Institutionalisation as a Process of Interplay between Technology and Its Organisational Context of Use

Abstract

This study contributes to the IS literature with a distinct explanation of the process of institutionalisation of technology in organisations. The research analyses the role of micro-level processes of interplay in embedding an intranet in the formal functioning of an organisation and in the habits and routines of its employees. The findings identify two types of processes of interplay underpinning this process of institutionalisation. The first operates at the level of constitutive expectations and refers to mutual changes to the governance, policy and control mechanisms which foster the perception that the intranet is part of the expected formal functioning of the organisation. The second operates at the level of background expectations and refers to mutual changes that make the intranet look more familiar, functional, easier to use, fostering its embedding in routines and habits of the employees. The study aims to motivate more research on institutionalisation as a bottom-up micro process of gradual development of institutionalised behaviour.