The Role of IT in Organizational Change: an
Affordance View
By Rosa Schaefers
Master Thesis
MSc Business Administration - Change Management
Date: 24-06-2019
Student number: 2347415
Supervisor: Dr. Hille C. Bruns
Co-assessor: Dr. I. Ileana Maris-de Bresser
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Abstract
The success rate of organizational change initiatives is below 30%. There is a multitude of theories on organizational change management, but little is known about the role IT plays in making change initiatives a success. That IT influences the process of change has been acknowledged by previous research (Robey et al., 2013). In this research I make this role explicit by using an affordance lens. I investigated whether the affordances of visibility, persistence, editability and association, found by Treem and Leonardi (2012), play a role in facilitating actions that generally prevail during planned change. I conducted qualitative research in the form of semi-structured interviews at the municipality Oldambt in The Netherlands. I found that the affordances visibility and association play a facilitating role in organizational change. These affordances can particularly be found in knowledge management systems with platform characteristics. I conclude that IT should be seriously considered as a factor for making organizational change a success. My findings contribute to the change management literature for making the affordances of IT that play a role in organizational change explicit. I extend the affordances of visibility and association from Treem and Leonardi (2012) so these are about not only making things visible and creating associations within the organizational boundaries but also beyond these boundaries. Lastly, I give actionable recommendations to managers of organizations undergoing change. They should actualize the affordances of visibility and association in their knowledge
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Table of Contents
Abstract ... 1 Table of Contents ... 2 Introduction ... 3 Literature Review ... 5 Organizational Change ... 5 Technological Affordances ... 8 Methodology ... 11 Setting Description ... 11 Analytical Strategy ... 13 Findings ... 14 IT-systems ... 14 Comparison IT-systems ... 22IT Affordances and Planned Organizational Change ... 22
Discussion and Conclusion ... 26
Contributions ... 28
Limitations and Future Research ... 29
References ... 30
Appendix ... 32
1. Interview Protocol ... 32
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Introduction
Change is inevitable, and even more so: a necessity for survival. Organizations need to change in order to remain in congruence with their internal components and the external environment (Nadler and Tushman, 1980). However, there is yet much to learn about organizational change. McKinsey & Company (2008) found that less than 30% of change initiatives succeed. These numbers are confirmed by other research (Shin et al., 2012; Zhang and Rajacopalan, 2010). Change management theories are continuously further developed to beat these odds. Some authors argue that change initiatives fail due to incorrect implementation of change theories by managers (Will & Wetzel, 2018). In the literature on change management, much attention has been paid to factors such as handling resistance to change and picking the right change approach for making the change initiative a success.In order to change the success rate for the better, it might be worthwhile to look deeper into some factors that have not yet been thoroughly researched.
One of these factors that researchers have paid insufficient attention is the role of information technology (IT) in the process of change(Strong et al., 2014). Many authors have researched technological change. Yet, IT can also be a constant factor in change initiatives, in the case of for example structural or cultural organizational change. In this research I intend to answer the following research question: “What is the role of information technology during organizational change?” The concept of affordances provides a useful lens for investigating the role of IT in organizational change. Norman (1988) defines affordances as “the perceived and actual properties of the thing, primarily those fundamental properties that determine just how the thing could possibly be used” (p. 9), and is currently the common definition used in the IS literature on affordances.
Fayard and Weeks (2014: 237) believe that the concept of affordance can provide a powerful lens for studying the co-constitutive relations between technology and people in organizations and that it can provide a better language for describing how particular practices are shaped and patterned by structure and setting.
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technology aspects can constrain action, as Fayard and Weeks (2014: 239) explain: “Affordances suggest the range of possibilities, constraints limit the number of alternatives”.
The use of digital technology in organizations is increasingly important in pursuing an organization’s strategy. IT-enabled resources can ultimately give an organization a competitive advantage (Nevo and Wade, 2011). Concerning IT’s influence on organizational change, Robey et al. (2013: 384) claim the following: “IT influences organizational change through its implication on social processes. Among these processes are politics, learning, institutionalization, enculturation, and others”. Treem and Leonardi (2012) found four affordances of enterprise social media that influence the organizational processes of knowledge sharing, socialization and power relations. These are visibility, persistence, editability and association. However, whether these affordances also influence the process of organizational change is unclear. In this research I investigate whether these affordances also play a role in organizational change while keeping an open mind to see whether there are additional affordances of IT that play a role in this process, which have not yet been mentioned in previous literature.
Altogether, little seems to be known about which technological affordances can facilitate or constrain the process of organizational change. I believe it is important to close this gap, because when
organizations are aware of the particular affordances of technology that are beneficial for accomplishing the desired future situation in a change initiative, organizational members could deliberately activate these affordances, and use the technology more effectively. Strong et al. (2014: 54) claim “IT researchers need to develop theories that explain IT-associated organizational change processes in a way that provides actionable recommendations”. In order to fill this literature gap, my research focusses on investigating the underlying mechanism between technology affordances and organizational change. I will provide a detailed look on which technological affordances are beneficial for change. Furthermore, I intend to give actionable recommendations, as suggested by Strong et al. (2014) for managerial interests, while extending the academic understanding of technological affordances for organizational change for theoretical interests.
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Literature Review
In order to get an in-depth understanding of the variables at hand - technological affordances and organizational change - I have provided a review of the relevant literature. First, I will give an
overview of the literature on organizational change and discuss three theories on planned change. Then I will pay a closer look at the affordances of technology in organizations, and discuss four affordances of knowledge management technologies.
Organizational Change
In change management literature, authors differentiate between the type and approach of change. As for the type of change, I expect the mechanisms underlying the affordances of IT and organizational change will surface more strongly in a setting where the change has a large scope. That is, when the change is organization-wide, the role of IT will stand out more than when it only affects one
department. As for the approach of change, I chose for planned change because with planned change the change is delimited and intentional. That is, actions taken for executing the change are
distinguishable from other ongoing activities, making it easier to find the underlying mechanisms between digital technology and change. In this paper I will regard organizational change as a “planned activity designed to improve the organization’s effectiveness” following Cawsey et al. (2016: 4). I will use three theories on change management that in my view complement each other: Lewin’s three step model (1951), Cawsey et al.’s Change Path Model (2016) and Schein’s stages and cycle of change and learning (2010). I use these theories, because they are well known in the field of
organizational change. The reason I use three theories is to ensure that I use topical information. These theories have in common that they present different stages of the process of change. Although there are numerous other theories on change management, a theory with clearly distinguishable stages seems most suitable for this research, because these allow me to identify particular actions that prevail in the certain stages of change. Then, a connection can be made with the affordances of the technology used that could facilitate or constrain those actions.
