Information technology artefacts as structuring devices in organizations: design, appropriation and use issues

摘要

In this paper we outline a theoretical framework to interpret the complex relationships between organizational processes and artefacts. Artefacts are conceived as negotiated, embedded, and sedimented sets of rules. The effects of the introduction of a certain artefact are therefore non-deterministic, and depend on the interaction between different decisions located at different analytical levels. More specifically, they depend on the combination of design, adoption and use choices. This combination is not linear, as there are feedback loops and mutual relationships between the different decisions processes. It can happen that the same individual, or the same organizational unit, is involved in different processes at different times or even at the same time. Thus, artefacts are, at the same time, both the outcome and the enacting input of such relationships. As outcomes, artefacts can be seen as vessels carrying the rules influencing users' behavior. As inputs, artefacts can be seen as the devices through which different sources of rationality generate new rules or change the existing ones through interactions and negotiations.