Same business same system?: A critique of organization and the information systems process

Abstract

In trying to understand any aspect surrounding the success and failure of information systems (IS) practice, concepts of organizational analysis become increasingly important. Many issues arise and must be dealt with when an information system is to be developed and implemented. In order to avoid information system failures, information system analysts should adopt an approach that exploits the intrinsic and contextually dependent characteristics of organizational activities. Such an exploitation acknowledges the uniqueness inherent in individual organizations and may inform the adoption of appropriate technologies that can then be innovatively employed for competitive advantage. In order to facilitate successful future organizational change practices and to lay the base for supporting overall information system effectiveness, there is a need to employ both in theory and in practice, ideas of organizational learning and (critically informed) interpretivist information system analysis, design and implementation.