skip to main content
10.1145/3025453.3026039acmconferencesArticle/Chapter ViewAbstractPublication PageschiConference Proceedingsconference-collections
research-article

Negotiating Absent Practices and Dormant Features: Discourse as a Means of Shaping the Implementation of a Global Enterprise System to Meet Local Work Culture

Published: 02 May 2017 Publication History

Abstract

The introduction of a new enterprise system to an organization often necessitates the accommodation of standardized practices, which may be in conflict with local users' practices and their work culture. We explore such a conflict in an India-based multinational organization using an eight-month interpretive case study. Based on grounded analysis, we present a narrative account of how consultants, on contract for managing the deployment and making necessary adjustments, used discourse as a means of shaping user understanding about the features and practices embedded in the underlying system, which were not initially realized through the interface. Sustained user resistance to this shaping led to a negotiated compromise and adaptation of the system to incorporate local work culture. Our findings allow us to explore the under-theorized role of discursive power within an implementer-user-technology trio, and illustrate the feedback utility of user resistance in developing culturally-inclusive designs.

References

[1]
Yaw Anokwa, Smyth N. Thomas, Ramachandran Divya, Sherwani Jahanzeb, Schwartzman Yael, Luk Rowena, Ho Melissa, Moraveji Neema, and DeRenzi Brian. 2009. Stories from the field: reflections on HCI4D experiences. Information Technologies and International Development 5, 4: 101--115.
[2]
Bijan Azad, and Faraj Samer. 2011. Social power and information technology implementation: a contentious framing lens. Information Systems Journal 21, 1: 33--61.
[3]
Shaowen Bardzell. 2010. Feminist HCI: taking stock and outlining an agenda for design. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (ACM), 1301--1310.
[4]
Shaowen Bardzell, Bardzell Jeffrey, Forlizzi Jodi, Zimmerman John, and Antanitis John. 2012. Critical design and critical theory: the challenge of designing for provocation. In Proceedings of the Designing Interactive Systems Conference (ACM), 288--297.
[5]
Susanne Bødker. 2006. When second wave HCI meets third wave challenges. In Proceedings of the 4th Nordic conference on Human-computer interaction: changing roles ACM, 1--8.
[6]
Chet Bowers A. 1988. The cultural dimensions of educational computing: Understanding the non-neutrality of technology. Teachers College Press.
[7]
Jennie Carroll. 2004. Completing design in use: closing the appropriation cycle. In Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Information Systems, ECIS.
[8]
Jennie Carroll and Fidock Justin. 2011. Beyond resistance to technology appropriation. In System Sciences (HICSS), 2011 44th Hawaii International Conference on IEEE, 1--9.
[9]
Jennie Carroll, Howard Steve, Peck Jane, and Murphy John. 2002. A field study of perceptions and use of mobile telephones by 16 to 22 year olds, Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application (JITTA) 4, 2: 49--62.
[10]
Kathy Charmaz. 2006. Constructing Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide Through Qualitative Analysis. SAGE Publications, New Delhi.
[11]
Paul Dourish. 2003. The appropriation of interactive technologies: Some lessons from placeless documents. Computer Supported Cooperative Work 12: 465--490.
[12]
Jeffrey Ford, Laurie Ford, and Angelo D'Amelio. 2008. Resistance to change: The rest of the story. Academy of management Review 33, 2: 362--377.
[13]
Joan Greenbaum and Morten Kyng. (eds.) 1991. Design at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers.
[14]
Ole Hanseth and Nina Lundberg. 2001. Designing work oriented infrastructures. Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) 10, 3--4: 347--372.
[15]
Ole Hanseth, Eric Monteiro, and Morten Hatling. 1996. Developing information infrastructure: The tension between standardization and flexibility. Science, Technology and Human Values21, 4: 407--126.
[16]
Steve Harrison, Deborah Tatar, and Phoebe Sengers. 2007. The three paradigms of HCI. Presented at conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI).
[17]
Ian Hutchby. 2001. Technologies, texts and affordances. Sociology 35, 2: 441--456.
[18]
Lilly Irani, Janet Vertesi, Paul Dourish, Kavita Philip, and Rebecca Grinter. 2010. Postcolonial computing: a lens on design and development. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (ACM), 1311--1320.
[19]
Chris Jones, Lone Dirckinck-Holmfeld, and Berner Lindtröm. 2005. CSCL-The Next Ten Years: A View from Europe. In Proceedings of the 2005 Conference on Computer Support for Collaborative Learning: learning: the next 10 years!, 237--246.
[20]
George Kandathil, Erica Wagner, and Sue Newell. 2011. Translating ES-Embedded Institutional Logics through Technological Framing: An Indian based Case Example. ECIS Proceedings 47, 1, 1.
[21]
Victor Kaptelinin and Bonnie Nardi. 2012. Affordances in HCI: toward a mediated action perspective. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM, 967--976.
[22]
Victor Kaptelinin. 2003. Learning with artefacts: integrating technologies into activities. Interacting with Computers 15, 6: 831--836.
[23]
Helena Karasti, Karen S. Baker, and Florence Millerand. 2010. Infrastructure time: Long-term matters in collaborative development. Computer Supported Cooperative Work 19, 3--4: 377--415.
[24]
Paul M. Leonardi. 2011. When flexible routines meet flexible technologies: Affordance, constraint, and the imbrication of human and material agencies. MIS quarterly 35, 1 147--167.
[25]
Ben Light. 2001. The maintenance implications of the customization of ERP software. Journal of Software Maintenance Evolution 13: 415--429.
[26]
Silvia Lindtner, Ken Anderson, and Paul Dourish. 2012. Cultural appropriation: information technologies as sites of transnational imagination. In Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on computer supported cooperative work. (ACM), 77--86.
[27]
