Emotion & ICT Implementation, p.1
The emotionality of information and communication technologies implementation
Theodore E. Zorn University of Waikato (New Zealand)
Paper presented at the annual meeting of the National Communication Association, 1-4 November 2001, Atlanta. Ted Zorn is professor and chairperson in the Department of Management Communication, University of Waikato, Private Bag 3105, Hamilton, New Zealand. Phone: 64(7)-838-4776. Fax: 64(7)-838-4358. E-mail:
[email protected]. This paper was supported by a grant from the (New Zealand) Foundation for Research, Science, and Technology, (contract number UOW X0016, Programme Title: The SocioEconomic Impacts of ICT).
Abstract Adopting new information and communication technologies (ICTs) is in part a result of instrumental goals—for example, managers wanting to perform organizational activities more quickly or efficiently. However, such adoption is influenced by identity and relational goals, as well—for example, a desire to be seen as cutting edge or technologically literate. This paper uses a constructive-dramaturgical approach to examine the emotionality of new technology adoption.
Emotion & ICT Implementation, p.2 The emotionality of information and communication technologies implementation Many organizations today are using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to engage in e-commerce, e-business, or more broadly, e-organizing. While there is substantial debate regarding the benefits and costs of such initiatives, organizations are continually looking to ICTs as a means to increase efficiency and effectiveness. Arguably, the greatest opportunity for e-organizing to make substantial contributions is in the not-for-profit (NFP) sector. This is so because such organizations, typically operate on shoestring budgets and are thus much further behind private sector organizations in terms of using ICTs. Thus, many NFP organizations do not have some technologies, such as e-mail, that have been standard in for-profit organizations for many years. My goals for this paper are to demonstrate some of the ways that emotion is implicated in the change-related communication processes that are inevitably a part of the process of adopting and implementing new ICTs. I will present a case study of a NFP organization in the process of adopting and implementing a knowledge management initiative. Then, I will draw some conclusions about the ways that emotionality is implicated in the case. As Tantoush and Clegg (2001) argue, implementing new technologies is inevitably political. People pursue particular initiatives not only for the perceived instrumental value of those initiatives, but also because such initiatives hold out the possibility of enhancing or diminishing reputations and shifting power bases within an organization. Thus, people engage in political action to promote positions they see in their self-interest. For example, some people are threatened by power shifts, fear of embarrassment, or fears related to job security. Others see the initiative as an opportunity to garner increased influence and recognition. Still others can be offended at not being involved in a way they think is appropriate. The adoption and implementation process may also be highly charged with emotions, running from excitement and enthusiasm at the positive end of the spectrum, to fear and frustration at the negative end. In fact, the emotionality of the implementation process cannot be separated from the instrumental and political dimensions. The material, technological features and the instrumental ends to which they are put evoke emotional responses, from the excitement of opening the new package and seeing the “shiny, new toy” to the angst experienced at seeing a dazzling array of wires, buttons, or commands. Similarly, the politics of implementation evoke emotional responses, such as the fear and loathing as power bases are eroded and reputations eclipsed, to the surge of pride and satisfaction at having one’s ideas accepted as policy to the bloodlust of finally getting one’s revenge over political enemies by marginalizing their roles or expertise. Tantoush and Clegg also argue that there are three types of outcomes emerging from ICT implementation: technical (such as changes in the use of existing technologies), economic (such as cost savings or expenditures), and organizational (such as changes in work practices and relationships). I would add a fourth type of outcome that is highly relevant to the political dimension on which they focus as well as to the emotionality of ICT adoption and implementation: symbolic outcomes. That is, the adoption and