Lewin’s theory (1951) of the three-step model of change is widely known and the fundamental assumptions of any change theory derive originally from this theory (Schein, 2010). According to Lewin (1951), a successful change project consists of three steps: unfreezing, moving, and refreezing.
Unfreezing entails that there is dissatisfaction with the status quo. The forces driving and restraining
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where a new equilibrium between the forces has been found. In this stage the new behaviors should be institutionalized with norms, policies and practices. IT can facilitate or constrain actions within these steps of the change. The orchestration of IT, the way technology is arranged within an organization, could also form a force itself for or against change. However, that is beyond the scope of this research. Some authors have claimed Lewin’s theory is outdated (Will & Wetzel, 2018; Cawsey et al., 2016). Usual criticisms on this theory are that it is too linear and too simplistic, whereas change is actually dynamic and complex (Cummings et al., 2016). Burnes (2017) claims the theory is still very relevant today in spite of its simplicity. Furthermore, it is well suitable to be applied to the research at hand, particularly because its linearity and simplicity. The simplicity of the theory makes many change initiatives fit the description and will therefore be recognizable and relatable for many readers. I will use it here in a descriptive rather than prescriptive way, in order to categorize the change process in the different stages. Since the purpose of this research is to identify which affordances of technology facilitate the process of change, Lewin’s three step model will create a good foundation.
Cawsey et al.’s Change Path Model (2016) and Schein’s Stages and Cycle of Change and Learning (2010) are much more recent, but similar. The Change Path Model consists of four stages: awakening, mobilization, acceleration, and institutionalization. Awakening is similar to Lewin’s unfreeze. Here the need for change is communicated and a change vision is created. The two middle stages of
mobilization and acceleration are similar to Lewin’s move stage. During the mobilization stage, the
gap between the desired and future state is identified. In the acceleration stage, plans are developed for bridging the gap and the means are identified for this transition. “A key part of this stage includes action planning and implementation” (Cawsey et al., 2016: 60). Lastly, institutionalization is when the change is made inherent to organizational processes. This stage is similar to Lewin’s refreezing. Cawsey and colleagues (2016) claim their model has more detail and direction than Lewin’s model, however, like Lewin’s theory, it is linear and simplistic (Reezigt, 2019). Different from Lewin,
Cawsey and colleagues (2016) identify a broader set of particular actions that change leaders generally take during organizational change. For example, where Lewin only establishes that in the first stage the equilibrium is destabilized, Cawsey et al. (2016) discuss particular actions, such as identifying the need for change.
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“refreezing, internalizing and learning agility” (Schein, 2010: 337). Schein (2010) has some
interesting insights on his first stage of change. He claims that two principles are crucial for creating the conditions for change: (1) survival anxiety or guilt must be greater than learning anxiety, and (2) learning anxiety must be reduced rather than increasing survival anxiety. That is, when there is disconfirmation, and the organization’s goals are not met, survival anxiety results. During a period of organizational change employees must often learn new things, which can cause learning anxiety.
Together, these theories complement each other in that they each discuss different actions that generally occur during planned change. Table 1 provides an overview of the different theories and which actions for change they bring forward. I organized the theories in this way, so that later in the
Table 1: Overview of the stages and actions in the process of change.
Author(s) Stages
Lewin Unfreeze Move Refreeze
Related actions (Burnes, 2017: 335-336) Destabilizing the equilibrium.
Perform force field analysis and consider all options for change.
Changes to culture, norms, policies and practices.
Cawsey et al. Awakening Mobilization Acceleration Institutionalization Related
actions, (Cawsey et al., 2016: 55)
- identifying the need for change
- articulate a performance gap - develop a powerful
vision for change
- making sense of the change through formal systems and structures - asses the dynamics
within an organization and build coalitions and support to realize the change
- communicate the need for change
- manage various stakeholders as they react to and move the change forward - leverage the change
agent’s skills
- engaging and
empowering others in support, planning and implementation of the change - using techniques to build momentum accelerate and consolidate progress - managing the transition and
celebrating small wins, and the achievement of milestones along the larger, more difficult path of change
- tracking the change, make modifications as needed
- develop and deploy new structures,
systems, processes and knowledge, skills and abilities to bring life to the change and new stability to the transformed organization
Schein Creating the motivation and
readiness for change
The actual change and learning process Refreezing, internalizing and learning agility Related actions, (Schein, 2010: 323) - disconfirmation, - creation of survival anxiety or guilt - learning anxiety produces resistance to change - creation of psychological safety to overcome learning anxiety
- imitation and identification of role models - scanning for solutions and trial and error learning
- incorporation into self-concept and identity - incorporation into
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text I can link technology affordances to actions for change from the table. For example, I expect technology to play a role in the action ‘communicate the need for change’, which is part of the mobilization stage of the model of Cawsey et al. (2016).
Technological Affordances
I will use the affordance lens in my analysis on technology. The affordance lens can be a promising means as it can significantly enrich our theoretical insight in technology (Faraj & Azad, 2012). Particularly the relational perspective of affordances proves to be useful when studying IT, which takes the material aspects of the artifact into account as well the social factors (Faraj & Azad, 2012). The relational perspective views affordances as “properties of the relationship between actors and their environment” (Robey et al., 2012: 225). It is currently the perspective of choice by many IS
researchers. Organizational change is a social phenomenon that human beings execute and therefore the relational perspective is suitable for my research. This view of IT affordances maintains the relevance of the social context while emphasizing the distinct role of IT artifacts in generating affordances. Artifacts are bundles of material properties in a socially recognizable form like software or hardware (Sun et al., 2019). Affordances are “action possibilities and opportunities that emerge from actors engaging with a focal technology” (Faraj & Azad, 2012: 238).
