Stressing Office Technology's Non-Technical Side: Applying Concepts from Adaptive Structuration Theory

Abstract

Office technology projects are not a “quick and easy fix”. They often fail to meet their objectives. This is probably due to a lack of attention for the non-technical element in office technology projects. To develop this non-technical side, in this chapter we introduce the concepts of spirit and appropriation, adopted from Adaptive Structuration Theory (AST). Spirit concerns the intention of a certain technology. Advanced information technology use must be considered as a matter of appropriation. In theory, office technology carries a certain spirit, which should guide users, but this spirit can only be materialized when users work with, or appropriate, the technology. A precondition is that users have to have a clear image of this spirit. In this chapter, we report about the results of a study that show that if users of office technology find the spirit of the technology clear, they incorporate the technology better in their day-to-day tasks. Based upon these results we come up with a number of recommendations for office technology implementation and use.