The Art of Existence and the Regimes of IS-enabled Customer Service Rationalization: A Study of IT Service Management in the UK Higher Education

This paper adopted a critical perspective to examine IS-enabled IT customer services rationalization project in a UK University context. Informed by Foucaultian framework of rationality/power and ethics the paper seeks to demonstrate how individuals deploy their critical moral reflection to enact ‘the care of the self’ in living with the consequences of IS-enabled services process change. The study draws on two years of field work to argue for the multiplicity of individual’s moral judgment under rationalization regimes of truth. Individuals deploy a self reflective rationality to judge the impact of the project on their work and life experience and act accordingly. This paper contributes to IS research by drawing attention to IT service management as an area for academic research as well as to Foucault’s notion of ‘ethics’ which provides a fresh view for understanding the consequences of the development and implementation of IS solutions.