Organizations make use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) technologies in order to facilitate knowledge sharing (Leonardi, 2017). Databases, intranets and knowledge management systems (KMS) are examples of platforms where organizational members can share their knowledge for others in the organization to find. Leonardi (2017) points out that KMSs allow for wider sharing of information than more traditional CMC technologies such as e-mail and telephone. “Knowledge management systems refer to a class of information systems applied to managing individual and organizational knowledge processes and flows. They are ICT-based systems developed and used to support and enhance the organizational processes of knowledge creation, storage/retrieval, transfer, and application” (Carlsson, 2003: 196). Whereas traditional technologies are ‘semi-private’, in that people only share information with an intended audience, KMSs are often more public where the audience is less known. “These platforms make routine communication more visible, more often, and with less effort than most any other kind of communication tool” (Leonardi, 2017: 49).
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strongly (Treem and Leonardi, 2012). The authors claim these affordances can form implications for organizational processes, particularly the processes of socialization, knowledge sharing and power relations. As the affordances of these technologies influence organizational processes, I believe it is interesting to review them. Then, during my research, I investigate whether these affordances also play a role in facilitating or constraining the process of organizational change. In the following paragraphs, I will discuss the affordances brought forward by Treem and Leonardi (2012) and compare those to some affordances presented in other literature.
Visibility entails that users have the ability to show “their behaviors, knowledge, preferences, and
communication network connections that were once invisible (or at least very hard to see) visible to others in the organization” (Treem and Leonardi, 2012: 149). The difference with traditional CMC technologies is that social media makes information visible in a communal manner. With the use of social media three types of information are more visible than before: the work behavior of
organizational members, the type of people in the organization and what they may know, and the status of ongoing activities (Treem and Leonardi, 2012). The visibility affordance of Treem and Leonardi (2012) is comparable to the reviewability affordance of Faraj et al. (2011), which refers the ability of users to view and manage content on the platform over time. Through the visibility
affordance, or the reviewability affordance, organizational members can identify knowledge, and organizational members can gain knowledge from each other.
Persistence entails that information on the platform stays available (visible) over time and in the same
form (Treem and Leonardi, 2012). This is also similar to the reviewability affordance of Faraj et al. (2011), as this affordance includes the notion that users are able to review information over time. By using social media, “conversations persist past the time of their initial posts” (Treem and Leonardi, 2012: 155), which enables organizational members to review information after the initial information sharing to better understand it. The persistence affordance affects organizational actions because it sustains knowledge over time, it creates robust forms of communication, and creates the growth of communication due to the media’s seemingly unlimited space (Treem and Leonardi, 2012). Related to the persistence affordance is the affordance of searchability (Boyd, 2010), which means the user can access content by searching for it. As knowledge sustains over time, organizational members can search previously shared information.
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in that people can manipulate how they portray themselves on the platform. Further, when messages are posted for a particular target audience, the communicator can adept the initial message based on the reactions on it. Lastly, social media “allows employees to edit, revise, and alter organizational content long after the time it is first displayed” (Treem and Leonardi, 2012: 161), which improves information quality.
Lastly, “association are established connections between individuals, between individuals and content, or between an actor and a presentation” (Treem and Leonardi, 2012: 162). Individuals can create social ties between each other, or can form an association to a piece of information on social media. Note that this social tie indicates a relationship but does not point out its strength. With the use of social media, individuals can make their relationships with each other more explicit, but it also affords individuals to forge new relationships. Further, social media use gives organizational members access to relevant information. Association is similar to what Leonardi and colleagues (2013) refer to as social lubricant, as social media enables users to “connect and communicate easily to get work done quickly” (Sun et al., 2019: 237).
An implication of taking a relational perspective of affordances is that technology not only affords action, but also constrains it. Fayard and Weeks (2014: 237) explain this: “It implies conceptualizing how an organization's environment or setting (the work arrangement, including technical systems) at once enables and constrains discretionary action.” Therefore, in this research I will not only focus on the affordances of technology in relation to organizational change, but also on its constraints. Sun et al. (2019) found several constraints of social media use: information overload, groupthink and privacy invasion. When organizational members share a lot, this can soon be too much to keep up with. Groupthink is caused when the general opinion of people is more visible than the opinion of those with different ideas, so that people tend to hide these different ideas because of their desire to be accepted. Lastly, the wide visibility of social media might discourage people from sharing knowledge, as they might feel it invades their privacy
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foundation for research studies that are better able to develop theories to explain such change processes”.
Technologies can have numerous affordances, which users are not always aware of. This multiplicity of affordances causes people to actualize different affordances when they have different goals in mind. Leonardi (2013) distinguishes between individual, collective and shared affordances. That is, different people not only use the same technology differently due to their perceptions of its affordances, but also the possible number of actualized affordances in a technology differs between an individual and a group. Further, the authors conclude the enacted affordance makes the resource of technology
valuable, not the resource itself. This is similar to other findings of Strong et al. (2014).
As organizations increasingly make use of a variety of digital technologies, these are also used during organizational change. I have provided an overview of affordances of IT, particularly those of social media: visibility, persistence, editability and association. Treem and Leonardi (2012) have found that these affordances affect several processes within organizations. I will investigate whether these affordances also play a role in the actions for change listed in table 1, and what this role is. I will keep an open mind in case there are other relevant affordances of IT for the process of organizational change. In this research, I attempt to answer the following question: “What is the role of information
technology during organizational change?” I investigate the underlying mechanisms that connect
technology and organizational change, by relating the affordances of IT to the actions of change.
Methodology
Setting Description
I conducted qualitative research at one of the municipalities in the Netherlands: the Oldambt. The municipality Oldambt is one of 20 municipalities in the province of Groningen. Around 350 people work in the organization. Approximately 38.000 inhabitants live in the area. The organization is currently undergoing change, which makes it a suitable setting to investigate what role technology plays in the process. However, the last stages of the change have not been finalized, but the advantage is that the change is still fresh in the memory of respondents. The municipality ‘Oldambt’ is changing as a response to changes in its environment, in anticipation of expected events, and because of financial reasons. Municipalities throughout the Netherlands have ever-increasing challenges with their budget. The municipality has adopted a new way of working in reaction to the more assertive behavior of citizens, and in anticipation of new national legislation of the Omgevingswet
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The change goal of the organization is to perform their task of serving the citizens more efficiently and effectively, within a given budget. The change that is going on is mostly a change in the behavior and attitude of employees. It is called gebiedsgericht werken, which means ‘working area-focused’, and is the opposite of working task focused. That is, instead of looking at the tasks that need to be performed regardless in which the area, they now look per area which tasks there are. In order to work area-focused, the area of Oldambt is divided into four smaller areas. Each area has an assigned area director. They are the first point of contact for citizens in their area. The area director connects the citizens with the appropriate people of different departments within the municipality. The change gives substance to the participation pillar of the Surroundings Law.
