Implementation of Collaborative Technologies as a Learning Process

Abstract

Nowadays, more and more information and communication technologies (ICT) gain the characteristics of groupware as they strive to support different aspects of collaborative work. These types of ICT become progressively intertwined in the infrastructures of companies and therefore their implementation deserves as much attention as their design and development. However the literature keeps on providing examples of failures of groupware projects. In this paper we propose a novel theoretical perspective to understand implementation of such technologies based on learning theories. A technology implementation process is regarded as a learning process. The model describes two levels of the implementation process: the user level (individuals and groups) and the organisational level. At the group level it is based on five steps of collaborative learning within a group of users. At the organisational level it is related to the learning climate. By means of the longitudinal case study we have operationalized the constructs from the model towards concrete user-group and managerial activities that advance implementation of groupware. The discussion leads us to conjecture that a better organisational learning climate could promote successful implementation of groupware through group learning. Ultimately the insights derived from the model should lead to the tangible ways to foster the learning climate.