Emotion & ICT Implementation, p.3 implementation of a particular technology will have significant meanings for organizational actors that may prompt or result from political actions and emotional responses. Technical, economic, and organizational outcomes are inevitably intertwined in symbolic outcomes, since such outcomes are rarely “given facts” but are framed and interpreted, subject to “spin” and other promotional discourse [Fairhurst, 1996 #64]. Case: Community Services Organization I first learned of this case of ICT implementation from working with a number of managers at a Volunteer Training Day, a day-long program organized by Volunteer Waikato, a local organization dedicated to supporting organizations that rely on volunteers to provide various kinds of community services. I had volunteered to offer a couple of training sessions. One of the managers who attended my training sessions, Mary, asked me to do some further work with her organization and, in the process of discussing this work, mentioned that her organization, which I will refer to as Community Services (CS), was in the process of implementing a nationwide, web-based database. Thus far, my research on this case has involved interviews with her, the CEO and two other staff, along with observation of the process of training and experimenting with the new database. Interestingly, the CEO’s request for the organization to remain anonymous in my research was justified by his concerns about hackers finding out about their database and being able to violate their security measures. Because of their concerns, I must be somewhat circumspect about the nature of their work. Suffice it to say that Community Services offers counseling and support to people in the community. They are a not-forprofit organization with a national office in Wellington, but because they are largely staffed by volunteers and partly funded by local, community sources, the branch offices are relatively independent of each other and relatively autonomous. The CEO therefore has limited power to enforce policy. The impetus for the centralized database came from a group of managers who felt the statistics being gathered at the national level were suspect. People recorded work differently at the various branches, for example. Better statistics were needed for planning as well as for making the case for government funds. Prior to the centralized database, each office entered data into their local database (or, in the case of small offices, simply kept paper records) and sent paper summaries to the national office. There were other problems caused by the old system, too. For example, some offices were seeing repeat clients, but not having a complete history of their work these people, such as information associated with other incidents that the client might have been associated with. Managers proposed to the national board of directors that addressing this problem become a priority. They were initially just proposing some standardization, but still distributed database, not a national, centralized electronic database. The Board agreed with the managers’ proposal and requested the national office to coordinate the new system. They had just hired a new CEO, David, who told me: “I started in the job about the time the Executive were dealing with the managers’ request. I took it from there. It
Emotion & ICT Implementation, p.4 fitted into a bigger picture of what I wanted to do in that I wanted to move the org away from a “sympathetic conversation and a cup of tea” to more of a case management approach.” Since then, he said, “I’ve been driving it.” It is important to understand just how “low tech” this organization was. Like many notfor-profit organizations, they work with a shoestring budget. In mid-2001, the Hamilton office—one of the larger offices in the country—did not even have email. As Mary told me, “I’m just getting my head around what’s required regarding our computers. It will have a huge impact on the way we do our work.” The Hamilton office had two old personal computers, neither of which had enough “grunt” to handle the new system. The local board of trustees had several discussions about whether they should add memory to the existing computers or somehow find the money to buy one or two new ones.
The CEO described the design as participative: “In taking this on, we initially interviewed managers regarding their needs. We determined that they needed a case management system more than just a database….For example, they were seeing repeat clients, but not having the whole history of these people, eg, info associated with other incidents that client might have been associated with.” Everyone in CS will be affected in that our business processes will be affected. Every CS worker will have to be accountable, but they won’t actually put in data. Managers for each group will have responsibility for inputting data. Emotions in Implementation Confusion, humor, excitement, and the beginnings of frustration. I observed the initial training and tryout of the new system in a local branch office. I had arranged this with Mary, the office manager, with the approval of the other two participants. The other two participants were Roxanne, who had a half-time administrative position, and who would primarily interact with the new system, and Gary, one of the other branch managers who had attended the train-the-trainer session, and who was now responsible for doing local office training in our region of New Zealand. The emotional climate of the very first part of the training session was calm, patient, and quietly enthusiastic. The calmness came through in their voices and general manner towards each other. I wrote in my field notes: “I notice how incredibly soft spoken all three of them are – voices suited for counseling! Mary in particular has a very soothing, almost motherly quality to her voice.” The enthusiasm and humor was especially apparent in Gary’s and Mary’s demeanor. Mary smiled and moved about quite a bit, and talked quite a bit to me and to the others. Gary was less effusive and very task focused, but he engaged in good natured joking, especially when problems started to mount. Roxanne tended to be quieter and task focused, but she occasionally shared a laugh or cracked a joke. While it was apparent that
