IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/mimoxx/v33y2003i1p58-85.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Mind the Gap Between Processes and Practice! - The Role of Improvisation in the Implementation of Information Technology

Author

Listed:
  • Manuela Faia-Correia

Abstract

The implementation of a new information technology in the work setting is seldom unproblematic, and it can trigger unintended and unexpected behaviors. Studies of workplace practice have revealed tensions between the demands of process and the needs of practice. They pit the process-focused need for uniform organizational information against the practice-based struggle for locally coherent meanings. While employees are supplied with routines and information, they have to rely heavily on improvisational practices to close the gap between the world as they find it, and the inevitably limited model of the world embedded in the technology. Examples from case studies of two telebanking systems are described and analyzed. Findings indicate that the way identity is constructed inside the telebanking systems allows work design to be more or less flexible and this, in turn, facilitates or hinders different types of improvisations.

Suggested Citation

  • Manuela Faia-Correia, 2003. "Mind the Gap Between Processes and Practice! - The Role of Improvisation in the Implementation of Information Technology," International Studies of Management & Organization, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(1), pages 58-85, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:mimoxx:v:33:y:2003:i:1:p:58-85
    DOI: 10.1080/00208825.2003.11043676
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00208825.2003.11043676
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00208825.2003.11043676?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. repec:dau:papers:123456789/4800 is not listed on IDEAS

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:mimoxx:v:33:y:2003:i:1:p:58-85. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/mimo .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.