Incongruence and enactment in information systems : a sensemaking analysis

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In the six decades since organisationsrst adopted computer machineryto support their operations this form of technology has undergone rapid evolution.This evolution is characterised by both the advancement of the machinesthemselves and the expansion of their application in the organisationaldomain through the development of increasingly advanced software. A particularlyin uential development for large enterprises has been the introductionof computerised Enterprise Resource Planning Systems (ERPs) and the popularisationof proprietary ERP packages.By integrating the feature sets of an increasingly wide range of businesssoftware applications ERPs enable organisations to satisfy a large part of theirinformation processing requirements by adopting a single software artefact.This approach o ers numerous bene ts to adopters as it ensures the integrationof information processing activities across organisational functions. However,the realisation of these bene ts depends upon the organisation's abilityto achieve congruence between its own structures and those embedded inproprietary ERP packages. This includes, on one level, the management ofthe processes of adaptation through which organisational actors become accustomedto a new technology and, on another level, the con guration andalignment of the artefact with the organisation's operating procedures.Despite the popularity of ERP adoption the achievement of congruence ininformation systems is an illusive ideal for many organisations. Accordingly,many Information Systems (IS) scholars have researched the organisational,technical and social factors which obstruct congruence and the interventionsproposed to counter these. A keynding following from these investigations isthat, notwithstanding the implementation of countering interventions, organisationsoften need to continue operations while experiencing some degree ofincongruence or mis t in their information systems. The research performedin this study advances knowledge about this phenomenon by investigating theimplications of incongruence for the behaviour of users of proprietary ERPs inorganisations.Weickean Sensemaking Theory is adopted as conceptual framework to enablethe investigation of instances of incongruence as events experienced byusers in the context of their work environments. The theory dictates thatusers, rather than passively adopting the impositions of software artefacts, en-act information systems in unpredictable ways based on subjective and sharedprocesses of sensemaking. An empirical investigation is performed and takesthe form of a single, cross-sectional case study in which a variety of data collectiontechniques are utilised. The data sources are analysed and triangulatedto trace the relationship between experiences of incongruence and patterns ofinformation systems enactment among the user community.Thendings of the study reveal that experiences of incongruence cultivateknowledge sharing among a user community, a process which aligns theirbeliefs about the nature, role and use of a technology in an organisation. Furthermore,experiences of incongruence encourage users to augment designedtechnologies through the development informal information processing activitiesand alternative work ows. These forms of behaviour, while resolvingusers' experiences incongruence, lead to variance between the designed technologyand the enacted technology creating various risks for the integrity ofthe organisation's business processes.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University