The customer is always right, but whose customer is more important? Conflict and Web site classification schemes

摘要

This paper takes a social shaping of technology approach to identify and explain sources of conflict in the design or enhancement of corporate Web sites. Data from a multi-case field study show how Web site classification schemes embedded in Web site design elements created intra-organizational conflicts because the schemes could not equally accommodate different sub-units' customer requirements. Interview data demonstrate Web managers' perceptions that Web classification schemes privileged certain sets of customer needs, and Web managers' actions to shape the design of classification schemes to satisfy their perceived customer needs. Data analysis identified three design elements of Web sites associated with sub-unit conflict: classification categories, templates and tool bars, and database entities and attributes.