Triggers for the critical engagement with decision support systems

In previous work, we showed that the critical engagement with a decision support system during its implementation by a project team is an important antecedent for the successful later use of the technology. However, the mechanisms that trigger such critical engagement are so far not well understood. Drawing on Heidegger’s modes of Being-in-the-world this paper provides a theoretical frame to understand trigger mechanisms of critical deliberation in more detail. In particular, I argue that critical engagement is triggered by breakdowns during which the system becomes unavailable for use. Such breakdowns, in turn, enable thematic deliberation which leads to critical engagement with the decision support system. I also argue that breakdowns can alternatively lead to periods of theoretical detachment during which the meaningful use of the decision support system and meaningful manipulations of the system to implement it for a specific decision making purpose are not possible. To provide first evidence for these mechanisms, I will analyze a number of episodes that I observed while participating in a large-scale decision support system implementation effort on a major construction project. By developing and illustrating how critical engagement is triggered by breakdowns, the paper contributes to our in depth understanding of grassroots decision support system implementations by project teams.