Moving the Implementation Line: A Nursing Home’s Path to Success with IT

Authors

  • Andrea Carugati Aarhus University, Business and Social Sciences IESEG School of Management
  • Antonio Giangreco IESEG School of Management
  • Antonio Sebastiano LIUC University

Keywords:

Nursing home, Long-term care, IT-driven change, Systems development, Implementation line, Emancipation.

Abstract

Organizations continuously need to both update and upgrade their organizational and technological infrastructure to maintain a competitive edge. However, a traditional goal of information systems development is to satisfy a stable set of requirements rather than evolutionary ones. This article embraces the call to develop evolving systems in continuously emergent organizations and to identify the main factors that can lead to continuous system development—a continuously moving implementation line—from within the organization. In doing so, we draw on a longitudinal analysis of the experience of a typical Western nursing home that, in the past 12 years, has aimed to internally develop a healthcare provision and management system to support its evolving needs. Our analysis shows that four factors enable this concurrent change: (1) the internal appreciation of change, (2) the external appreciation of change, (3) enlightened management, and (4) emancipated employees. By controlling for the latter two factors, managers of long-term care centers can motivate employees to contribute to the development of the system over long periods and limit undesired behaviors with information technology (IT). From a theoretical perspective, this research shows that focusing on the implementation line in data analysis can be a constructive device for research. Although this construction is useful for studies on IT-driven organizational change, it should be mandatory for studies on evolving information systems in emergent organizations.

Author Biographies

Andrea Carugati, Aarhus University, Business and Social Sciences IESEG School of Management

Andrea CARUGATI is Associate Professor in MIS at Aarhus School of Business - University of Aarhus (Denmark) and IESEG School of Management. His research interests revolve around the behaviour of people with information technology, IT-driven change, and information systems in human resources.

Antonio Giangreco, IESEG School of Management

Antonio GIANGRECO is Full Professor and Head of Management Department at IESEG School of Management – Catholic University of Lille (France). His main research interests are in the area of training, change management, performance assessment and the effects of IS implementation on HRM practices.

Antonio Sebastiano, LIUC University

Antonio SEBASTIANO is Ph.D. Candidate at Università Carlo Cattaneo LIUC (Italy). At LIUC he also coordinates the Observatory of Retirement Houses for the Aged, where he conducts research in the field of training evaluation, change management and best practices mainly applied to the health sector.

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Published

2011-12-19

How to Cite

Carugati, A., Giangreco, A., & Sebastiano, A. (2011). Moving the Implementation Line: A Nursing Home’s Path to Success with IT. Systèmes d’Information Et Management (French Journal of Management Information Systems), 16(4), 73–101. Retrieved from https://revuesim.org/index.php/sim/article/view/402

Issue

Vol. 16 No. 4 (2011)

Section

Teaching case studies

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