This new way of working is closely related to the new vision of the organization, which has three core values: working from the outside to the inside, connection, and self-reliance. The new behavior of the employees in the organization should portray these values. Working from the outside to the inside means that the municipality wants to rely more on initiatives and requests from citizens (outside) instead of creating policies and perform actions that come from the municipality’s own ideas (inside). For employees in the municipality this means they need to stand closer to the citizen and more
frequently engage in conversations with citizens. In order to achieve this, a closer connection is needed between the employees of the organization, and between employees and citizens. Departments need to cooperate better and should be better adjusted to one another for the area-focused way of working. When a citizen request comes in, multiple departments of the municipality might be relevant. The difference with the former situation is that the initiative taker does not need to investigate what the relevant departments are, but the area director connects the citizen with those. It is therefore important that employees look further than their own functional boundaries, so they work in an integrated way. When they perform actions, they need to consider what consequences this has on their colleagues, and engage them in what they are doing. In essence, this means the employees have to make an effort in seeing what other people do in the organization, so they get to know each other. Lastly, organizational members should be self-reliant and be able to take action themselves. Altogether, the change means more cooperation within the different departments of the municipality and the increase of involvement of parties outside the municipality.
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Analytical Strategy
The role of IT plays during organizational change has not been researched before. Because of the novelty of the topic, a qualitative research type is suitable (Edmondson & McManus, 2007).
Therefore, I chose for a qualitative, exploratory research. I collected the data in May 2019.I conducted 12 semi-structured interviews spread over four days. The interviews were on average an hour long. Because of the novelty of the topic, I kept an open mind so I would not miss valuable information and ask appropriate probing questions. The questions in the protocol are partly based on the actions that generally occur in planned change in order to discover in what way IT affords or constrains those actions and therefore affords or constrains change. In the interview protocol I distinguished between change initiator and change recipient, simply for the way the questions are posed. The interview protocol is included in the appendix. Some sample questions are: What IT systems do you use? How do
these affect your work? How have you used these systems during the transition to area-focused work?
In between the interviews, I only changed the protocol in minor ways, such as the order of the questions.
I interviewed a wide range of organizational members: all four area directors, the program director of area-focused work, policy advisors and team leaders of several teams. Table 2 shows a full list of the respondents. The respondents range from higher-level managers to lower-level executives. The program director of the change initiative has been my person of contact throughout the planning of the interviews. What I looked for in respondents was that respondents are part of the change that is going on, and made use of digital technologies in the organization. In addition, I arranged to speak with an IT specialist in the organization, in order to get a better understanding of the specifics of the
technology such as the reason behind the purchase of certain technologies. I added some extra questions for the IT-specialist in the interview protocol. Furthermore, I interviewed a counselor, who
Table 2: Overview of Respondents
Respondent Position Gender Interview date Duration
Respondent 1 Policy advisor Male 15 may 2019 50 mins
Respondent 2 Area director Female 15 may 2019 1h 30 mins
Respondent 3 Area director Male 15 may 2019 1h 05 mins
Respondent 4 Communication advisor Female 16 may 2019 1h
Respondent 5 Management consultant Female 16 may 2019 1h 10 mins
Respondent 6 Councilor Male 15 may 2019 45 mins
Respondent 7 Area director Male 20 may 2019 55 mins
Respondent 8 Team leader services department Female 20 may 2019 1h 10 mins Respondent 9 Team leader information facilities Male 20 may 2019 40 mins
Respondent 10 Area director Female 20 may 2019 1h
Respondent 11 Policy advisor and program director of the surroundings law
Male 21 may 2019 1h 15 mins Respondent 12 Program director of area-focused
work
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is technically not a member of the organization, but is closely connected to the policy of the municipality, and could tell me about the reasons behind the change.
After conducting the interviews, I transcribed them using VLC media-player and Microsoft Word. For the coding and the analysis of the data I used the software Atlas. Throughout both the transcribing and the coding I tried to create links with the theory, but also kept an open mind as I did during the
interviews. I uploaded the transcripts on Atlas one by one, systematically read over the transcripts, assigned codes, and compared each interview individually to the each other interview. Most codes were deductive, like the four affordances mentioned by Treem and Leonardi (2012) and the constraints mentioned by Sun et al. (2019). I found the connectivity code in an inductive way. I added the
codebook with the final selection of codes in the appendix.
Findings
During the interviews at the municipality, the respondents mentioned about fourteen digital
technologies. Three of those proved interesting for this research, as respondents mentioned that these are particularly important for the ongoing change in the organization, and because most organizational members make use of these programs. Already after the fourth interview I decided to focus on those, which made that I could question each respondent thoroughly about these technologies. These technologies are the social intranet (IGO), an internal KMS (E-suite), and an external KMS (OBI4wan). I left out other basic technologies such as computer programs from Microsoft Office, because those are not KMSs. Although they may also facilitate organizational change, these are more traditional computer mediated technologies. Based on the research of Treem and Leonardi (2012), I expect the affordances of KMSs to have a larger influence on organizational change, because of their effect on other organizational processes. This section will continue as follows. I will discuss each of the three IT systems: their materiality, their affordances and constraints, and their role in the change that is currently going on in the organization. Then I will compare the affordances of these IT systems to one another. Finally, I explain how these affordances are relevant for organizational change in general.
