Groupware, social action and organizational emergence: On the process dynamics of computer mediated distributed work

The last decade has seen the development of new information technology for work computerization commonly called groupware. Groupware applications support organizational computing and communications, and enable the distribution of work without regard to time and geographic barriers. As more of these applications are implemented in work settings they are precipitating profound changes in organizational processes. Although some studies have illuminated aspects of the technology-organization interaction process, more work is still needed to understand and articulate the dynamics of it. This research takes an emergence theory approach to analyzing and articulating some of the technology-organization interaction dynamics. The paper reports on a longitudinal field study of implementation and use of a groupware application in a distributed work environment. It discusses the continuing emergence of the groupware application and the organizational process it supports. The research builds upon a stream of social action and process theory research that have examined the interaction of information technology and organizational processes. This work makes several important contributions to IS research. It extends the reach of technology-organization interaction studies. It develops a descriptive model of some of the interaction dynamics of IT applications and organizational processes, upon which future empirical studies can be based. It provides an exemplar of intensive research into organizational processes and proposes that groupware applications are themselves data for the study of organizations.©1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.