Strategies for Organizational Implementation of Networked Communication in Distributed Organizations

Abstract

This chapter presents results elicited from empirical studies of the implementation and use of an open-ended, configurable, and context specific information technology supporting networked communication in a large distributed organization. Our findings are based on a longitudinal case study of the implementation and use of the technology that spread rapidly throughout the organization. We demonstrate the kind of expectations and conditions for change, that management face, when implementing such technologies for computer-mediated communication. Our synthesis from the empirical findings is related to two recent models, the improvisational change management model suggested by Orlikowski and Hofman (1997), and Gallivan’s model for organizational adoption and assimilation (Gallivan, 2001). We operationalize the change management models by identifying and characterizing four different and general implementation contexts and propose strategies for the organizational implementation of such technologies.