The concepts of technological frame revisited and technological frame parts

In this study, I seek to unravel the relationship between technological capabilities and operational performance amongst a peer group of integrated oil companies in the upstream petroleum industry. I argue that the development and deployment of technological capabilities and their complex relationship with operational performance is conditioned by the interpretative frameworks, or technology frames, of the firm. The concept of a technology frame builds upon two theoretical flows: organisational sociology (notably Weick) and the resource-based view of the firm (relying specifically on Penrose, Chandler and Teece). The technology frame is defined as the firm’s selfimage of its technological resources, capabilities and opportunities. The technology frame should not be confused with strategy; the frame is comprised of the evident and latent beliefs that provide the context for determining strategy. Using conventional metrics, I compiled a dataset of technological capabilities and operational performance measures for the 10 leading oil companies (‘the majors’) for the period 1984 to 1997. Fieldwork interviews and industry research developed and expanded this analysis. These findings indicate that, not only is the relationship between technological capabilities and operational performance too complex to be modelled by simple variables and functions, but also that the proxy variables reveal the technology frames rather than the technological capabilities of these firms. To explore the technology frame, I consider two elements: the firm’s appraisal of the upstream industry and the nature of the role for technology. The gearing ratio and R&D expenditures are used as indicators of the firm’s appraisal of the dynamics of the upstream industry (in growth or efficiency phases), while the nature of the role for technology (implicit or explicit) is proxied by the inclusion or absence of technology management at the executive board level and the positioning of technology within the Annual Report. The existence and value of the frame as a heuristic is then tested through panel data regressions on key expectations of strategic behaviour and outcomes in the area of technological capabilities of firms. The panel-data econometric evidence supports most of the predicted effects, notably indicating that the growth frame is correlated with an explicit frame, and that the role of technology is correlated with upstream R&D expenditure. The technology frame provides a significant extension to the resource-based theory of the firm by identifying the capability of sensemaking as an integral co-determinant of the firm’s resources and capabilities (or ‘services’ as Penrose terms them). On this basis, I am able to interpret the data on technological capabilities and their complex relationship with operational performance in a more consistent and comprehensive manner than has been achieved before.

Much has been written about adopting agile software development within a large organisation. A key aspect of this significant organisational change is to ensure that a common understanding of the new technology emerges within all stakeholder groups. We propose that an analysis framework based on the concept of Technological Frames (TFs) can identify where understanding is in conflict across different stakeholder groups. We used TFs to analyse data collected in one organisation in the process of adopting an agile development approach. In doing so, we identified several dimensions (called ‘elements’ in TFs) which characterise a group’s understanding of agility. In this paper, we present these elements and describe the TFs for four distinct groups. We suggest that these elements may be used by other organisations adopting agile methods to help understand the views of different stakeholder groups.KeywordsTechnological framehuman aspectsempiricalqualitative

Requirements determination (RD) during information systems delivery (ISD) is a complex organizational endeavor, involving political, sensemaking, and communicative processes. This research draws on the analytic concept of technology frames of reference to develop a socio-cognitive process model of how frames and shifts in frame salience influence sensemaking during requirements determination. The model provides a theoretical and conceptual perspective that deepens our understanding of requirements processes in organizations and of the socio-cognitive basis of power in ISD. The paper reports on a longitudinal case study, in which four technology frame domains were identified and the influence of frames on project participants' understanding of requirements was traced through eight RD episodes. Repeated shifts in the salience of the business value of IT and IT delivery strategies frames disrupted project participants' understanding of requirements and contributed to a turbulent RD process. Analysis of frames and framing helped explain how interpretive power was exercised, yet constrained, in this project. Implications for further research and for practice are considered.

An application of the concept of technological frames is presented as a way to understand the co-configuration of people, culture and technology. It shows how technological frames can be used to solve the problems that arise when the producers of a system come from a very different cultural and technological environment from the intended users of the system. This concept is proposed as an analysis framework whose purpose is twofold: to be used in the evaluation of how the context and local culture shape the utility and usability of interactive systems, both in their development and also once they are deployed to their actual contexts of use and to understand the dynamics of technical and interpersonal communication in communities of practice. This is illustrated with a case study about the ongoing research in the participative development of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) artefacts for a wireless and web based knowledge based system for Kenyan farming communities.

