The influence of organisational culture and organisational control on the diffusion of a ...

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The influence of
organisational culture and
organisational control on the
diffusion of a management
information system
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• A Doctoral Thesis. Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements
for the award of Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University.
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The Influence of Organisational Culture and Organisational Control on the Diffusion of
a Management Information System

by

Mumin Adetunji Abubakre

A Doctoral Thesis
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the award of
Doctor of Philosophy of Loughborough University

May 2013

© by Mumin Adetunji Abubakre, 2013
i
Acknowledgements

First of all I would like to thank the Almighty God for giving me the fortitude to complete
this thesis.

I shall be ever grateful to my supervisors, Dr Crispin Coombs and Dr M.N. Ravishankar for
their invaluable support and guidance throughout the PhD process. Also for their continuous
guidance, in showing me the ropes on how to master the “art of storytelling’. I am indebted to
my previous supervisor, Prof Chanaka Jayawardhena for providing the early conceptual focus
to my thesis.

Gratitude goes to my internal panel member, Prof Barry Howcroft for his encouraging words
and the confidence instilled in me during the course of my PhD. Gratitude also goes to Prof
Amon Chizema, and Dr Sara Bosley for their encouraging words and support. I am also
grateful to the support shown by staff and fellow research students in the School of Business
and Economics.

I am ever grateful to Professor Sue Newell for reading an earlier draft and providing me with
contributory feedback. I would also like to thank the case study company and all the staff for
providing me with unprecedented access to undertake my research.

Big thanks go to my family members for their prayers, support and encouragement. Indeed
my father, Prof Razaq Abubakre for his paternal and professional advice, who was both
patient and impatient during the thesis completion. Finally, special thanks to Zainab, for her
love, patience and for always providing a listening ear to my jargon during the PhD process.
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Thesis Contributions in Refereed Conferences:

Three papers were accepted and presented at peer review conferences and doctoral
consortiums before the submission of the thesis:

Abubakre, M., Coombs, C. and M. N. Ravishankar. (2012) The role of subcultures in
understanding the diffusion process of a management information system, In The
European Conference on Information Systems 2012 (poster session), Esade Business
School, Barcelona

Abubakre, M., Coombs, C. and Jayawardhena, C. (2011) Information system diffusion in
organizations – an organizational sub-culture perspective, in The Proceedings of
European Conference on Information Systems 2011, ECIS 2011, Aalto University
School of Economics, Helsinki [CD-ROM].

Abubakre, M., Coombs, C. and Jayawardhena, C. (2011) Information system diffusion in
organizations – a control mechanism perspective, In The Proceedings of European and
Mediterranean Conference on Information Systems 2011, EMCIS 2011, Athens, Greece
[CD-ROM].

Also, a paper was accepted and presented at EJIS Author Development Workshop at European
Conference on Information Systems 2012:

Abubakre, M., Coombs, C. and M. N. Ravishankar. (2012) Behave for IS Diffusion? A
Control Theory Perspective.
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ABSTRACT
The aim of this thesis is to provide an original interpretative understanding of the role of
organisational culture and organisational control on the diffusion of a Management
Information Systems (MIS). An extensive literature review has revealed a lack of synthesis
between organisational culture and organisational control in the understanding of diffusion
of an MIS. The literature review was two-fold: firstly, to examine the impact of
organisational culture on IS diffusion and, secondly, to examine the impact of organisational
control on IS diffusion. The first stage of the review revealed that there are a number of
studies on IS diffusion in relation to culture at the organisational level but a relatively fewer
studies at the sub-organisational or subcultural level. The second stage of the review
highlights that there is also a significant number of studies that have applied the control
concept to investigating phenomena related to IS diffusion, e.g. IT adoptions and IT
implementations, but very few have explicitly applied the control concept to IT
implementations outcomes, i.e. IT diffusion. The review also suggested that there is scarce
empirical research on IS diffusion from the twin perspectives of culture and control.

Using an interpretive case study approach, this thesis was able to collect rich data,
underpinned by Martin’s (1992) conceptualisation of organisational culture, i.e. integration
and differentiation, and Kirsch's (1997) and Ouchi's (1979) conceptualisation of
organisational controls. These conceptualisations served as interpretive lenses to unearth the
dynamic relationship of the application of formal controls on diverging subcultures during
staff interactions and use of an MIS during the adaptation, acceptance and routinization
stages of Cooper and Zmud's (1990) IT Implementation Model.

