J. Shaping technology/building society. Studies in sociotechnical change. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press; 1992. [7] Bijker WE. Of bicycles, bakelites and bulbs. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press; 1995. [8] Callon M. Some elements of a sociology of translation: domestication of the scallops and the fishermen of St. Brieuc Bay. In: Law J, editor. Power, action and belief A new sociology of knowledge?. London: Routledge; 1986. p. 196–233. [9] Callon M, Latour B. Unscrewing the big Leviathan, or how actors macro-structure reality and how sociologists help them to do so. In: Knorr-Cetina K, Cicourel A, editors. Advances in social theory and methodology: toward an integration of micro and macro sociologies. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul; 1981. p. 277–303. [10] Linde A, Linderoth HCJ. The Gladiator Game –‘‘fuzzy’’ IT – projects in actor network perspective. In: Proceedings of IRNOP V, Rennes, Netherlands; May 29–31, 2002. [11] Linde A, Linderoth HCJ. Remove the blinkers and discover the conflicting programs of action: a dynamic perspective on management of ‘‘fuzzy projects’’. In: Slevin DP, Cleland DI, Pinto JK, editors. Project Management Research at the Turn of the Millennium – Proceedings of PMI Research Conference 2000, Paris, France, June 21–24, 2000. Newtown Square, Penn: Project Management Institute (PMI). p. 357–368. [12] Blackburn S. The project manager and the project network. Int J Project Manage 2002;20(3):199–204. [13] Akrich M. The De-scription of technical objects. In: Bijker WE, Law J, editors. Shaping technology/building society Studies in sociotechnical change. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press; 1992. p. 205–24. [14] Akrich M, Latour B. A summary of a convenient vocabulary for the semiotics of human and non-human assemblies. In: Bijker WE, Law J, editors. Shaping technology/building society Studies in sociotechnical change. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press; 1992. p. 259–64. [15] Orlikowski WJ, Gash DC. Technological frames: making sense of information technology in organizations. ACM T Inform Syst 1994;12(2):174–207. [16] Orlikowski WJ. The duality of technology: rethinking the concept of technology in organizations. Organ Sci 1992;3(3):398–427. [17] Linderoth HCJ. Fra˚n vision till integration – infusion av telemedicin, en o¨versa¨ttningsprocess. PhD thesis, Umea˚ Inst. fo¨r Fo¨retagsekonomi, Umea˚ Universitet; 2000. [18] Pellegrino G. Representations and uses of the intranet: a comparative case study. B Sci Technol Soc 2003;23(4):281–96. [19] Nielsen J. The difference between Intranet and Internet design; 1997. (Available from: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9709b. html).
PROJECT MANAGEMENT International Journal of Project Management 23 (2005) 415–420 www.elsevier.com/locate/ijproman
Frames and inscriptions: tracing a way to understand IT-dependent change projects Henrik C.J. Linderoth a
a,*
, Giuseppina Pellegrino
b,1
Department of Business Administration Umea˚ School of Business and Economics, Umea˚ University, 901 87 Umea˚, Sweden b Dipartimento di Sociologia e Scienza Politica, Universita` della Calabria, 87036 Arcavacata di Rende – Cosenza, Italy
Abstract The aim of the paper is to inquire how technology can be analysed in order to develop a deeper knowledge about the project process and the implications for management of IT-dependent change projects. Two Intranet projects, and one telemedicine project, are analysed from the perspective of social construction of technology (SCOT) and actor network theory (ANT). By using the concepts of technological frames, from SCOT, and inscriptions, from ANT, it has been possible to create a framework for describing technology and its role in the process of IT-dependent change projects. Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved. Keywords: Project management; Information technology; Technological frames; Inscription; Organizational change; Intranet; Telemedicine
1. Introduction In contemporary change projects information technology is an essential component as carrier of expected changes. Change has almost been considered as a Ôdirect consequenceÕ of IT implementations [1], supported by expectations about technology, delivered especially by vendors and massively circulating through both popular and technical literature [2]. However, when IT-systems meet the social context they are supposed to change, the transformation process is seldom as straightforward, or easy manageable as imagined [3,4]. Studies emphasising the social context and its impacts have increased the understanding of processes in IT-dependent change projects. But material aspects of the technology imposing the process have been neglected and the technology has more or less been taken for granted [5]. To cope with the intertwined relations between the social and the tech*
Corresponding author. Tel.: +46 90 786 7906; fax: +46 90 786 6674. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (H.C.J. Linderoth), [email protected] (G. Pellegrino). 1 Tel.: +39 984 492569; fax: +39 984 492598. 0263-7863/$30.00 Ó 2005 Elsevier Ltd and IPMA. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.01.005
nical aspects of technology in change processes, sociotechnical perspectives have evolved during the last decades. The most interesting for our purposes are social construction of technology (SCOT) [6,7], and actornetwork theory (ANT) [8,9], earlier used by Linde and Linderoth [10,11] and Blackburn [12] in the analysis of project management processes. Thus, the understanding of IT-dependent change projects requires a specific analysis of technology with regard to how it influences the project process [5,10]. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to inquire how technology can be analysed in order to develop a deeper knowledge about the project process and the implications for management of IT-dependent change projects.
