Deliberate and Emergent Changes on a Way Towards Electronic Document Management

Abstract

A unit of Fortum Service Ltd. operates and maintains the Rauhalahti power plant in Central Finland. In 1996-97, the unit launched a project pursuing coordinated organizationwide electronic document management (EDM). This case follows deliberate and emergent changes related to document management in the organization since the initiation of the project until February 2000. New information technologies were adopted, and responsibilities for continuous improvement of EDM were assigned. The continuous improvement was implemented as an extension of the ISO 9002 quality system earlier adopted for process improvement. The case shows that a shift from the paper-based era towards organizationwide EDM is a comprehensive change both affecting and affected by several components in the organization. EDM development in the organization was part of organization recursive dynamics where the quality system supported both planning for deliberate changes and reacting to emergent changes.