Abstract
The use of information systems in public child welfare agencies of different countries is challenging primarily for frontline practitioners. This paper unveils how material information system properties are involved in the interactions of child welfare practitioners with their clients and managers. We analyze the properties on their own (functional requirements) and according to the perception of IS users (non-functional requirements). On the basis of the results of systematic literature review and ethnographic study of the use of information system at Lithuanian Child Rights Protection and Adoption Service during the COVID-19 pandemic, we identify the relation between the absence of functionality or its potential failures and data duplication problem. According to our study, data duplication leads to additional time consumption, affects the ecology of the workplace, reduces reliability of information, challenges data protection and finally keeps away practitioners from direct work with clients and exposes them to overcontrol of managers.
Highlights
Since the 1980s, human service organizations have employed ever more complex information systems (IS) for recording and processing information about their activity with the clients [1]
IS have on daily practice of child welfare (CW) professionals? In this stage of the review, we focus on changes in practice of professionals that occur due to IS use on both micro and macro levels of organization
In this part of the paper, we present those results of our empirical research which confirm, complement and deepen the expertise of other researchers summarized in systematic literature review
Summary
Since the 1980s, human service organizations have employed ever more complex information systems (IS) for recording and processing information about their activity with the clients [1]. The first type of the studies analyzed: (a) capacity of employees to apply gathered information for realization of their work goals [7]; (b) reasons of employees’ dissatisfaction caused by IS failures, problems of access to client information, low quality of information in the system [8], neglection of the needs of frontline workers in IS design [9]; (c) IS breaking effect on the narrative nature of knowledge of practitioners [10,11]; (d) and, in a wider sense, implications of IS for social work practice in children‘s services [12]. There were some attempts to combine these two perspectives, for example, in the studies of workarounds, that examine coping strategies of employees faced with technological failures [15]
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