2. Theoretical aspects of the artefact Even if differences in assumptions and theoretical hypotheses can be clearly identified, both SCOT and ANT arose from the need to overcome technological determinism and standardized theories of innovation. Both SCOT and ANT recognize that our technologies
416
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mirror our societies; they reproduce and embody the complex interplay of professional, technical, economic, and political factors; technologies always embody compromise and are shaped by a range of heterogeneous factors [6, p. 3]. ANT gives the greatest importance to the notion of hybridity of social and material practices, as well as that of obduracy [13,14]. ANT dissolves all the boundaries between producers and users of technology to the extent that all the traditional hierarchies in technology production and use are overcome, whereas SCOT emphasizes the social and socially constructed dimension of technological innovation. In the SCOT perspective, the outcome of organizational membersÕ interactions and sense giving to a technology is labelled technological frames. It can be claimed that this concept can form a ground for an enhanced understanding of interactions between organizational members and an IT-system, and its implication for the project process, by uncovering roles and meanings that are ascribed to a technology. In this paper, technological frames are viewed as [15, p. 178]: ‘‘. . .the understanding that members of a social group come to have of particular technological artifacts and they include not only knowledge about the particular technology but also local understanding of specific uses in a given setting’’. Technological frames are, according to Orlikowski and Gash [15, p. 183f], constituted by the following elements: Nature of technology: peopleÕs pictures of the technology and their understanding of the technologyÕs opportunities and function. Technology strategy: peopleÕs perceptions why their organization has bought and implemented the technology. It includes an understanding of the motive or vision behind the adoption decisions and the technologyÕs eventual value for the organization. Technology in use: peopleÕs understanding regarding how the technology will be used day by day, and possible or actual pre-conditions and consequences connected with technology use. However, due to the interpretative flexibility of technology [6,7], technological frames will not remain static over time and space; instead, the meaning of technology will vary over time and between relevant social groups [16]. In accordance with this perspective, failed projects are explained by developed discrepancies of frames between relevant social groups. However, how are discrepancies constructed? It can be claimed that attention has not been paid to the interplay between the elements of technological frames and how this interplay shapes the process of an IT-dependent change project. It can be claimed that as long as frames related to nature of tech-
nology and technology strategy are shared among the relevant social groups and connected with technology in use, as manifested in a project plan, the project process will develop as intended. But how can the process be understood where the interplay between the three elements shapes discrepancies between relevant social groups, and what imposes this process? With regard to the management of IT-dependent change projects, the issue is what affects peopleÕs over time shifting interpretations, and can interpretations be managed and imposed in order to prevent that system usage and intended changes fade away? 2.1. Making technology visible The concept of technological frames is related to how people give sense to a technology, but it does not distinguish in depth between frames developed in interactions with technology as an idea, or in interaction with technology as a mixture of ideas and artefacts. In order to understand how frames develop in interactions between people, and technology as a mixture of ideas and artefacts, the concept of inscriptions, from ANT, will be used. Inscription refers to desired programs of action, or patterns of use that someone inscribes into a medium such as a technical artefact [13, p. 205]. With regard to technological artefacts, technology producers try to define the potential user, his/her competencies and the context(s) in which artefacts would be used. In the case of IT-dependent change projects implementing open customisable technologies, it can be claimed that technology producers have assumed that actors in the user context would have skills to appropriate the technology. Producers delegate the task of appropriation to these actors. But the mode in which the artefact should be operated is delegated to the technology. Thus, inscriptions concerning situations in which technology is used are rather flexible, whereas inscriptions concerning how technology is operated are rather inflexible [17]. For example, if we think of an automatic teller machine, there is a degree of flexibility with regard to how much money we can get. But inscriptions also prescribe operations, and the ‘‘configuration’’ of the user, who should have a certain size, be able to read, possess a card and know where to insert it, and to follow a pre-defined (inscribed) path of operations. However, a series of different situations or modes of use come to be associated with the automatic teller machine. These situations are as multiple as the technology is, because of its interpretative flexibility. However, such flexibility is neither endless, nor taken for granted. It shapes the artefact especially in the first stages of its deployment, diminishing as the timeline and translations go on and the artefact becomes more and more taken for granted if we want to get cash. This process is what some social constructionists labelled as closure [7, p.