IT-systems
IGO. The organization purchased the social intranet - IGO - because the old intranet did not
satisfy the organization’s needs. With the new intranet, the organization wanted to promote a more integrated way of working, and to create a culture in which employees can easily share information with one another. Other than the old intranet, it is interactive and therefore allows not only a top-down information flow but everyone has an account and is encouraged to use it. The layout is like a
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others. These too can be work either work related or about personal interests. Furthermore, there is an actual ‘face book’ on the intranet, which is a list with employee’s names, their function, their picture, and where they are located in the building. Further, on it are links to documents that employees might. I provided a typical quote from a respondent about the materiality of the social intranet in table 3. The use of IGO affords visibility. As organizational members post messages about work-related activities, they give others insights in their work behavior. One of the ways employees of the
municipality show this is by placing a message on the platform about a finalized citizen initiative with a picture of it. This can for example be a playground in the area or a field that is provided for attracting bees. Other than work behavior, it shows what people are working on in the organization. Further, when people post messages about either work related or social activities, it gives others in the organization knowledge on the type of person they are. When employees join or create a particular group that matches their interests, this also gives information about what this person likes or dislikes. In addition, when someone posts a message on the intranet, this can convey information about the type of knowledge the person has. The first visibility quote in table 3 shows an example of how this would work. The face book function can also provide this information, as someone’s function may indicate the type of knowledge this person has. All this information becomes visible through the use of the social intranet. Thereby, people are more aware of what is going on in the organization. The visibility quote in table 3 clearly shows this. It shows that information becomes visible, which would not have happened if a more private communication tool would have been used, like e-mail. Seeing information on IGO can remind people to take certain actions, in this case of the given quote, to communicate something.
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Another affordance that the use of IGO affords is association. That is, by using IGO, barriers around functional boundaries are decreasing, as people across departments know each other better since they have seen each other post on the social intranet. In the former situation, the functional boundaries were stronger, in that people only knew who worked in their department and just a couple people outside of it. People do not only know each other better, they also know more people on a more superficial level. The first association quote in table 3 clearly shows this. Because organizational members see on the intranet that it is someone’s birthday, they go over to this person’s office to congratulate him or her. The second association quote is an example of how congratulating someone for his or her birthday helps to maintain relationships. Further, the intranet provides useful links to organizational documents and organizational news is shared on the platform. This makes that, along with an association between people, IGO also allows an association to be made between people and content.
Altogether, by using IGO, people know better what is going on in the organization, know more people in the organization, and feel closer to one another. I have not clearly found the affordances of
persistence or editability proposed by Treem and Leonardi (2012) in the social intranet. I did find that it affords searchability, an IT affordance brought forward by Boyd (2010) and is closely related to the persistence affordance. The organizational members can look up other members and information on the intranet. The searchability quote in table 3 shows an example of this. This indicates that the information on it is persistent, otherwise it would not be searchable.
These affordances of IGO facilitate the current change in the municipality. When messages are shared about the change to area-focused work, this not only informs people about the ongoing change, but it is also a reminder that this is how people should work. As information is more visible, people know better what is going on in the organization. Further, the association affordance of IGO connects people in the municipality, which helps to achieve the change goal of connecting. Employees see what their colleagues do, and therefore get to know them: what their functions are and what type of knowledge they may have. Then, when a citizen initiative comes in, they sooner realize which people would be relevant to engage in it. The organizational boundaries are dissolving, which is what the organization is aiming for with their change goal of connection. Lastly, the goal of self-reliance is facilitated by the visibility and searchability affordance. That is, as information is visible or searchable on the intranet they do not need to ask others for this.
Table 3: Interview quotes concerning IGO
Materiality Respondent 1: “Everyone can place things on it, different groups are made in it, in which
you can indicate your interests. When you for example want to know what is being discussed in the Management Team, you can register to that group. So you can also place things [messages] yourself about the things you do on it with pictures and such. And show what you are doing”
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[IGO]. Well, that’s nice, that is good for showing what you are doing, and it contributes to, well, ‘when I have something going on, then I can ask Bob, because he is from the business parks’. So that does help, and it also helps in the end with working area focused.”
Quote 2. Respondent 1: “There are a number of people who are very active on it [IGO], they share what they are doing. So you stay updated about all that is happening in the municipality, which is of course important for working area-focused. Then you know what is going on, and sometimes there are things going on internally that have not yet been
communicated with the villages and neighborhoods that should have been. So, you actually need to follow it a bit.”
Association Quote 1. Respondent 9: I see things pass by [on the intranet], and colleagues pass by, of whom I didn’t know what they were doing before. So it helps with integrality, and it therefore helps automatically with area-focused work too, because you know how to find each other better. And issues can be dealt with sooner.
Quote 2. Respondent 7: “The social intranet helps me to well maintain relationships inside the organization. For example walking by: ‘hey congratulations with your birthday’.
Because with that, well, you need something from someone. So, based on a good relationship you can achieve more.”
Searchability Respondent 12: “What IGO does have, is a face book. So when I want to know who sits there [at the taxes department], then I can type in ‘taxes’ and then people from the taxes
department come up. So that helps with that. And I use that sometimes, because sometimes someone mentions a name, and then I think: well, I don’t know who that is. Well, then I look it up, and then a picture is shown, and then I think: oh, I know this person. So… that is how it works.”
Constraint Information overload Respondent 9: “Well, you have a number of people, who are real
reaction soldiers. They react on everyone and everything. There [on IGO] are simply always complete texts on it.”
E-suite. The program E-suite is a case-based platform for services, exchange of data and
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voluntary. One of the reasons for this is that E-suite is not social in any way, and just work related. The organization has purchased the system so the status of internal processes is visible, and so they can speak with one voice to the citizens. In the materiality quote in table 4, a respondent elaborates on the organization’s considerations for purchasing the system.
The use of E-suite affords visibility: The program shows work processes and their status, and it makes transparent how much a person still needs to handle in the system. This makes E-suite also a very suitable monitoring tool, as the first visibility quote in table 4 shows. When a citizen calls the
municipality to check on the progress of a request, the employee who answers can see an overview of the case within moments, even though someone else handles it. The second visibility quote in table 4 shows this. Employees can see every case that has been processed and the status of on-going cases, so everyone in the organization has the same information. This once invisible information is now visible. Some employees in the municipality dislike the transparency of the system, because everyone can see how much they still need to do. It feels like their privacy is invaded: a constraint of the program. The first constraint quote in table 5 mentions this.
