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Enterprise systems (ES) are widespread in current organizations, and seen as integrating organizational procedures across functional divisions. An enterprise system (also known as enterprise resource planning – ERP system), once installed, seems to enable or constrain certain actions by managers and users, which have an impact on organizational operations. Those actions may result in increased organizational control, or may lead to organizational drift. The processes that give rise to such outcomes are investigated in this paper, which is based on a field study of five companies. By drawing on the theoretical concepts of human and machine agencies, as well as the embedding and disembedding of managerial and user actions in the system, this paper agues that control and drift arising from the use of an enterprise system are outcomes of the processes of embedding and disembedding human actions, which are afforded (enabled or constrained) by the enterprise system.

This article provides a critical assessment of the potential of participant observation as an interpretive data-gathering method for management information systems (MIS) research by drawing on a participant observation study of Executive Information Systems development. It identifies a range of issues with respect to participant observation in MIS research that may also be an integral part of reflective research practice for any field researcher.

This paper describes the findings of a field study that explores the process of information systems (IS) development in a large organization. The paper argues that traditional IS development methodologies are treated primarily as a necessary fiction to present an image of control or to provide a symbolic status, and are too mechanistic to be of much use in the detailed, day‐to‐day organization of systems developers' activities. By drawing on the insights gained from this study, the paper outlines some implications for IS development methodologies. A secondary purpose of the paper is to illustrate the use of an "ecological" research approach to IS development as advocated by Shneiderman and Carroll.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to report the findings of an in‐depth case study into virtual teamworking practices in a large petro‐chemical company.Design/methodology/approachBy drawing on the case study the paper offers a theoretical conceptualization of the development of commitment and personal trust relationships in a virtual teamworking context.FindingsThe paper argues that the durability of virtual teamworking depends largely on commitment and personal trust relationships, which may gradually dissipate over time without collocated, face‐to‐face social interactions. The virtual teamworking technologies alone may have limited scope in contributing to reproduction and reinforcement of commitment and personal trust relationships.Research limitations/implicationsThis research is based on an investigation in one organization that used a set of virtual teamworking technologies, which have been constantly improving in terms of capabilities and usability. In a business context investigated in this paper, the team working was not continuous, and the level and the range of activities varied over time. Future research should seek to explore whether personal and abstract trust can develop through continued online interaction.Practical implicationsFindings indicate that virtual teams should seek to manage expectations of the use of such technologies in their interactions. Human relationships, rather than technologies are therefore important for nurturing both personal and impersonal trust relationships, which is vital for durable virtual teams.Originality/valueThis paper argues that the long‐term virtual teamworking without face‐to‐face social interactions leads to a gradual dissipation of personal trust relationships, and subsequently loss of impersonal trust relations.

This article analyses the agreed and discrepant sensemaking of members of a project team. Embedded in a narratological approach to sensemaking research, we argue that before scholars may be able to understand in detail how agreements are reached and action becomes coordinated, we need first to take seriously the proposition that sensemaking occurs in the context of individuals' idiosyncratic efforts at identity construction. This, we suggest, means attending to the narratives that actors tell about their work and self both for others and their selves. The key research contribution that we make is to demonstrate how work on `impression management' and `attributional egotism' may be employed in order to account for discrepant sensemaking. This is important in the context of a literature that has left relatively unexplored the reasons why people interpret differently experiences they have in common.