Institutionalized computer workaround practices in a Mediterranean country: an examination of two organizations

Abstract

Information systems research often treats computer workarounds tangentially and as temporary phenomena. This exploratory research embraces anomalous system use in general and computer workarounds in particular by suggesting why the latter can be institutionalized and how they may be manifested in practice. Anomalous use is defined as sociomaterial actions around an IT artifact not consistent with its design or related official rules that nevertheless constitute system enactment in practice. The persistence of computer workarounds might be explained by the tension between top-down pressures from the external environment and bottom-up constraints from day-to-day operational work. These insights are drawn from an up-close study of workarounds in two cases from the Mediterranean region. The workaround practices involve decoupling and loose coupling, effectively creating ‘equilibrium’ between the aforementioned top-down and bottom-up influences. This may be attributed to parity between the influence exercised by external regulatory/accrediting bodies and the constraints of day-to-day work within the focal organization (i.e., work ethos, material constraints, and discretion to decouple). Our results show why some computer workarounds exhibit institutionalized behavior and their antecedent conditions. We also suggest that constituent workaround practices may exist as twin but distinctive behavioral patterns – non-compliance (or partial compliance) with an official rule and partially (or fully) working around designed systems.