IT and organizational change: an institutionalist perspective

This article challenges the tendency of the information systems literature to subsume IT innovation in processes of organizational change, either with the role of `̀ enabler'' of organizational objectives, or as an instrument appropriated by situated organizational actors. Using institutionalist theory, the relationship between information systems development and organizational transformation is studied as the interaction of two institutionalization processes: the increasing momentum and legitimation of IT innovation; and the organizational efforts for the substitution of established structures and activities with new ones which often do not command adequate legitimacy. Such analysis suggests that IT innovation in organizations is to a large extent sustainable by its own institutional forces, irrespective of contribution to the processes of organizational change. This perspective is demonstrated with the case study of the Mexican oil company, Pemex, where IT projects have played a large part in its transformation from a stateowned to private enterprise. Introduction On the whole, the information systems (IS) literature is cautious to avoid technology deterministic ideas and to discourage technology-led information systems practice[1], and tends to emphasize the organizational drivers of information technology innovation. Those who see the development of information systems in organizations as part of planned and formal management have stressed the role of new technology-based information systems in enabling desirable organizational change (Earl, 1989; Scott Morton, 1991; Hammer and Champy, 1993; Turner, 1998), while those who emphasize the emergent and situated nature of action in organizations tend to view information systems as resulting from the social dynamics of the organizational change process (Ciborra, 1991; Ciborra and Lanzara, 1994; Orlikowski and Walsham, 1996). Both perceptions suggest that IT innovation concurs with and reinforces organizational change, either designed by management or improvised at the work place. In this paper it is argued that IT innovation cannot be adequately explained as an enabler to organizational objectives or as a contributor to situated processes of organizational change. The continuous introduction of new information technologies in organizations is, to a large extent, sustained by its own actors and processes. This argument does not imply the technology deterministic position that IT imposes organizational imperatives. On the contrary, the research presented in this paper suggests that technology innovation is itself a process combining technical-rational and social forces, neither driving, nor subsumed in the forces of organizational change, but interacting with them. The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at http://www.emerald-library.com