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Technology and Organizational Evolution: an Institutionalisation Perspective IBIMA Publishing Journal of Innovation & Business Best Practices http://www.ibimapublishing.com/journals/JIBBP/jibbp.html Vol. 2012 (2012), Article ID 655615, 12 pages DOI: 10.5171/2012.655615 Technology and Organizational Evolution: An Institutionalisation Perspective Azadeh Pishdad, Abrar Haider and Andy Koronios University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract In contemporary business organizations, technology provides the foundation around which organizations evolve and mature. It not only aids organizations in enabling strategic business objectives through automation of operations, but with their information processing and decision support capabilities, these technologies also aid in business planning and management. Thus, the scope of these technologies extends from strategic enablers to strategic advisors. The literature suggests various perspectives on the role of technology in organization, i.e., techno-centric, human- centric, and technology institutionalisation. This paper aims to look at technology lifecycle process, through the lens of technology institutionalisation perspective. According to the institutional view and theories, there are various sub institutions operating in a broader environment of organization, such as organizational culture, social structure, and competitive environment. The organization thrives on the mutual interactions of these sub institutions and establishes its legitimacy. When technology becomes institutionalised, it is taken for granted by its users within the organization. This means that they are comfortable with technology and can employ its features effectively in their routine activities without requiring functional consultant or coach support. Moreover, an overview of literature on technology deinstitutionalisation and institutional change is presented in this paper which aims to study how old technologies of the organization and legacy systems are changed and replaced with new ones. Keywords : Technology institutionalisation; Institutional theory; Institutional change; Technology deinstitutionalisation. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Introduction Technology implementation in contemporary business organizations, thus, should not be Technology 1 in an organization evolves viewed as simple installation and one off through continuous interaction with other endorsement of technology; instead the organizational sub-institutions like people, organization should engage in the process of culture, technological infrastructure, technology assimilation/ institutionalisation customers, competitors, suppliers and etc. to maintain its legitimacy, technical cohesion, and economic fitness on an on-going basis. The literature suggests different approaches 1 Technology in this paper refers to hardware, software, to define the role of technology through its communication networks, and systems that acquire, lifecycle, i.e., techno-centric, human-centric, process, store, and deliver information to external and internal stakeholders in order to facilitate business and innovation-institutionalisation processes. Here the term technology focuses on perspectives. Each of these perspectives, information systems, however, also envelops mainly, emphasizes one aspect of technology information technology Copyright © 2012 Azadeh Pishdad, Abrar Haider and Andy Koronios. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License unported 3.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that original work is properly cited. Contact author: Azadeh Pishdad E-mail: [email protected] Journal of Innovation & Business Best Practices 2 implementation more than others. For When technology is institutionalised, its example Rogers (2003) considers mainly the usage within the organization becomes a technical characteristics of a technological routine activity, in the way that innovation and argues that people judge a organizational actors could not think about technology and decide to adopt or reject it doing their day-to-day job responsibilities based on their perceptions of five attributes without using it. In addition, this paper of it, i.e., relative advantage, compatibility, reviews the literature on technology complexity, trialability, and observability. deinstitutionalisation and institutional Matching between user task needs and the change to study how old technologies of the available functionality of the technology is organization (legacy system) are changed mainly the focus of task technology fit theory and replaced with new ones. (TTF). However, user’s attitudes toward a This paper is structured as follows. The next particular technology based on their section explains different approaches perceived usefulness and ease of use proposed by literature to define the concept comprises the determinants of technology of technology in organizations, followed by acceptance model (TAM) (Davis et al. 1989; more granular analysis of innovation- Goodhue and Thompson 1995; Wixom and institutionalisation perspective and various Todd 2005). Technology-organization- trends and streams to institutionalism and environment (TOE) framework explores how institutional thinking. Then, an overview of technology lifecycle process is influenced by institutional theory and three types of the technological, organizational, and institutional isomorphic pressures which are environmental context (Tornatzky and the essential part of institutional and Fleisher 1990), and the theory of social neoinstitutional theory is presented. The shaping of technology (Mackenzie and next section reviews the effects of Wajcman 2001; Law 2004; Latour 2005) institutional change/ evolution on explores the effects of social, organizational, technology lifecycle as the last stage of it. and cultural factors on the content of Finally, the last section provides conclusions, technology and the processes involved in and directions for future research. introduction of technology to an organization. However, for better Different Perspectives on the Concept of understanding of organization and their Technology in Organizations evolution, it is necessary to take into account different dimensions such as social, technical, Techno-centric perspective and human- organizational, political, competitive and centric perspective are two main schools in institutional environment, internal system defining the role of technology in and structure, and the legal and cultural rules organizations. The former school views and obligations that the organization are technology as discontinuous, revolutionary conformed to. Furthermore, the literature leaps beyond direct human control and review leads us to believe that mostly mostly by autonomous forces within which concepts related to innovation- technology mostly plays a deterministic role institutionalisation perspective such as (O'Donoghue et al. 2001; Munir and Phillips institutional theory, institutional pressures 2002; MacDougall 2011). In contrast, the and institutional change are used in political latter school views technology as a product of and social studies. However, there is an ongoing human actions in developing, urgent need to study the effects of these appropriating and changing technology concepts on technology implementation and (Orlikowski 2000; Lamb and Kling 2003; Law its lifecycle as well. 2004; Suchman 2007; Elle et al . 2010). However, none of these philosophies are self- This paper aims to look at technology completed and the successful structure lifecycle process, through the lens of should take into account both perspectives technology institutionalisation perspective. (Orlikowski 1992; Orlikowski 2007). These 3 Journal of Innovation & Business Best Practices two set of theories focus on the Institutional theory is gaining increasing implementation of technology in attention in technology management organizations. These theories have, research as a novel theoretical perspective therefore, been used extensively in research (Powel and DiMaggio 1991; Greenwood and practice. However, technologies like 2008; Weerakkody et al. 2009; Currie 2011). information systems are much more than Activities involving in development and use simple installation and endorsement of of technologies are subject to social, cultural, technology. The role and scope of organizational, technical, and other information systems evolves continuously, institutional pressures. These pressures such that the organizations evolve with their could be from external sources such as evolution. Therefore, there is a need to competition and customers, and government bridge up the gap between techno-centric agencies as well as from legitimated norms, perspective, human-centric perspective, and rules, and logics embedded within the innovation-institutionalisation perspective organization. Organizations may respond to and theories. these pressures by conforming to technology mandates, or modifying their business According to the institutional view and practices to fit the technology. As a result, theories, there are various sub institutions organizations address the opportunity for operating in a broader environment of social approval and/or legitimacy. According organization, such as organizational culture, to Powel and DiMaggio (1991), organizations social structure,
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