Further, E-suite affords association between user and content: it provides organizational members with access to relevant information. It also helps with the association between the organization as a whole and its customers (citizens, in this case). This is shown in the association quote in table 4. The reason the program does not afford the association to be made between people within the organization, is that it is not a social program: it is solely work related. Furthermore, I found another affordance of E-suite related to association: connectivity. Whereas an association always concerns an actual person, connectivity connects information to information. The use of E-suite affords connectivity because it connects the information in the organization in such a way that all employees in each department know at all time what is going on in the organization regarding cases with citizens or internal ones. It connects the work of each department. This affordance allows the organization to ‘speak with one voice to the citizens’. The first connectivity quote in table 4 shows this. It also shows how the process goes faster like this. There is no incongruence. This makes that customers (citizens) cannot ‘fool’ the people in the field, like the area directors for example. The second connectivity quote in table 4 shows this.
All information that is put into the system is searchable. The searchability quote in table 4 shows how this can be done. Searchability of information is an important factor, because the system holds a lot of information. Going over every single piece would take a lot of time, with the risk of information overload. The information that is visible in the system would not be useful if one could not search for it.
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do not get many cases on their name, and forget how to use it, which frustrates them. Further, employees feel that it costs extra effort to use the system. Whereas before they would simply attach a document in an e-mail, now they need to go through all the steps in the system to do this. Often, employees do not see the value the system adds to the organization, and only look at the extra work it creates for them. The second constraint quote in table 4 shows this.
These affordances of E-suite are helping the change towards area-focused work at the municipality. In order to fulfill the change, the functional boundaries of the organizational members should become less, as they need to cooperate with one another in order to fulfill citizen initiatives, which is something E-suite helps with. Citizen initiatives call for input of organizational members across different departments. With the E-suite, many employees of different disciplines can handle one case. The relevant people can be found on IGO, then on E-suite they can connect their knowledge to each other to fulfill a case. In that sense these programs complement each other. This helps with giving citizens an efficient and quick response. The area-director is responsible for finishing a citizen initiative case, but can send it to colleagues for input from their specialty. Further, the visibility of the work processes makes that no double work is done, which saves time. Also the searchability
affordance saves time. This helps the organization with the ultimate change goal of working more effectively and efficiently.
Table 4: Interview quotes concerning E-suite
Materiality Respondent 9: “We thought ‘if we just had one system that covers all the other system like some
sort of horizontal shell… where we would be able to very simply read about status information and actually everything that is going on concerning the citizen’. The moment you call and say well I am so-and-so and I want this and that’, then we can speak with one voice about that. But also for example call back request have to be registered in it, and actually everything about the citizen. Well, we did some exploring… we searched a generically usable system.”
Visibility Quote 1. Respondent 8: “Its a good monitoring tool. So if you say ‘letters should be answered within two weeks’, then you can pull out your management team information, like: are we satisfying this norm? Are certain things not being done? And, call back requests: do people call back within two days? You can steer very well with it [the program]. So it is, in that sense, a very nice program.
Quote 2. Respondent 5: “That is supposed to become the channel in which all information comes together, and particularly help our customer contact center when phone calls come in, so they can very quickly see ‘who is busy with what’ and ‘which things are interrelated’. So that’s E-suite, it’s an important one [program]”
Association Respondent 3: “Through E-suite you can… collect information with which you can offer good
service to citizens and other callers. In that sense it helps of course to foster the understanding [relationship] between governmental service and the citizens, the entrepreneurs, the institutions, you name it.”
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Quote 2. Respondent 9: “The system also helps there, to… when I have paid mister Smith a visit on Monday… And you go there on Wednesday, then you can, what I have discussed with him and recorded in the system, you can easily look that up. Then you can simultaneously see whether this man has requested a permit, whether he has debt problems, or whatever…. And then you can have a conversation there, you are informed. And you cannot let anyone fool you.” Searchability Respondent 9: “There are several dimensions that you can choose [search]: an address,
premises, a cadastral object, whatever you want… but it are always unique things… or a citizen, or a company, well, and anything that is available about this company, that comes together in the system.”
Constraints Quote 1. Respondent 8: “… it makes very transparent, so people know what your work stock is, what you are working on. So that is something that people sometimes find wearing”
Quote 2. Respondent 5: “If you want to have everything centrally mapped out, then this asks from many people in the back office to register certain things, of which they think ‘why should I do this?’ and do not see that it is perhaps important for a colleague at the customer contact center.”
OBI4wan. OBI4wan allows for the knowledge management of external media, some of which with
platform characteristics like external social media. The communication department uses OBI4wan to create reports about what is going on outside of the organization. They share these with the entire organization, so everyone can benefit from the information. OBI4wan works like an online search engine, but with extra tools to refine searches to get more focused information. IT is used to search everything that is said online about the municipality, but also everything that is said within the borders of the geographic area of the municipality. It checks social media platforms, websites, and forums: everything available online. Additionally, the communication department holds a meeting each week in which they show which messages were particularly interesting, and what is going on in the area. Every organizational member is invited to join this meeting. Through this, the organization is better informed about what citizens are talking about in the area, but also what is said about the area. I added a quote about the materiality of the program in table 5. One of the respondents explained that the systems was purchased in response to developments in society that indicate citizens want to have a larger say in policies.
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Like the other programs, OBI4wan also affords association, as it helps strengthen the relationship with the citizens and the municipality. Because the organizational members know better what is going on outside the organization, they can more effectively respond to this. The association quote in table 5 gives an example of this. The program brings citizens and the municipality closer together, hence, it affords association.
Further, the program affords searchability. This is important to prevent information overload. The program makes it possible to fine tune searches, so the organization only receives the type of information they want to know. I added a quote of how this search is done in table 5.
The affordances of OBI4wan help to achieve the current change in the municipality. Particularly by making visible what is going on outside of the organization. When citizens share about how they feel about certain policy, or that a certain crossing is unsafe, the program makes this visible. This helps with reaching the change goal of working from the outside to the inside.
Table 5: Interview quotes concerning OBI4Wan
Materiality Respondent 2: “You can completely concentrate it [the information]. You can say for example
‘I only want to know what is being said in this village’ or ‘I don’t need to know anything except when the word ‘dog poo’ comes along, or ‘housing association’ or…’ …All websites that are public and what has been publicly shared, so not private, when it is public they [the communication department with OBI4wan] follow it. That is captured and made visible.” Visibility Quote 1. Respondent 10: “Every day I receive a sort of selection from it, of the Tweets,
Facebook messages and Instagram, and so on, that have arrived from my area… Then I have an overview of what is going on with the people in my area”
Quote 2. Respondent 12: “The TamTam helps a lot with thinking about wit thinking about what happens in the outside world? What keeps people busy? Because we think about what keeps people busy, but sometimes it are completely other things.”