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86]. However, closure does not imply that the technology is used. Closure can also imply that a project is removed from the agenda. Thus, before the technology is put into use it can be claimed that translation of technology should lead to the creation of technological frames that allow actors in the relevant social groups to perceive the technology as a potential solution (the only solution if the translation has been successful) to some problem perceived by relevant social groups. When the technology is implemented in the context that is aimed to change, there has to be coherence between the frames developed around the technology as an idea and technology in use. It can be assumed that nature of technology and technology strategy will play an influential role ex ante when frames are developed, whereas technology in use will ex post have the largest influence on the frames developed. It can furthermore be assumed that the inscriptions in the technological artefacts will come to play an influential role for the frames developed ex post and influence the coherence with frames developed ex ante.
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could not be described in terms of success or failure, since in some clinics telemedicine use is included in the routines, in others use has faded away, and new projects have been initiated in other specialist departments, influenced by the studied project. The Intranet is often depicted as an internal and secure version of the Internet, even if its design and implementation is highly specific [19]. The two Intranet projects which were studied comprised an Italian and a British company, both of them medium sized and dealing with management and integration of Information Systems. In the Italian company, the Intranet was launched by an internal project team as a generalist, Internet-like site, and a laboratory to familiarize the company staff with web technologies. In the British case, Intranet was shaped as a Knowledge Management System to gather information from consultants working at client sites. The system was bought and delivered by an external vendor and the implementation process was managed through a joint project team [18]. In both cases the planned objectives of the change projects were not accomplished, due to multiple constraints linked with company history, work routines and habits, interorganizational issues affecting the process.
3. Case descriptions The two technologies studied, telemedicine and the Intranet, can be characterized as open customisable technologies, meaning that they are developed with some basic features which have to be customised and appropriated in the local settings where the technology is deployed. Data collection has been conducted through comprehensive case studies, including interviews, participant observation and ethnographic approaches [17,18]. The telemedicine technology is basically a video conferencing system used in a health care setting. Optical medical equipment can be connected to the system in order to transmit live, or frozen pictures of, for example, a patientÕs skin, an ear-drum, or a frozen section, in situations when a physician wants further information. Other applications are different kinds of conferences, medical rounds and educational activities. Implementation of telemedicine has been studied at nine sites that could be interconnected: two health centres, three specialist clinics in two county hospitals, and four specialist clinics in one university hospital. The whole project
Strategy
4. From public discourses to material practice The analysis of the cases will be built up around the interaction between the three elements that shape technological frames, and how these elements shape each other during the project process. In the analysis of the cases three different stages in the process were revealed: project start up; project in action; and project ‘‘re-birth’’ (see Fig. 1). The thick arrows in Fig. 1 indicate the main influence of one element over another, in terms of reinforcement or re-shaping in the different stages, whereas dotted arrows indicate an optional influence. 4.1. Project start up At this stage of the project, the construction of frames is carried out especially acting on nature and strategy of technology. They shape the way the goals of the project are set up. Starting from nature of technology, it can be said this element of technological
Project start up
Project in action
Project re-birth
Nature
Nature
Nature
Use
Strategy
Use
Strategy
Fig. 1. Interplay between technology framesÕ elements during the project process.