Kalle J. Lyytinen, and Ojelanki K. Ngwenyama. 1992. What does computer support for cooperative work mean? A structurational analysis of computer supported cooperative work. Accounting, Management and Information Technologies 2, 1: 19--37.
[28]
Henry Mainsah and Andrew Morrison. 2014. Participatory design through a cultural lens: insights from postcolonial theory. In Proceedings of the 13th Participatory Design Conference, 2, (ACM)83--86.
[29]
David Martin, Mark Hartswood, Roger Slack, and Alex Voss . 2006. Achieving dependability in the configuration, integration and testing of healthcare technologies. Computer Supported Cooperative Work15, 5--6:467--499.
[30]
Stina Matthiesen and Pernille Bjørn. 2015. Why replacing legacy systems is so hard in global software development: An information infrastructure perspective. In Proceedings of the 18th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work & Social Computing (ACM), 876--890.
[31]
Samantha Merritt and Shaowen Bardzell. 2011. Postcolonial Language and Culture Theory for HCI4D. In Proceedings of the CHI'11 EA, 1675--1680.
[32]
Eric Monteiro, Neil Pollock, Ole Hanseth, and Robin Williams. 2013. From artefacts to infrastructures. Computer supported cooperative work (CSCW), 22(46), 575--607.
[33]
Mari K. Oja, Sue Newell, Erica Wagner, and Robert Galliers. 2015. Coping with Information Technology: Mixed Emotions, Vacillation and Non-conforming Use Patterns. MIS Quarterly 39, 2 367--392.
[34]
Wanda J. Orlikowski. 1996. Improvising Organizational Transformation over Time: A Situated Change Perspective, Information Systems Research 7, 1: 63--92.
[35]
Wanda J. Orlikowski. 2002. Knowing in Practice: Enacting a Collective Capability in Distributed Organizing. Organization Science 13, 3: 249--273.
[36]
Neil Pollock and Robin Williams. 2010. eInfrastructures: how do we know and understand them? Strategic ethnography and the biography of artefacts. Computer Supported Cooperative Work19: 521--556.
[37]
Neil Pollock and Robin Williams. 2008. Software and Organisations. Routledge.
[38]
Lene Pries-Heje and Yvonne Dittrich. 2009. ERP implementation as design. Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems 21: 27--58.
[39]
Divya Ramachandran, John Canny, Prabhu D. Das, and Edward Cutrell. 2010. Mobile-izing health workers in rural India. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (ACM), 1889--1898.
[40]
Christine Satchell and Paul Dourish. 2009. Beyond the user: use and non-use in HCI. In Proceedings of the 21st Annual Conference of the Australian ComputerHuman Interaction Special Interest Group: Design: (ACM).
[41]
Edgar H. Schein. 1990. Organizational culture. American Psychological Association 45, 2: 109.
[42]
Siew K. Sia and Christina Soh. 2007. An assessment of package-- organisation misalignment: institutional and ontological structures. European Journal of Information Systems 16, 5: 568--583.
[43]
Line Silsand and Gunnar Ellingsen. 2014. Generification by translation: designing generic systems in context of the local. Journal of the Association for Information Systems 15, 4: 177.
[44]
Christina Soh, Siew K. Sia, and Joanne TayYap. 2000. Enterprise resource planning: cultural fits and misfits: is ERP a universal solution? Communications of the ACM 43, 4: 47--51.
[45]
Susan L. Star and Karen Ruhleder. 1996. Steps toward an ecology of infrastructure: Design and access for large information spaces. Information Systems Research 7, 1: 111--134.
[46]
Diane M. Strong and Olga Volkoff. 2010. Understanding organization-enterprise system fit: a path to theorizing the information technology artifact. MIS quarterly 34, 4 731--756.
[47]
Huatong Sun and William F. Hart-Davidson. 2014. Binding the material and the discursive with a relational approach of affordances. In proceedings of the 32nd annual ACM conference on Human factors in computing systems (ACM), 3533--3542.
[48]
Huatong Sun. 2012. Cross-cultural technology design: Creating culture-sensitive technology for local users. Oxford University Press,
[49]
Huatong Sun. 2009. Designing for a dialogic view of interpretation in cross-cultural IT design. In Proceedings of HCI International 4: 108--116.
[50]
Daniel D. Suthers. 2005. Technology affordances for intersubjective learning: A thematic agenda for CSCL. In Proceedings of the 2005 conference on Computer support for collaborative learning: learning 2005: the next 10 years! 662--671.
[51]
Pierre Tchounikine. 2016. Contribution to a theory of CSCL scripts: taking into account the appropriation of scripts by learners. International Journal of ComputerSupported Collaborative Learning, 1--21.
[52]
Robyn Thomas, Leisa D. Sargent, and Cynthia Hardy. 2011. Managing organizational change: Negotiating meaning and power-resistance relations. Organization Science 22, 1: 22--41.
[53]
Gefion Thuermer, Silke Roth, Markus Luczak-Rösch, and Kieron O'Hara. 2016. Internet use, in-and exclusion in decision-making processes within political parties. In Proceedings of the 8th ACM Conference on Web Science (ACM), 205--214.
[54]
Harrison M.Trice and Janice M. Beyer 1993. The cultures of work organizations Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. 419--420.
[55]
Dhaval Vyas, Christina M. Chisalita, and Gerrit C. Van Der Veer. 2006. Affordance in interaction. In Proceedings of the 13th European conference on Cognitive ergonomics: trust and control in complex socio-technical systems, ACM, 92-- 99.
[56]
Erica Wagner and George Kandathil. 2016. Narrative Methodologies in Information Systems Literature: Illuminating Interconnectivity and Change over Time. Communications of the Association for Information System 39, 555.
[57]
Erica Wagner and Sue Newell. 2006. Repairing ERP Producing Social Order to Create a Working Information System. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science 42, 1: 40--57.
[58]
Erica Wagner and Sue Newell. 2007. Exploring the Importance of Participation in the Post-implementation Period of an ES Project: A Neglected Area. Journal of the AIS, 8(10), article 32.
[59]
Geoff Walsham. 1993. Interpreting information systems in organizations. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
[60]
Robin A. Williams, James K. Stewart, and Roger Slack. 2005. Social Learning in Technological Innovation: Experimenting with Information and Communication Technologies, Edward Elgar.