Association Respondent 5: “En er komen soms dingen uit van: ‘Goh, maken inwoners zich daar druk over?
Maar dat ligt zo!’. Afgelopen dinsdag hadden we dat ook weer van: ‘Oh, als inwoners daar zo op regeren, moeten we daar misschien wel...’. Eh, het zit anders, dus dan moeten we daar wel wat informatie over verstrekken, hoe het dan wél zit.”
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Comparison IT-systems
Together, these systems afford visibility, association, connectivity and searchability. Although the systems each portray the same affordances - except for E-suite, the only system with the connectivity affordance - they do not afford exactly the same. Per affordance, I will explain the differences.
Visibility. The use of IGO makes work behavior of organizational members, the type of
people in the organization and what they may know visible. With E-suite the status of work processes become visible. OBI4wan makes visible what is going on outside the organization. These systems complement each other in that each makes a different aspect visible.
Association. The use of IGO affords associations to be made between organizational
members, and between organizational members and content. This makes that organizational members know each other better and know more colleagues than before. E-suite affords association between user and content, but a different type of content than IGO. Further, E-suite helps the organization to strengthen its relationship with its customers. OBI4wan affords the association between the
organization as a whole and the citizens of the municipality. Whereas IGO affords associations
internal to the organization, OBI4wan affords associations between the organization and its customers. E-suite helps with both.
Connectivity. I only found this affordance in E-suite. It connects information to other
information, which makes that the organization can act as a whole to the outside world. I deliberately did not include this affordance in the association affordance, as it does more than only link documents to other documents. Through centrality of information, it makes that the organization can function as one: everyone can see the same information.
Searchability. Each of the systems affords this, suggesting the information on these systems
is persistent. There is no real difference between the systems on this affordance, except that searches in IGO will only show information within IGO, E-suite only shows information in E-suite, and in OBI4wan the search will show only online available information.
IT Affordances and Planned Organizational Change
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The change actions of destabilizing the equilibrium, identifying the need for change, and
disconfirmation are facilitated by the use of IT, particularly through its visibility affordance.
Managers can detect internal inefficiencies or problems that would suggest organizational change is needed as the work behavior of employees becomes visible in IGO. Further, the status of work processes made visible by E-suite could indicate bottlenecks in the process, which could be a reason for organizational change. Moreover, when customers (citizens in the case of Oldambt) are
dissatisfied, or other environmental developments external to the organization suggest the organization needs to change, OBI4wan can make this visible. Similarly, the articulation of a performance gap (Cawsey et al., 2016) can be facilitated by IT. As work behavior, the status of processes and customer reactions become more visible than before, managers can make a better assessment of where the organization is now and is therefore better aware of the difference between the preferred future state. This goes for both internal and external performance, the internal performance can be assessed by information made visible by IGO and E-suite, and external performance can be assessed by information made visible by OBI4wan.
Table 6: Affordances of IT for Actions in Organizational Change
Change Action Stage of Change Affordance IT system
Destabilizing the equilibrium (Lewin, 1951), identifying the need for change (Cawsey et al., 2016) and disconfirmation (Schein, 2010)
1st stage in each theory Visibility
IGO E-suite OBI4wan Articulation of a performance gap 1st stage, Cawsey et al. (2016) Visibility
IGO E-suite OBI4wan Force field analysis 2nd stage, Lewin (1951)
Visibility IGO OBI4wan Association IGO
OBI4wan Assessing the dynamics in the organization 2nd stage, Cawsey et al. (2016) Visibility IGO Building coalitions and support to realize the
change 2
nd stage, Cawsey et al. (2016) Association IGO Communicate the need for change 2nd stage, Cawsey et al. (2016) Visibility IGO Association IGO
Engaging others 3rd stage, Cawsey et al. (2016) Visibility IGO
Association IGO Celebrating small wins 3rd stage, Cawsey et al. (2016) Visibility IGO Association IGO Imitation and identification of role models
2nd stage, Schein (2010) Visibility IGO Association IGO Scanning for solutions and trial and error
learning 2
nd stage, Schein (2010) Visibility
IGO E-suite OBI4wan
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Performing a force field analysis is facilitated by the use of IT, though the affordances of visibility
and association. As the type of people, work behavior and other information becomes visible to managers, they can identify whether these form a force for or against change. This is afforded by IGO, which shows internal forces. It could be that important forces or stakeholders are otherwise
overlooked. External forces become visible that would otherwise remain invisible with the use of OBI4wan. Moreover, when more people in an organization know each other and are aware of each other, afforded by the association affordance of IGO, managers will be more aware of what forces and stakeholders exist. Also the association afforded by OBI4wan can help by creating a better
relationship with customers, so the organization is more aware of them. Only when the organization is aware of the forces they can be taken into account.
Assessing the dynamics in the organization can be made possible through the affordance of
visibility. With the overview that for example a social intranet can provide of what organizational members post, and the reactions on them, change leaders can assess the dynamics between members of the organization. The interactive platform characteristics of the program are important here: in order to fully understand the dynamics between people, it should be visible how they react on one another. Further, the association affordance IGO, facilitates building coalitions and support to realize the
change. When people are more aware of each other, know more people and know some people better
through the association affordance, it would be easier to assess who would be willing to join in a coalition that supports the change. Further, the opinions of people are more visible with the use of social intranet, so people will already know who might be willing to join.
Through the IT affordance of visibility, the need for change at the municipality could be easily
communicated to its organization members. Many people can be reached by only placing one
message on the social intranet: it becomes visible to the entire organization. The following quote confirms this.
Respondent 3: “What has helped a lot… were the stories placed on IGO by the managing board, where the new way of working… of area-focused work came forward very clearly, repeatedly. So that it comes alive in the organization”
The association affordance of IT also plays a role in communicating the need change as it enhances relationships and dissolves functional boundaries, organizational members know more people in the organization, and know some people better than before. As Cawsey et al. (2016: 235) argue: “views of change are also influenced by the comments and actions of those around us, particularly those whose opinions and relationships we value”.
Engaging others is facilitated by the visibility affordance and the association affordance of IT as
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change forward. As for the association affordance of IT, when change leaders know more
organizational members they can more easily find appropriate people to approach for engaging them. The following quote confirms this.