Use
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frames is mainly constituted by public discourses about technologies circulating on mass-media, the Internet and more specialized or dedicated ÕchannelsÕ (e.g., technical literature and handbooks). With reference to telemedicine and the Intranet, actorsÕ perceptions of technology advantages and opportunities were shaped strongly by such discourses, especially during the early stages of the project. For example, discourses about IT-based Knowledge Management and the Intranet potential affected expectations and requests from British managers to the external provider of the Intranet system. Also the use and familiarity with the Internet shaped strongly perceptions and evaluations of the Intranet system performance. Managers in both sites considered the Intranet as a communication medium, with enormous potential in terms of information and knowledge sharing, improvement of internal communication etc. Similarly, telemedicine was primarily seen as a technology for reducing distances in time and space among different health care units. The expected consequences of technology use are increased access to knowledge of medical specialists, which would improve service to patients and development of general practitioners competencies. These opinions, which could be claimed to constitute the nature of technology and technology strategy, were shared among all the interviewed persons and were also the dominating discourse in the telemedicine literature in the mid 1990s. Consequently, the goals of the project in the county became the same as the expected impacts in the general discourse on telemedicine, but with the addition that the goals could also be considered as questions that should be answered, e.g., does telemedicine improve patient service? Furthermore, in all the cases, use is framed according to global discourse depicting technologyÕs advantages: since public discourses constituting nature of technology impose expectations and priorities on strategy and use, no deeper reflection about use is carried out, with some marginal exceptions. At best, technology in use is reflected in a narrow implementation plan. As a consequence, crucial conditions for appropriation of technology and success of the project are often overlooked (e.g., the absence of training of the Italian staff, not skilled on web technologies). 4.2. Project in action Since specific courses of action like standardized procedures and routines are inscribed in the technology, interaction with inscriptions is part of a progressive movement of adaptation of global discourses to the local organizational setting. Technology strategy, reflecting managersÕ intentions, plays a crucial role in such a movement, when reinforcing nature and use in order to create congruence between elements. Still does technology as an idea dominate the constitution of elements,
but technology inscriptions gradually start imposing the interaction between users and the system. As a result of interactions elements are re-shaped or reinforced. Congruence between elements can remain if vital inscriptions are disclosed in advance and action taken, e.g., prescribed by a project plan constituting technology in use. For example medical round between gynaecologists and pathologists was perceived as a success. Inscriptions prescribed a mutual presence of actors, but identification of tasks and organization of routines and resources was delegated to actors in the local context. Elements reinforced each other due to the project managerÕs ability to identify a task (the type of medical round) and imagine necessary action to be taken, which was expressed in his informal plan for the project. By these actions a context specific usefulness of technology was created by making it indispensable to accomplish the specific task. If vital inscriptions deviating from technology in use appear during the project process, which is very likely, technology in use can be re-shaped and by that the other elements as well. For example did, in the British case, the emphasis diminish on Intranet technology as a collaboration tool for supporting tacit or informal knowledge sharing between specialized communities. The collaboration tool was an off-line medium, implying that no guarantee could be obtained about time of answer, which made the tool conceived as a question–answer forum. As a consequence this application was marginalized, since inscribed routines did not support the creation of frames where a context specific usefulness was perceived. Marginalization was also reinforced by the fact that the company size (100 staff) was enabling personal communications and relationships, so that Ôeverybody knows who is the expert and gives her a ringÕ. Thus, when inscriptions come into play frames can be re-shaped and incongruence among social groups appears due to a clash between technology in use as planned in the early stages of the project, and technology in use as emergent and enacted by users. However, incongruence does not have to be permanent, with a marginalization as consequence. Adaptation of local context and technology can create congruence between social groups, if significant actors in the groups manage to establish effective communication channels. However, this is not a guarantee for avoiding incongruence. An exemplary episode concerning inscriptions and local adaptation of a global discourse is offered by the ÔstoryÕ of the Intranet search engine in the British project. Problems arose in setting up the search engine tool, which Ôlooks like Google but does not work like GoogleÕ, eventually turning it into a ÔWindows-like file systemsÕ. Multiple ÔmisunderstandingsÕ between the vendor and the joint project team brought the vendor to change the original software system proposed to the company, and the company to clarify its ÔvisionÕ of the Intranet. The first
