Representations and actions: the transformation of work practices with IT use

  • Authors:

  • Emmanuelle Vaast;Geoff Walsham

  • Affiliations:

  • School of Business Long Island University, Brooklyn Campus 1, University Plaza, H 700 Brooklyn, NY 11 201, USA;Judge Institute of Management, University of Cambridge, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 1AG, UK

  • Venue:
  • Information and Organization
  • Year:
  • 2005

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Abstract

The implementation of new information technology (IT) often aims at transforming work practices. The information systems (IS) literature has detailed numerous cases of reproduction or changes of practice associated with IT use. The literature has also drawn from the practice and structurationist perspectives to suggest that changes in practice are related to changes in organizations. The micro-level issue of how practices change with IT use, however, has so far remained under-explored. This paper investigates this issue and analyzes what makes agents transform how they work with IT and how these transformations may be shared among members of the same work group. The conceptual lens proposed in this paper builds on the emerging literature in IS on the relationships between action and cognition, and introduces the notion of social representations to the IS field in order to clarify these relationships. The adopted conceptual lens helps us to examine a longitudinal case study of the implementation and use of an intranet system in an occupational network. The analysis suggests that practices are reproduced with IT use when agents experience a sustained consonance between actions, practices and representations. Conversely, when agents undergo dissonance between actions, practices and representations, they gradually adapt their practices and representations to reestablish consonance.