Emotion & ICT Implementation, p.5 many things were not working according to plan, the group seemed to take these things in stride. The office is perhaps 4m x 4m (about the size of my office). It houses Mary, Roxanne and Kim (a part-time volunteer helper), with four work spaces in the office, at least four stuffed animals and a live cat! Also, two vases of daffodils. A few snippets from those first few minutes demonstrates the mood. Mary told me that "This manual we should be able to download off the web, e-mail. But we couldn't, so Gary brought his. Our email -- we can send email but can't receive it. Xtra [their ISP] is working on it." Roxanne continued to type in information off the CRF. Gary said "I was going to try all these [configurations] before coming in but couldn't get on. So I thought we'll just work through it together." Mary pointed out to me that there was another computer in the room and said, "We were hoping to have both on-line [but it hasn't worked out]. We should both be able to be seeing the same screen." They finished entering data from one CRF, and decided it was time to print. Mary: "Exciting!" Gary: "It IS exciting." They printed and the page that came out had hardly any information on it. Mary: "That's not what we wanted." Gary: "No". A few minutes later, they were having trouble getting one of the basic functions to work. Gary said: "I don't understand, because we entered in this information but the volunteer’s name isn't showing up." Mary began looking through the manual, did so for five minutes or so. She said, "It actually doesn't say anything about [this problem]." She explained to me, “It would seem that you should be able to enter on the first screen the name of the volunteer assigned to the case. But when we print out the report, it's not showing up.” In the next hour or so, they experienced other technical difficulties, two of which they solved by calling the CEO directly for solutions. Throughout, Mary responded with positive comments and humor, Gary with patience and calm. Roxanne was the most difficult to read, although she laughed along with the others at times and never expressed frustration. Still, the technical problems laid the groundwork for later expressions of frustration. There was clearly a tension between the positive enthusiasm for and patience with the new system, on the one hand, and the frustration resulting from the uncertainty of how the system worked and of whether it would work at all.
Emotion & ICT Implementation, p.6 The tension was apparent sometimes in humorous remarks such as when I asked Mary in early May about the preparations being made for the launch: Ted: What’s going to happen between now and end of june to get this up and running? Mary: Uhh, panic? [Laughter] In a couple cases, frustration was more apparent. Mary: [Dave] also said you can email records to volunteers’ home. Steve's view is it's no different than faxing. Gary: But you can't fax. Mary: Yes, he says you can. Gary: Hmm. Well we need to have clear procedures. Dave needs to tell us. I wouldn’t go around telling people this. Similarly, Roxanne expressed some frustration overtly Gary to Roxanne: Do you realise the there will be dozens of people around the country doing exactly what we're doing? Roxanne: Well, I wish they'd get it right from the start. Mary: Look, it will take years to get it right. But the overriding emotional expressions in these early stages were patience and humor, such as when Gary observed that Roxanne made a mistake: “That's good Roxanne, you make as many mistakes as possible, so when I'm training someone I can say "If you do this, expect this to happen and call Roxanne for the answer!" They both had a laugh. Several observations about these early stages: First, emotional expression is prominent. Second, emotional expression is functional. The positive expression sustains the group through the difficulties experienced. Third, emotion and politics are integrally intertwined in these episodes. Making the system work is in the self-interest of Gary and Mary, both of whom are accountable to the CEO. The CEO’s hands-on involvement indicates the importance he gives to the success of the project. Gary and Mary express enthusiasm, humor, and calm in the face of difficulties because they feel a need to make this system work. The Second Training: Frustration mounts The mood was noticeably different when I observed the 2nd training session two weeks later. Roxanne was working on her own when I arrived. Ted: How's it going? Roxanne: Not so good. It's a bloody time waster, I reckon. Ted: Do you think that will change once you get the hang of it.
