How does organizational culture affect the implementation of a new information system?

 IMO and IME

1. First, culture is a set of shared VABEs. VABEs can be conscious or semi- or unconscious.

What are VABEs?

VABEs are Values, Assumptions, Beliefs, and Expectations about the way the world IS or SHOULD BE.  VABEs for short.  We all have hundreds ...

http://jajisee.blogspot.com/2020/03/what-are-vabes.html

2. I know of one organization that had operations worldwide and was trying to implement a new IT system. In one region, the implementation was being resisted with energy. The underlying VABEs might have included “Those foreign owners can’t tell us how to do things” and/or “I’m too old to learn this new-fangled computer stuff” and/or “we have a way that works just fine for us, so why should we change just because they want to?”

3. Successful change efforts (I’ve been involved in several) usually make it clear a) what’s the benefit of the new way over the old way, b) the steps we’ll take to get there (8 if you like Kotter, 7 if ExperiencePoint, 4 at USAA, 5 at GE, and there are many other models outlined in my books and on my website), c) how your individual efforts in this regard will help you and the company.

4. Other resistant VABEs would include “these computer systems come and go, let’s stick with what’s working.” “It takes too long to put data into the system.” “The test screens they show me don’t do what I need them to do.” “The world is becoming too impersonal and digitized.” “I might lose my job.” “If it isn’t broken, why fix it?” “This will reduce our F2F interactions and that’s bad.”

5. I wrote a case series about a large organization that was trying to implement a new information system. They didn’t know how many employees they had and they were paying invoices out of an alphabetized shoebox (I kid you not). The cultural resistance to implementing the new system was so intense they decided to outsource the IT department and let ‘professionals’ manage it. (Chicago Park District A-D)

6. One sees the challenges you are referring to in restaurants, doctor’s offices, and virtually any telephone interaction with a business. The menus, screens, linkages, personal health portals, telephone systems, scientific organizations (who need to document insights) etc. are proliferating and the aging population often finds these annoying, inconvenient, ineffective, bewildering and time consuming.

7. A wise IT change effort has IMO carefully observed and documented the processes that employees have been using and consulted with them (focus groups eg) on what they think would make things better. Rather than designing in a room somewhere without deeply understanding the processes and the VABEs that the employees have who are using those processes.

8. The COVID pandemic as exacerbated this issue no doubt, the burgeoning of distance work/learning, Zoom/Skype meetings, and the need to use more technology to ‘keep in touch.’ How many / what proportion of people are tired of Zoom meetings and would prefer to meet the old-fashioned way?

9. Remember that executives make design decisions and then put people into those designs and that collision produces an emerging culture which in turn produces results. Bad designs/systems can produce counter-intended results. Any group of employees who’ve experienced this will likely be skeptical of new IT systems. “Here we go again!”