The author draws on the concept of technological frames of reference to examine the relationship between organizational change and outcomes of the IT adoption process from a social cognitive perspective. In an in-depth, longitudinal field study of two IT implementation projects, she examined how changes in the organizational context influenced technological frames and how shifts in technological frames affected stakeholders' interpretations of the information technology application, its potential uses, and requirements for the IT artifact. In one project, participants' frames evolved in response to changes in the organizational context, facilitating application of the information technology in new business functions. In the second project, technology frames shifted frequently and project participants' interpretation of the IT application fluctuated, inhibiting its development and implementation. The implications for theory and practice of this research are considered.

This article intended to explore technological frames held by organisational group members that implicitly served to shape their interpretations of events to give meaning and deliver actions in knowledge management procedures. The research used the existing technological frame (Orlikowski & Gash, 1994) concept to interpret the social aspect of the problems associated with the introduction and utilisation of information technology in conducting knowledge management systems. This research was carried out in the context of four different industries in Taiwan and four cases based on each industry were chosen.

This paper explores the concept of frames of reference by examining stakeholders assumptions regarding but transcending their technological frames. Specifically, the concept of technology frames (Orlikowski and Gash 1994) is expanded in order to identify stakeholders’ assumptions regarding the complementary organizational changes necessary to implement successful technological change. Through analysis of data from a case study, the paper identifies inconsistencies among various stakeholders’ reports of a change initiative and then identifies a possible resolution to these discrepant reports through an analysis of how stakeholders develop characteristic frames which shape how they understand the goals of the technological change efforts, the set of complementary organizational changes that are required, and their assumptions about what constitutes progress toward achieving these goals.KeywordsTechnological ChangeInformation SystemStakeholder GroupOrganizational ChangeTechnical SkillThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

In a seminal paper, Orlikowski and Gash (1994) articulated a conceptual framework for technological frames of reference (TFR) to lay the groundwork for a systematic approach to socio-cognitive research on information technology. This work is widely cited as a justification for social and socio-cognitive analysis of IT, but a limited number of studies utilizing and further developing the frames concept have been published in the ensuing decade. In this paper, we review the promise of the technological frame concept, assess theoretical and methodological progress evident in TFR publications, and consider how potential contributions of TFR may be realized in future research. In doing so, we consider how limitations in TFR research to-date might be addressed, including the feasibility of a rapprochement with quantitative research methods, of TFR analysis at the industry level of analysis, and of action research approaches.

Walker Royce (1998) defined two dimensions of project complexity: technical complexity and management complexity. In his book, Software Project Management, he defined a series of yes-or-no questions to help the practitioner determine whether, and the degree to which, a given project was simple or complex in these two dimensions. Keating et al. (2003) attempted to define the features of problems that are beyond complex projects. He and his co-authors defined five dimensions to a system of systems (SoS) project: technology, context, operations, geography, and conceptual frame. (Royce’s “management” dimension maps to Keating’s “context” dimension, although context covers a broader range of issues other than management.) In addition, SoS projects tend to involve a rapidly changing operating environment, changing operators and other stakeholders, geographically distributed development and operations, and different conceptual frames in the minds of the various stakeholders. Although these five dimensions are both useful and informative, the Keating paper did not take the next step, which was to define a series of yes-or-no questions that practitioners could ask to help determine whether, and to what degree, a given project is a SoS project. In this paper, we present a SOSE project assessment checklist that helps the practitioner ask and answer those questions. In addition to asking questions, we also created a spreadsheet by which the practitioner can “keep score,” thereby visualizing the degree of complexity in each dimension. We also provided a mitigation techniques list of options that can be useful in mitigating some of the SOSE features, and act as a starting point for brainstorming additional mitigation techniques. Lastly, we applied both the checklist and the mitigation techniques to three realworld problems, which we present here as case studies.

This paper investigates the shaping of urban public transport by comparing ‘alternative leading objects’ to the car in the Norwegian cities Trondheim and Bergen. These have chosen different transport technologies, bus and light rail respectively. I draw on the concept of technological frames and illustrate how interpretations and expectations of sustainable urban mobility guide transport planning. The paper contributes to discussions in STS by exploring technological frames as ongoing practices instead of as outcomes, and as performed by what I identify as two framing coalitions. Both coalitions emphasised that Trondheim and Bergen represented different city identities and topographies. The paper demonstrates the importance of making such identities and representations of public transport systems in particular urban contexts in order to replace a car-dominated transport system. The paper draws on an observational study in two transport offices, interviews with transport planners and politicians and document studies.