Cited By

View all
  • (2019)Human-Computer Interaction for Development (HCI4D): The Southern African LandscapeInformation and Communication Technologies for Development. Strengthening Southern-Driven Cooperation as a Catalyst for ICT4D10.1007/978-3-030-19115-3_21(253-266)Online publication date: 27-Apr-2019

Index Terms

  1. Negotiating Absent Practices and Dormant Features: Discourse as a Means of Shaping the Implementation of a Global Enterprise System to Meet Local Work Culture

    Recommendations

    Comments

    Information & Contributors

    Information

    Published In

    cover image ACM Conferences
    CHI '17: Proceedings of the 2017 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    May 2017
    7138 pages
    ISBN:9781450346559
    DOI:10.1145/3025453
    Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

    Sponsors

    Publisher

    Association for Computing Machinery

    New York, NY, United States

    Publication History

    Published: 02 May 2017

    Permissions

    Request permissions for this article.

    Check for updates

    Author Tags

    1. affordance
    2. appropriation
    3. critical design
    4. cross-cultural design
    5. cscw
    6. culture
    7. discursive
    8. enterprise system
    9. hci
    10. hci4d
    11. workplace studies

    Qualifiers

    • Research-article

    Funding Sources

    • Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad

    Conference

    CHI '17
    Sponsor:

    Acceptance Rates

    CHI '17 Paper Acceptance Rate 600 of 2,400 submissions, 25%;
    Overall Acceptance Rate 6,199 of 26,314 submissions, 24%

    Upcoming Conference

    CHI 2025
    ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
    April 26 - May 1, 2025
    Yokohama , Japan

    Contributors

    Other Metrics

    Bibliometrics & Citations

    Bibliometrics

    Article Metrics

    • Downloads (Last 12 months)19
    • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)2
    Reflects downloads up to 13 Feb 2025

    Other Metrics

    Citations

    Cited By

    View all
    • (2019)Human-Computer Interaction for Development (HCI4D): The Southern African LandscapeInformation and Communication Technologies for Development. Strengthening Southern-Driven Cooperation as a Catalyst for ICT4D10.1007/978-3-030-19115-3_21(253-266)Online publication date: 27-Apr-2019

    View Options

    Login options

    View options

    PDF

    View or Download as a PDF file.

    PDF

    eReader

    View online with eReader.

    eReader

    Figures

    Tables

    Media

    Share

    Share

    Share this Publication link

    Share on social media