The thesis' results highlight a number of contributions to knowledge. Firstly, a contribution is
made in the area of IS diffusion research by proposing a conceptual model for IS diffusion.
The model offers explanations on how IS diffusion could be achieved despite the existence of
diverging subcultures when formal control mechanisms are applied, an implication that
suggests that the IS diffusion path may not be smooth and linear but an iterative process.
Secondly, a contribution is made in the area of organisational culture and organisational
control theories. This thesis' results indicate that during the implementation of an MIS, staff-
espoused cultural values changed, highlighting that the culture may not be always stable, and
difficult to change. The thesis helps re-conceptualise the existing typology on outcome
control by indicating that outcome control, which is conceptualised as deliberate and forceful
in nature, could also, unlike behaviour control, be exercised in measures that do not need to
coerce or be forceful. Further, the thesis highlights that sanctions rather than rewards were
more effective in the application of controls during the diffusion attempts of an IS. Finally,
the research contributes to knowledge in the area of practice. This study provides insights on
how managers may apply organisational controls to align diverging subgroup members'
actions towards integrative behaviours during an IS implementation process, therefore
facilitating the attainment of successful IS diffusion.

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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... ii
Thesis Contributions in Refereed Conferences: ................................................................ iii
ABSTRACT…. .................................................................................................................... iv
List of Figures ................................................................................................................ viii
List of Tables ................................................................................................................... ix
Chapter 1 Introduction .................................................................................................. 1
1.1 Background to the Research Problem .............................................................................. 1
1.2 Research Focus ............................................................................................................... 2
1.2.1 IS Diffusion ......................................................................................................................... 3
1.2.2 IS Diffusion and Organisational Culture ............................................................................. 5
1.2.3 IS Diffusion and Control ...................................................................................................... 6
1.3 Research Aim .................................................................................................................. 9
1.4 Research Questions ......................................................................................................... 9
1.5 Significance of the study................................................................................................ 10
1.6 Contributions of Thesis.................................................................................................. 11
1.6.1 Implications for Theory..................................................................................................... 11
1.6.2 Implications for Practice .................................................................................................. 12
1.7 Research Context .......................................................................................................... 13
1.8 Research Methodology ................................................................................................. 14
1.9 Structure of Thesis ........................................................................................................ 14
Chapter 2 Literature Review....................................................................................... 17
2.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 17
2.2 IS Diffusion ................................................................................................................... 17
2.2.1 Models and Frameworks of organisational diffusion of IT .............................................. 18
2.2.2 Critique of existing research on organisational diffusion of IT ........................................ 27
2.3 Organisational Culture .................................................................................................. 30
2.3.1 The Functionalist Paradigm of Organisational Culture .................................................... 30
2.3.2 The Interpretivist Paradigm of Organisational Culture .................................................... 32
2.4 Culture and IS Diffusion ................................................................................................. 41
2.4.1 Organisational Culture and IS Diffusion ........................................................................... 41
2.4.2 Subculture and IS Diffusion .............................................................................................. 45
2.4.3 Actor-Network Theory ......................................................................................................... 51
2.5 Organisational Controls and IS Diffusion ........................................................................ 53
2.5.1 Formal Control Modes and Mechanisms ......................................................................... 55
2.5.2 Informal Control Modes and Mechanisms ....................................................................... 58
2.5.3 Role of Rewards and Sanctions in Control ....................................................................... 61
2.6 Research Gaps and Conceptual Framework ................................................................... 62
2.7 Summary of Literature Review and Gaps in Literature ..................................................... 65
Chapter 3 Research Methodology ............................................................................... 67
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3.1 Introduction .................................................................................................................. 67
3.2 Philosophical Perspectives ............................................................................................ 67
3.2.1 Positivist Research ............................................................................................................ 68
3.2.2 Interpretive Research ....................................................................................................... 69
3.2.3 Critical Research ............................................................................................................... 71
3.2.4 Scientific Realism Research .............................................................................................. 72
3.3 The Qualitative Research Methods ................................................................................ 73
3.3.1 Case Study Research ......................................................................................................... 74
3.3.2 Action Research ................................................................................................................ 75
3.3.3 Ethnography ..................................................................................................................... 76
3.3.4 Grounded Theory ............................................................................................................. 76
