Abstract
Research on the management of information systems has rarely conducted in-depth investigations on the problematic role of time in the development and implementation of these systems. When the research has done this, it has interpreted time in an objective, linear sense. This paper calls attention to the existence of not only the objective nature, but also the subjective nature of time in the organizational change surrounding the implementation of new information systems. This paper draws its empirical material from an on-going study of the implementation and use of distributed computing-based systems at a mid-sized university (MSU). Implementing client/server networks illuminates three themes that contribute to the dual objective/subjective nature of time at MSU: (1) client/ server computing is a complex web of technologies and involves people who are struggling to reach a stable, productive state; (2) the development of a client/server project is a discontinuous process; and (3) because of the number of stakeholders involved in the implementation of client/server systems, there are “temporal asymmetries” — that is, differences in how these people themselves perceive and experience time. For managers, to understand the subjective, perceptual nature of time can provide a managerial lever. For researchers, these temporal asymmetries make a difference to how data are collected and interpreted.
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Sawyer, S., Southwick, R. (1997). Transitioning to Client/Server: Using a Temporal Framework to Study Organizational Change. In: Lee, A.S., Liebenau, J., DeGross, J.I. (eds) Information Systems and Qualitative Research. IFIP — The International Federation for Information Processing. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35309-8_18
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