The Social Dynamics of Systems Development: Conflict, Change and Organizational Politics

Abstract

This chapter is about the system design process. More explicitly, it is about the process of developing computer-based artefacts “supporting” work in human organizations, primarily business organizations. It does not deal specifically with systems for supporting cooperative work; indeed all the case studies and theory that are discussed have been taken from the domain of information systems (IS) research. The querulous reader might wonder about the relevance of IS research to computer supported cooperative work (CSCW). Behind this demurring, I suspect, lurks the question, unresolved in CSCW, of whether CSCW systems are (or ought to be) fundamentally different from traditional systems. If they are, then it is more than likely that their design will evoke new issues and the relevance of conventional knowledge will need to be qualified, perhaps profoundly.