Respondent 5: “…with the website, the intranet, and social media… it is much easier to make connections [with those systems], share information, engage each other, to bring inside what’s going on outside… So in that sense it definitely contributes to knowledge sharing, information sharing and to make connections”
Further, celebrating small wins is facilitated through the visibility affordance of IT, particularly by the social intranet. “Celebrations are needed along the way to mark progress, reinforce commitment and reduces stress” (Cawsey et al. 2016: 322). Through simply writing a message on social intranet for example, it reaches many employees and can therefore motivate a large number of people to continue with the change. Association could also prove useful in celebrating small wins. When people have a stronger relationship, possibly the felt need to celebrate someone else’s win could increase. Just like one would not celebrate a birthday of a stranger.
Moreover, when work behavior is more visible, afforded by IGO, this would facilitate the action of
imitation and identification of role models. Also association helps with this: when an organizational
member knows more people, he or she has more people to choose from to identify as a role model. Furthermore, it facilitates scanning for solutions and trial and error learning. When more knowledge is shared, it is more likely that solutions for problems are found. This knowledge can become visible through IGO, E-Suite, and OBI4wan, as they each make a different type of knowledge visible. Additionally, when people share more about their work, others can learn from this.
Lastly, tracking the change is facilitated by the visibility affordance of IT. This affordance makes that people know better what is going on in the organization. At the municipality a questionnaire about the ongoing change was posted on the social intranet. This effortlessly reached the entire organization.
Respondent 4: “…it [IGO] also supports to share it with your colleagues, like ‘hey we have a questionnaire, it is about area-focused work, would you like to fill it out?’, otherwise we would have probably sent it by e-mail.”
Further, people can post their progress on the intranet, which could be used as an indicator of how well the change is going. The change leader then collects this information in the IT system. When people are more aware of what others doing, it can be assessed how far along they are in changing.
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or mandatory might play a role. At the municipality, the use of E-suite is mandatory. This made that although nobody liked using the system, everyone did. The use of IGO and OBI4wan, on the other hand, are voluntary. When people think the use of these systems are not worth the time and effort, they will not be used. Although not everyone has similar needs with the programs in the organization, when the use would be normalized this would positively benefit the process of change.
Discussion and Conclusion
In this section I will answer the research question, and explain the contributions and limitations of this research. The research question I posed in the introduction was: “What is the role of information
technology during organizational change?” My findings show that IT can play a facilitating role
during organizational change by affording visibility and association. The visibility affordance of IT makes work behavior, the type of people and the knowledge they have, status of work processes and external information of customers visible. The association affordance of IT allow for the creation and maintenance of associations between people, between user and content, and between the organization and its customers.
Not every system is able to provide these affordances. Visibility and association are predominantly afforded by the use of social media, which confirms the findings of Treem and Leonardi (2012) about how social media portrays the affordances they found in a stronger way than other types of
communication technologies. Although these other technologies portray the affordances to a lesser extent, the other two KMSs that I researched form an important complement to social media use. The use of social media makes work behavior and the type of people and what they may know visible. Internal KMSs make the status of ongoing activities visible. External KMSs make knowledge visible that is external to the organization, particularly information provided by customers. With this, I extend the visibility affordance of Treem and Leonardi so it includes visibility of external communication and information. Together, these systems paint a complete picture of knowledge and information, which is useful for change, and would have remained invisible without the use of these systems.
Similarly, the use of social media affords associations between organizational members and between organizational members and information, provided by posts from other people and useful links in the system. The use of the internal KMS affords the association between organizational members and information concerning customers and other types of more specific information. The use of an external KMS affords the association between the organization as a whole and customers. With this, I extend the association affordance of Treem and Leonardi (2012) so it includes the association between the organization and its customers.
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(Lewin, 1951), identifying the need for change (Cawsey et al., 2016) disconfirmation (Schein, 2010) and articulation of a performance gap (Cawsey et al., 2016) in the first stage of planned change. Further, I found IT to facilitate the actions of performing a force field analysis (Lewin, 1951), assessing the dynamics in the organization, building coalitions, communicating the need for change, engaging and empowering others in support, planning and implementation of the change, celebrating small wins (Cawsey et al., 2016), imitation and identification of role models, and scanning for
solutions and trial and error learning (Schein, 2010) in the middle stage(s) of planned change. Lastly, I found the affordances of IT to facilitate the action of tracking the change (Cawsey et al, 2016) in the last stage of change. I conclude IT should be considered as an important factor in making a change project in an organization a success. When managers pay more attention to the role of IT during organizational change, perhaps the success rate can rise above the current rate of 30%.
Before IT can facilitate these actions for change, it is important that the technological affordances are actualized. Vital is that appropriate IT is used with the functional properties that could provide these affordances. An important common denominator of the systems in this research is that they are platform-type technologies (social media and internal KMSs), or retrieve information from platform type technologies (external KMSs). Platform characteristics make it possible that information and people come together, so it can be made visible and associations can be formed. Another important factor is that the members in the organization use the IT. Whether the use of the IT system is voluntary or mandatory might play a role in this. Further, when people feel that by the use of IT their privacy is invaded, this will refrain them from using the system, which could negatively affect the affordances it provides, hence constraining the process of change. When people do not use the systems, or not enough, its affordances are not actualized. Also groupthink can negatively affect the use of IT, this is particularly the case for social media, as some people might feel their opinion is too different from the main stream opinion and therefore withhold from sharing it. However, I did not find this constraint in any of the systems researched, although the use of the intranet would have the functionality to enable this.
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overload. With IT, much information can become visible at once. The searchability affordance makes that people can precisely make visible what they are looking for. Further, I discovered another affordance of IT: connectivity. However, I did not find it to be facilitating or constraining any of the actions for change. In my research, I focused on affordances that could facilitate organizational change. It is possible that I did not find the other affordances because they are not important in organizational change. It could also be because the IT systems I researched do not have the functionality that would portray these affordances.
Contributions
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Limitations and Future Research
I made a start in the research of the role of IT systems in planned organizational change. I found that IT plays a role, and I identified which affordances of IT are particularly relevant for which change actions. However, it was beyond the scope of this research to investigate the significance of the role of IT. I suggest future research to investigate this. Furthermore, I did not find the affordances of