Emotion & ICT Implementation, p.7 Roxanne: I've got the hang of it. I could enter about 30 forms an hour before and with this I can enter about 10. Ted: Why is that? Roxanne: Well, you have to move between these screens. Even though Roxanne said she had “the hang of it” it was apparent later in the training session that they all continued to have questions about how the system worked. Later, when the training first started, Mary: This isn't showing up. Roxanne: It's locking up. Mary: Yeah, none of this is showing up down here. It locked up a couple of times yesterday. And this is what scares me. Gary: So, what happens, Roxanne? Roxanne: I've just lost it. I did one, then I did two more, and I've just lost them. Roxanne was noticeably frustrated at this point, shaking her head from side to side. She mumbles and says "It's rubbish!" A few minutes later, she exclaimed, “Oh, I give up. I can't understand this. It's not an easy system.” Interestingly, Gary displayed little reaction at Roxanne’s concerns. He maintained his calm, patient demeanor. Mary also seemed to ignore Roxanne’s comments. For example, during the “not an easy system comment” Mary was working at another computer and announced how long it took to enter a form “That took 3 minutes. Gary, I wonder if you would follow me for just a minute to see if I'm missing anything.” Gary walks over to Mary’s work station to observe her and Roxanne gets up and does the same. While observing, she asks a couple of questions to clarify how the system works. It seems as if Gary’s calm, non-defensive manner, his easy, non-threatening questioning of Roxanne act as a palliative in dealing with Roxanne’s frustration. Even when Roxanne’s frustration is directed at him, he does not react. For example, Gary had prepared a FAQ sheet. Roxanne’s copy of it was on the desk at my work station, and I noticed she had gone through it with a pencil and made some rather pointed criticisms of some of his answers. For example, one of his answers suggested that upper and lower case should be used in entering data. Roxanne’s pencilled in comment was "Matter of opinion only, not factual." This same issue came up in their conversation and the tension was obvious: Gary: I can see why it would be important to put in capital and small letters. Roxanne: Yes, well as far as it looking yuck, that's a matter of opinion. Not fact, opinion. I don't go on opinions, only facts. We've found the system is not case sensitive so it doesn't matter. Gary smiles but doesn't respond. I am two minds about Gary’s handling of Roxanne’s frustration. On the one hand, the functionalist scholar in me admires him as a very effective change agent. I am reminded of Albrecht and Bach’s argument that resistance in change is not something to be
Emotion & ICT Implementation, p.8 suppressed, but to be listened to and learned from. Gary listens and sometimes makes notes regarding Roxanne’s questions and concerns. From my brief experience with this group, I have no doubt he will try to find solutions. I also admire that his easy, nondefensive listening are perhaps facilitating a change in Roxanne’s attitudes. One can’t help being impressed with his apparent caring and self-control. On the other hand, the critical ethnographer in me wonders whether his performance is designed to silence her. That is, ignore her and appear to listen and she’ll get over it. While I don’t know for sure, I suspect there is “truth” in both perspectives. He is trying to make the system work, learn what the problems are, and how to correct them. At the same time, as a trained and very experienced counsellor, he no doubt understands strategic communication tactics that facilitate change in attitudes. As a counsellor, he is, a discourse technologist (Fairclough 1992), skilled in the art of managing others’ emotions. From both functional and critical perspectives, however, we see the important roles that emotion plays in the implementation of ICTs. Functionally, expression of positive emotions, such as joy, laughter, and calm, functions positively to sustain organizational members through the frustration of technologies that do not work as expected and the anxiety of not knowing how to make them work. Expressions of negative emotions, such as anger and frustration, may alert managers to potential problems in the technologies or their implementation and may prompt strategic responses to the problems. The critic can see emotions as indicators of underlying tensions which can be explored and explicated to reach a more complete understanding of the change process and emancipation from taken-for-granted assumptions about the change.
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