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translation, based on the ÔGoogle-likeÕ approach was, therefore, abandoned and marginalized in favour of a list-file system. 4.3. Project re-birth Incongruity between elements does not necessarily lead to a marginalization of technology use, if action is taken to make it possible for elements to reinforce each other, by a ‘‘delivery of promises’’, or elements are re-shaped due to experiences emerging from the interactions. However, the prerequisites for reinforcing, or re-shaping elements, is the presence of a significant actor who: (1) has access to – and an ability to align him/herself with – project sponsors, and/or decisions makers having an influence over the project process; (2) has an ability to identify tasks appropriate to be solved by the new technology; (3) acquires and organizes resources in order to create a context specific usefulness, and by that shape the element ‘‘technology in use’’, which in turns re-shapes the other elements. An example of the re-shaping of elements can be found in one department at the university hospital, where nature of technology shifted during the stages from something that could create equal delivery of health care services to citizens, to an intruder in the daily operations, and finally, to something that released physicians from an uncomfortable task. During the project in action stage, physicians viewed the technology as an intruder in the daily operation, since they did not have equipment at the department and they had to go to another part of the building. If this condition had remained, technology use would have probably been marginalized when the project finished. However, at the end of the first project period a new physician got the responsibility for telemedicine activities and she later became the head of the department. She saw new opportunities for task solving, instead of consultation between the department and health centres that had been the main activity during the project. The task identified was controls of patients with, e.g., chronicle skin diseases at a county hospital 140 km away from the university hospital. At the outset, four to five physicians followed a rotating schedule, and commuted by bus two or three times per week to the county hospital. This activity was not appreciated, even if physicians got a day off as compensation. The new head of the department saw a possibility to use telemedicine consultations instead of sending physicians by bus. A new project was initiated where physicians got training in using the equipment and a nurse was trained at the remote hospital to make pictures, operate the equipment and ‘‘direct’’ patients during consultations. The project was very successful in the sense that the department now mainly is doing video consultation and only ‘‘difficult’’ patients are sent to the university hospital. This re-shaping of telemedicine use and by
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that, the change of operations at the department, occurred due to re-shaping of technology in use. In turn, the nature of technology element changed, which made the physicians involved to view the technology as something useful that replaced a non-appreciated activity.
5. Conclusions and implications for project management The analysis of the Intranet and telemedicine cases showed how the management of IT-dependent change projects is highly sensitive to the process of building up technological frames and how materiality of the technological artefact is part of the framing process by the impact of inscriptions. Conceptual stages in the process of frame construction shift over time and have different importance in building expectations and defining the project process as threefolded. At each stage, an element of the frame will have a prevailing role (e.g., nature in the start-up, strategy in the action, use in the re-birth), even if the interplay among elements is crucial in determining the project process and outcome. Worth mentioning is that conceptual stages have a varying duration in time and space, an issue not dealt with in this paper. The shaping of technological frames in the project process follows a pattern through which shaping impacts shift from global to local contexts, from public discourses about technology to specific arrays situated in organizational settings. At the outset, frames were mainly shaped by the Ônature of technologyÕ element, which was heavily imposed by global discourses regarding ITÕs potential of improving organizational performance and local discourses regarding expected benefits of the particular technology to be implemented in the organizational setting. However, when actors start interacting with the technology in the local contexts, frames are mainly and not surprisingly shaped by the element ‘‘technology in use’’, which is imposed by actorsÕ interactions and their interpretations of inscriptions in the technology. As a consequence of actorsÕ interactions with inscriptions in the artefacts, use can re-shape, or reinforce, both nature and strategy of technology, and reshape projectÕs goals and benefits. Consequently, project plans expressing technology in use, might also be reconsidered when inscriptions come into play and re-shape technology in use. A re-shaping of elements and frames is dependent on effective communication aimed at sharing frames among social groups. In fact miscommunication or lack of communication increase incongruity among social groupsÕ frames as well as discrepancies among elements of such frames. Thus, conditions and contexts for communication need to be set up, in order to facilitate shared frames among relevant social groups. Drawing on the conclusions and analysis of the cases, a few lessons can be learned for the management of IT-dependent change projects:
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Theorizing the artefact reveals the role of technology as driving and affecting the project process rather than mere product to buy or to outsource. It is neither a mere tool nor an accident in the project, because IT provides frames and inscriptions through which the project itself is deployed. Project managers should always be aware of the fact that technological frames are changing and vary over time and space, especially when inscriptions come into play, which might have an impact on pre-defined project plans. Identify non-negotiable aspects of technology (e.g., material constraints and routines inscribed) in order to adapt strategy to them. Otherwise, work around inscriptions will occur and technology use will be likely marginalized. ‘‘Local’’ advantages need to be built up as an outcome of the project, by adapting the global discourse about IT potential to the local setting they operate in. Project managers need to align themselves with decision makers/resource owners, in order to reconcile incongruence, especially when re-shape of technology in use has the potential to transform the other elements.
Acknowledgement This research was partly funded by European UnionÕs regional development fund. The paper is a result of a joint effort and continuous collaboration between the two authors. Introduction and conclusions were jointly written. Linderoth wrote the paragraphs 2, 2.1, 4.1, and 4.3 and Pellegrino wrote the paragraphs 3, 4, and 4.2.
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