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The role of power in shaping the use of information
infrastructures
Knut H. RollandDepartment of Computer and Information ScienceNorwegian University of Science and Technology
Structure of the talk
• The concept of power
• Different political streams of IS studies
• Information infrastructures as ’disciplinary technologies’
• Power and politics in the use of the GSIS in MCC
• Implications
The concept of power
• Power as hierarchical, causal, and zero-sum– Neoclassical and structural organization theory (e.g. Dahl, 1957;
Weber, 1947)– Labour Process Approaches (e.g. Braverman, 1974)
• Power as context and relationship specific– The ’power school’ in organization theory (Pfeffer, 1981)
• Power as inherent in all human action (Giddens)– ”dialectics of control”
• Disciplinary power (Michel Foucault)– Implicit and systemic– Distributed across different actors– Embodied in heterogeneous micro-practices – Enacted and discontinuous
Political streams of IS studies• Organizational politics perspective in IS
– Organizational politics ’better’ than rational models (Kling, 1980; Markus, 1983)
– “key participants who value particular CBIS configurations actively strive to develop and expand them through a variety of strategies which require political mobilisation” (Kling and Iacono, 1984: p. 1218)
• The ’Scandinavian school’– use of information technologies inevitably related to a power
struggle between workers and management– IT professionals should take an active role in choosing to support
“resource week groups” • Theoretical frameworks
– ”Integrated Information Environment or Matrix of control?” Orlikowski (1991)
– ”The political perspective on the organizational change process emphasizes the information system as involved in the process of control and domination..” Walsham (1993: p. 69)
Information infrastructures as disciplinary technologies
• Actor-network theory (ANT)– Power is distributed in heterogeneous networks and actively
performed through processes of enrolling actors and inscribing interests (e.g. Latour,1991)
– ”Politics by other means”
• Disciplinary technologies– User behaviour is inscribed in the heterogeneous components of
an information infrastructure: e.g. standards, training programmes, implementation strategies, level of detail, categories, distribution of work tasks etc.
– Users can ’resist’ and establish ”counter networks”: the dialectics of control
Power and Politics in use of the GSIS in MCC
• The GSIS as a disciplinary technology– Sequence of tasks inscribed: must fill-in all details
before reports can be generated– ’Best practices’ and ’24 hour policy’– Imposing a specific configuration of the underlying
infrastructure – Reports can only be stored in the GSIS
• ’Counter networks’ and changing coalitions– IT department and local surveyors– Alternative ways of using the GSIS (dialectics of
control)
References I• Abbate, J. 1994. The Internet Challenge: Conflict and Compromise in
Computer Networking. In Summerton, J. (ed.). Changing large technical systems. Boulder: Westview Press, p. 193-210.
• Baldridge, J.V. 1971. Essence of decision. Boston: Little, Brown.• Bjerknes, G and Bratteteig, T. 1995. User Participation and Democracy: A
discussion of Scandinavian Research on Systems Development. Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, 7(1), pp. 73-98
• Braverman, H. 1974. Labour and Monopoly capital: The degradation of work in the Twentieth Century. New York: Monthly Review Press.
• Ciborra, C.U. et.al (eds.) 2000. From control to drift. Oxford: Oxford university press
• Clegg, S. and Wilson, F. 1991. Power, technology and flexibility in organizations. In Law, J. (ed.). 1991. A sociology of monsters – essays on power, technology and domination. London: Routledge, pp. 223-273
• Dahl, R.A. 1957. The Concept of Power. Behavioral Science, 2, pp. 201-215.
• Foucault, M. 1972. The Archaeology of Knowledge. London: Tavistock• Foucault, M. 1977. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison.
Harmondsworth: Penguin
References II• Giddens, A. 1984. The Constitution of Society. Cambridge: Polity Press.• Hannemy, G. 2002. Foucault I kyberrommet (in Norwegian: Foucault in cyberspace), In:
Slaata, T. Digital Makt (in Norwegian: Digital Power) Oslo: Gyldendal Akademisk Forlag, pp. 41-63.
• Hannemyr, G. 2003. “Open Source – Past, Current and Future – The convergence of open source”. Talk given at NTNU, January 2003.
• Hatling, M. And Sørensen, K. 1998. Social Constructions of User Participation. In Sørensen, K. (ed.) The Spectre of participation: Technology and work in a welfare state. Oslo: Scandinavian University Press, pp. 171-188
• Iivari, J. and Lyytinen, K. 1998. Research on Information Systems Development in Scandinavia – Unity in Plurality. Scandinavian Journal of Information Systems, 10 (1&2), pp. 135-186.
• Kanter, R. M. 1979. Power Failure in Management Circuits. Harvard Business Review (July – august, 1979)
• Kling, R. 1980. Social Analyses of Computing: Theoretical Perspectives in Recent Empirical Research. Computing Surveys, vol. 12, no. 1, pp. 61-110.
• Kling, R. and Iacono, S. 1984. The Control of Information Systems Developments After Implementation. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 27, No. 12, pp.1218-1226
• Latour, B. 1987. Science in Action. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.• Latour, B. 1991. Technology is society made durable. In: Law, J. (ed.) A sociology of
monsters – essays on power, technology and domination. London: Routledge, pp. 103-131.
References III• Law, J. (ed.) 1991. A sociology of monsters – essays on power, technology and
domination. London: Routledge.• Markus, M.L. 1983. Power, Politics, and MIS Implementation. Communications of the
ACM, Vol. 26, No. 6, pp. 430-444. • Mintzberg, H. 1983. Power in and around organizations. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-
Hall.• Monteiro, E. 2000. Actor-network theory and information infrastructure. In Ciborra et.al
(eds.) From control to drift. Oxford: Oxford university press., pp. 71-83.• Monteiro, E. and Hanseth, O. 1996. Social Shaping of Information infrastructure: on being
specific about the technology. In Orlikowski et al. (eds.) Information Technology and Changes in Organizational Work. London: Chapman & Hall, pp. 325-343.
• Orlikowski, W. J. 1991. Integrated Information Environment or matrix of control? The contradictory implications of information technology. Accing, mgmt. & info. Tech., Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 9-42.
• Pfeffer, J. 1981. Power in Organizations. Marshfield, Mass.: Pitman Publishing, pp. 1-32.• Shafritz, J.M and Ott, J.S. 1992. Classics of Organization Theory. Belmont, California:
Wadsworth Publishing Company.• Star, S.L. 1994. Knowledge and information in international information management:
problems of classification and coding. In: Bud-Frierman (ed.) Information Acumen. London: Routledge.
• Thompson, P and McHugh, D. 1995. Work Organizations – A Critical Introduction. London: MacMillian Press.
References IV• Walsham, G. 1993. Interpreting Information Systems in Organizations. Chichester:
Wiley.• Walsham, G. 1997. Actor-network theory and IS research: Current status and future
prospects. In Lee, A.S. et al. Information Systems and Qualitative research. London: Chapman & Hall., pp. 1080-1089
• Weber, M. 1947. The Theory of Social and Economic Organization. New York: Free Press.
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