Implementation og Web-based Information Systems in Distributed Organizations: A Change Management Approach

This article presents results elicited from studies conducted in relation to implementing a web-based information system throughout a large distributed organization. We demonstrate the kind of expectations and conditions for change that management face in relation to open-ended, configurable, and context specific web-based information systems like Lotus QuickPlace. Our synthesis from the empirical findings is related to two recent models, the improvisational change management model suggested by Orlikowski and Hofman (1997), and Gallivan’s (2001) model for organizational adoption and assimilation. In line with comparable approaches from the knowledge management area (Dixon 2000; Markus 2001), we relate to, refine, and operationalize the models from an overall organizational view by identifying and characterizing four different and general implementation contexts.