3.4 Research Design and Methods ....................................................................................... 77
3.4.1 Site Selection .................................................................................................................... 81
3.4.2 MIS selection .................................................................................................................... 85
3.4.3 Overview of MAXIM ......................................................................................................... 87
3.4.4 Case Access and Data Collection ...................................................................................... 88
3.5 Data Analysis ................................................................................................................ 93
3.5.1 Data Reduction ................................................................................................................. 94
3.5.2 Data Display ...................................................................................................................... 99
3.5.3 Conclusions Drawing and Verification ............................................................................ 100
3.6 Ethical Issues .............................................................................................................. 101
Chapter 4 Diffusion of an MIS from an Organisational Culture Perspective ............... 103
4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 103
4.2 History of the MAXIM project .................................................................................. 103
4.3 Organisational culture perspective and MAXIM diffusion ..................................... 106
4.3.1 Integration perspective of organisational culture at Liga bank ..................................... 107
4.3.2 Integration perspective of organisational culture and diffusion of MAXIM MIS ........... 112
4.3.3 Differentiation perspective of organisational culture at Liga bank................................ 121
4.3.4 Differentiation perspective of organisational culture and diffusion of MAXIM MIS ..... 126
4.4 Summary .................................................................................................................... 136
Chapter 5 Diffusion of an MIS from an Organisational Control Perspective ............... 140
5.1 Introduction .............................................................................................................. 140
5.2 Formal control mechanisms applied during MAXIM diffusion.............................. 141
5.2.1 Adaptation ...................................................................................................................... 142
5.2.2 Acceptance ..................................................................................................................... 143
5.2.3 Routinization .................................................................................................................. 145
5.3 Application of behavioural controls in the MAXIM MIS project ............................ 146
5.4 Application of outcome controls in the MAXIM MIS project .................................. 150
5.5 Impact of formal controls on the MIS diffusion ...................................................... 158
5.6 Summary ................................................................................................................... 160
Chapter 6 Discussions of Results .............................................................................. 162
6.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................ 162
vi
6.2 The Theory-Fieldwork Interaction ............................................................................... 163
6.3 On How MAXIM Diffusion was unsuccessful during the period August 2008 to December
2010 – Organisational Culture Perspective. ........................................................................... 163
6.3.1 Adaptation stage ............................................................................................................ 163
6.3.2 Acceptance Stage ........................................................................................................... 166
6.3.3 Routinization Stage ........................................................................................................ 168
6.4 Implication of MAXIM Diffusion on Liga Bank’s Organisation Culture............................ 169
6.5 On how successful MAXIM Diffusion was achieved during the period January 2011 to June
2011 – Control Perspective ................................................................................................... 173
6.5.1 Re-Adaptation Stage ....................................................................................................... 173
6.5.2 Re-Acceptance Stage ...................................................................................................... 178
6.5.3 Re-Routinization ............................................................................................................. 180
6.6 On why the applications of Organisational Controls were effective for successful Diffusion
of MAXIM ............................................................................................................................ 186
6.6.1 Reward – Sanction System ............................................................................................. 186
6.7 On how Behaviour and Outcome controls were deployed during MAXIM Diffusion ...... 190
Chapter 7 Conclusions ............................................................................................. 195
7.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 195
7.2 Thesis Contributions - Fieldwork informing theory .............................................. 198
7.2.1 Implications for Theory ................................................................................................. 198
7.2.2 Implications for Practice ................................................................................................. 207
7.3 Limitations and Future Research ............................................................................... 210
7.4 Concluding Remarks ................................................................................................ 213
References… ................................................................................................................. 215
Appendices.. ................................................................................................................ 244
Appendix 1: Interviews conducted at Liga Bank ..................................................................... 244
Appendix 2: Interview Guide ............................................................................................ 247
Appendix 3: Coding Tree – IS Diffusion and Organisational Culture ............................. 250
Appendix 4: Coding Tree – IS Diffusion and Subcultures ............................................... 251
Appendix 5: Coding Tree – IS Diffusion and Organisational Control ............................. 252
Appendix 6: Conditions and Guarantees for PhD Research ........................................... 253

vii
List of Figures

Figure 1-1: Overview of Thesis Structure .............................................................................. 16
Figure 2-1: (Cooper and Zmud, 1990) IT Implementation Model ......................................... 25
Figure 2-2: Proposed Conceptual framework ......................................................................... 65
Figure 7-1: Revised Conceptual Model – Non-Linear IS Diffusion Process ....................... 205

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