IT Sensemaking and Internal Partnering: Field Notes on Barriers

摘要

Internal partnering in the introduction of new information technologies presumes a coordination and accommodation among the efforts of heterogeneous participants to interpret, or make sense of, such technologies as organizational opportunities. Field data, however, suggest that prospective adoter organizations commonly face a number of obdurate barriers to coordinated sensemaking. The IS executive and his/her function may be ill-prepared to engage with business problems and may suffer crucial conflicts of affiliation. Users may lack knowledge essential for playing a serious role in envisioning the potential applications for information technology, and practical opportunities for their sensemaking may be procedurally unsupported. Finally, senior management may fall short in vital leadership.