Several organisations have adopted e-HRM technology as a platform for achieving transformational change, improving HR operational processes, allowing distributed access to employees / managers and providing better decision support. However, as a consultant working in this field, the author regularly encounters organisations that fail to take advantage of the transformational potential of e-HRM, particularly those in the United Kingdom public sector. This chapter argues that the concepts of sense-making and technological frames may explain the inertia experienced in some organisations. It contends that the analysis of technological frame domains provides a valuable lens for understanding and interpreting e-HRM, where high levels of frame incongruence may act as a barrier to transformational change. Research suggests that power relations between key groups of stakeholders, in particular HR Managers and line managers, may influence these frames and shape attitudes to technology. This approach may also provide the basis for strategies to manage e-HRM related change more effectively. Using a grounded theory approach, the research, currently work in progress in support of a professional doctorate (DBA),investigates how United Kingdom public sector organisations make sense of, plan for and implement HR technology.

This article presents an interpretive analysis of the key problems and challenges to technology implementation in developing countries, based on a three-year case analysis of an IT project in a city government in Ukraine. We employ the concept of technological frames of reference as an analytical tool for articulating the group-level structures related to the implementation context from the perspectives of key stakeholders and examine the degree of conflict between these frames using a Fishbone diagram. We report that conflict between technological frames held by key stakeholders in large-scale system implementation projects often create an unexpected, dysfunctional, and politically charged implementation environment, ultimately leading to project failures, even if the project enjoys a high level of financial and management support. This, in turn, creates unique challenges for technology implementation projects in developing countries that are often overlooked in the traditional academic and practitioner literatures based on experiences from developed countries.

Several organisations have adopted e-HRM technology as a platform for achieving transformational change, improving HR operational processes, allowing distributed access to employees / managers and providing better decision support. However, as a consultant working in this field, the author regularly encounters organisations that fail to take advantage of the transformational potential of e-HRM, particularly those in the United Kingdom public sector. This chapter argues that the concepts of sense-making and technological frames may explain the inertia experienced in some organisations. It contends that the analysis of technological frame domains provides a valuable lens for understanding and interpreting e-HRM, where high levels of frame incongruence may act as a barrier to transformational change. Research suggests that power relations between key groups of stakeholders, in particular HR Managers and line managers, may influence these frames and shape attitudes to technology. This approach may also provide the basis for strategies to manage e-HRM related change more effectively. Using a grounded theory approach, the research, currently work in progress in support of a professional doctorate (DBA),investigates how United Kingdom public sector organisations make sense of, plan for and implement HR technology.

This article presents an interpretive analysis of the key problems and challenges to technology implementation in developing countries, based on a three-year case analysis of an IT project in a city government in Ukraine. We employ the concept of technological frames of reference as an analytical tool for articulating the group-level structures related to the implementation context from the perspectives of key stakeholders and examine the degree of conflict between these frames using a Fishbone diagram. We report that conflict between technological frames held by key stakeholders in large-scale system implementation projects often create an unexpected, dysfunctional, and politically charged implementation environment, ultimately leading to project failures, even if the project enjoys a high level of financial and management support. This, in turn, creates unique challenges for technology implementation projects in developing countries that are often overlooked in the traditional academic and practitioner literatures based on experiences from developed countries.

This study uses socio-cognitive theory on technological frames to understand how and why general practitioners in Denmark use or choose not to use video consultations. Video consultations play a vital role in the digitalisation of the Danish healthcare system. Whilst political decision-makers continuously push for increased use of video consultations, uptake accounts for less than 2% of all consultations. Research is needed that explores the actual circumstances and conditions of video consultation use. Our data corpus consists of 30 semi-structured interviews conducted from August 2021 to August 2022 with 27 Danish general practitioners. Interviews were analysed following reflexive thematic analysis. Our findings show that video consultations are interpreted as 1) compromising occupational values, 2) a crisis tool, 3) the future, and 4) a tool to improve work conditions. Video consultations are differently adopted across clinics due to different interpretations of the technology and its relative advantage in specific clinical contexts. We argue that the concept of technological frames offers a useful analytic perspective for elucidating and anticipating attitudes and actions towards a technology. It increases our understanding of the uptake and rejection of video consultations. This knowledge is valuable for clinicians and politicians working with technological innovation in general practice.