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Abstract
Implementing complex Information Systems (IS) implies innovations in an organisation’s technology and processes. As a result, the ability of organisations to develop and enact new knowledge and engender organisational learning present major challenges for IS implementation success. This thesis examines ‘knowledge barriers’ in IS implementation - those persistent difficulties in developing and enacting the knowledge an organisation needs in order to innovate. The mechanisms by which knowledge barriers operate are not presently well understood. The objectives of the thesis are to provide an in-depth understanding of knowledge barriers and their dynamic nature, to explain how knowledge barriers operate over time, and to provide guidance to practitioners to deal with knowledge barriers in complex IS implementations.
To achieve these objectives, a case study of complex eHealth IS implementation was conducted between 2005 and 2006. By adopting a process methodology, the research focused on sequences of activity where the implementation team experienced persistent knowledge barriers. A range of sense-making strategies was used for data analysis including narrative, visual mapping and temporal bracketing. Knowledge barriers were analysed using a novel framework informed by prior theory.
Findings highlight the dynamic nature of knowledge barriers in complex IS implementation. First, the thesis demonstrates how learning threats precede barrier emergence. Second, the research shows how patterns of activity emerge during IS implementation to moderate knowledge barrier dynamics: in some cases contributing to a barrier by inhibiting learning and in other cases reducing a barrier by facilitating learning. Furthermore, linkages between barriers inhibit or facilitate learning where knowledge dependencies exist. Third, the research identifies a range of organisational strategies to counter knowledge barriers and how they are implemented by IS practitioners. Finally, knowledge barrier dynamics were generalised from the empirical findings into patterns based on rates of increase and decline, overall duration, number of intensity peaks and number of activity strands.
In summary, the thesis provides an empirically grounded theoretical model of knowledge barriers and their dynamics in complex IS implementation. The thesis makes a theoretical contribution to understanding the nature of knowledge barriers, the mechanisms by which they emerge during IS implementation processes and the strategies organisations can use to mitigate them. The research provides new tools to assist practitioners in recognising knowledge barriers and selecting strategies to mitigate them, thereby invigorating organisational learning during complex IS implementation.