Abstract
Improving the position of User-centred Design (UCD) in organizations is a challenge. Organizational culture is an influential factor affecting the successes and failures of organizational improvement efforts. There does not exist studies on the effects of organizational culture in the implementation of UCD. In addition, it is difficult to find methods and theoretical models with which to reliably and systematically analyse organizational culture in the improvement efforts. This paper presents a method with which organizational culture can be analysed in the context of UCD implementation. The method was developed by experimenting with different techniques for data gathering (surveys, interviews and workshops) in 7 organizational units in 4 software development companies. The benefits and problems related to the techniques are presented. Practical guidance for doing prospective cultural analyses is offered. Finally, recommendations for the selection of a suitable UCD implementation strategy for different culture types are outlined.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aaltio-Marjosola, I. [1991], Cultural Change in a Business Enterprise: Studying a Major Organizational Change and Its Impact on Culture, Acta Academiae Oeconomicae Helsingiensis, Series A 80.
Axtell, C. M., Waterson, P. E. & Clegg, C. W. [1997], Problems Integrating User Participation into Software Development, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 47(2), 323–45.
Beyer, H. & Holtzblatt, K. [1998], Contextual Design: Defining Customer-centered Systems, Morgan-Kaufmann.
Broadfoot, L. & Ashkanasy, N. [1994], A Survey of Organizational Culture Measurement Instruments, Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of Australian Social Psychologists.
Cameron, K. S. & Freeman, S. J. [1991], Cultural Congruence, Strength, and Type: Relationships to Effectiveness, in R. W. Woodman & W. A. Pasmore (eds.), Research in Organizational Change and Development, Vol. 5 of An Annual Series Featuring Advances in Theory, Methodology, and Research, JAI Press, pp.23-58.
Czarniawska-Joerges, B. [1992], Exploring Complex Organizations. A Cultural Perspective, Sage Publications.
Dellana, S. A. & Hauser, R. D. [1999], Toward Defining the Quality Culture, Engineering Management Journal 11(2), 11–5.
Denison, D. R. & Spreitzer, G. M. [1991], Organizational Culture and Organizational Development: A Competitive Values Approach, in R. W. Woodman & W. A. Pasmore (eds.), Research in Organizational Change and Development, Vol. 5 of An Annual Series Featuring Advances in Theory, Methodology, and Research, JAI Press, pp. 1-21.
Harrington, S. J. & Ruppel, C. P. [1999], Practical and Value Compatibility: Their Roles in the Adoption, Diffusion and Success of Telecommuting, in P. De & J. I. de Gross (eds.), Proceedings of 20th International Conference of Information Systems, Association for Information Systems, pp. 103-12.
Iivari, J. & Huisman, M. [2001], The Relationship Between Organizational Culture and the Systems Development Methodologies, in K. R. Dittrich, A. Geppert & M. C. Norrie (eds.), Advanced Information Systems Engineering, 13th International Conference, CAiSE 2001, Vol. 2068 of Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer-Verlag, pp.234-50.
Iivari, N. [2002], Analyzing the Role of Organizational Culture in the Implementation of User-centered Design — Disentangling the Approaches for Cultural Analysis, in J. Hammond, T. Gross & J. Wesson (eds.), Usability: Gaining a Competitive Edge, Proceedings of IFIP 17th World Computer Congress Stream 9 (TC-13 Stream), Vol. 226 of IFIP, Kluwer, pp.57-91.
ISO [1999], ISO 13407 International Standard. Human-centred Design Processes for Interactive Systems. International Organization for Standardization, Genève, Switzerland.
Keesing, R. M. & Strathern, A. J. [1998], Cultural Anthropology, third edition edition, Harcourt Brave College Publishers.
Kekäle, T. [1998], The Effects of Organizational Culture on Successes and Failures in Implementation of Some Total Quality Management Approaches: Towards a Theory of Selecting a Culturally Matching Quality Approach, Acta Wasaensia 65. Industrial Management 1.
Krumbholz, M. & Maiden, N. [2001], The Implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning Packages in Different Organizational and National Cultures, Information Systems 26(3), 185–204.
Lewis, D. [1996], The Organizational Culture Saga — From OD to TQM: A Critical Review of the Literature. Part 2 — Applications, Leadership and Organization Development Journal 17(1), 12–9.
Mayhew, D. J. [1999], The Usability Engineering Lifecycle: A Practitioner’s Handbook for User Interface Design, Morgan-Kaufmann.
Nielsen, J. [1993], Usability Engineering, Academic Press.
Pliskin, N., Romm, T., Lee, A. S. & Weber, Y. [1993], Presumed vs. Actual Organizational Culture: Managerial Implications for Implementation of Information Systems, The Computer Journal 36(2), 143–52.
Robey, D. & Rodriquez-Diaz, A. [1989], The Organizational and Cultural Context of Systems Implementation: Case Experience from Latin America, Information and Management 17(4), 229–39.
Rosenbaum, S., Rohn, J. A. & Humburg, J. [2000], A Toolkit for Strategic Usability: Results from Workshops, Panels, and Surveys, in T. Turner & G. Szwillus (eds.), Proceedings of the CHI’00 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI Letters 2(1), ACM Press, pp.337–44.
Ruppel, C. P. & Harrington, S. J. [2001], Sharing Knowledge Through Intranets: A Study of Organizational Culture and Intranet Implementation, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 44(1), 37–52.
Schein, E. [1985], Organizational Culture and Leadership, Jossey-Bass.
Smircich, L. [1983], Concepts of Culture and Organizational Analysis, Administrative Science Quarterly 28(3), 339–85.
Vredenburg, K., Mao, J., Smith, P. W. & Carey, T. [2002], A Survey of User-centered Design Practice, in D. Wixon (ed.), Proceedings of CHI’02 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems: Changing our World, Changing Ourselves, CHI Letters 4(1), ACM Press, pp.471–8.
Wilson, S., Bekker, M., Johnson, P. & Johnson, H. [1997], Helping and Hindering User Involvement — A Tale of Everyday Design, in S. Pemberton (ed.), Proceedings of the CHI’97 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, ACM Press, pp. 178-85.
Zammuto, R. F. & Krakower, J. Y. [1991], Quantitative and Qualitative Studies of Organizational Culture, in R. W. Woodman & W. A. Pasmore (eds.), Research in Organizational Change and Development, Vol. 5 of An Annual Series Featuring Advances in Theory, Methodology, and Research, JAI Press, pp.83-114.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2004 Springer-Verlag London
About this paper
Cite this paper
Iivari, N., Juntunen, K., Tuikkala, I. (2004). A Method for Organizational Culture Analysis as a Basis for the Implementation of User-Centred Design into Organizations. In: O’Neill, E., Palanque, P., Johnson, P. (eds) People and Computers XVII — Designing for Society. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3754-2_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3754-2_8
Publisher Name: Springer, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-85233-766-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-3754-2
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive