Managing IT architecture complexity is crucial for organisations striving for efficiency, flexibility, and agility. This paper examines modularisation as a strategy to address IT architecture complexity through a case study at a European bank. We explore three key design choices in modularisation: level of granularity, standardisation of interfaces, and unification of data, and their impacts on structural, dynamic, and subjective complexity. Our findings reveal that these design choices involve trade-offs, where optimising one dimension may exacerbate another. Our findings lead to a conceptualisation of the relationship between modularisation and complexity as one in which design choices set in motion patterns of shifts within, and interactions between, different forms of complexity. Thus, this study provides a nuanced understanding of how modularisation influences IT architecture complexity, offering valuable insights for organisations seeking to manage complexity effectively. By unpacking the shifts and interactions shaping complexity, we contribute to the literature on IT architecture complexity and modularisation, highlighting the importance of a multi-level perspective in understanding the consequences of modularisation design choices.

In this paper, we provide a detailed insight into the complex coevolution dynamics that shape the alignment process by analyzing how different mechanisms and factors are mutually related in complex networks of feedback loops. We combine insights from the literature on alignment as a (coevolution) process with literature on alignment as a state to identify the different components of the organization’s socio-technical system that influence alignment, the relationships between these components, and the role that different factors play. In our empirical analysis (based multiple case studies) we then focus on the actual interplay between relevant factors. Using a causal loop diagramming approach - based on system dynamics – we analyze how these factors mutually influence each other through various feedback loops and thus shape the alignment process. We extend previous literature on the alignment process by identifying the way that the complex interplay between different factors shapes this process. By identifying the feedback loops between relevant factors, we also provide more insight into the complex bottom-up and top-down dynamics that shape the process, and that provide explanations for why this process is characterized by transitions between alignment and misalignment. For practice, our paper provides a deeper understanding of the alignment process, which is a precondition for improving alignment practices in organisations.

High-reliability organizations (HROs) and their complex operating models have been a focus of scholarly work for more than three decades. Recently, HROs have been challenged by new market pressures that require them to digitally transform in ways that affect their identity and value creation models while still maintaining high levels of security and efficiency. This longitudinal, in-depth single-case study of a major European utility company examines the role of HRO identity in digital transformation (DT), specifically in terms of tensions between innovation and transformation on the one hand, and maintaining reliable operations on the other. Our findings show how tensions between HROs’ identity and key features of DT give rise to threat perceptions and self-protective behaviors by the IT workforce, that eventually may derail the transformation process. We develop a process model that highlights the sources and consequences of identity misalignment during major DT initiatives in HROs. In doing so, we extend the research on D T by highlighting the importance of bottom-up processes for DT success and failure, especially concerning the IT function's perception of organizational identity.

In this paper, we investigate how the use of mobile technologies contributes to the emergence of a complementary control system, in which both employee autonomy and management control are enhanced. We apply an affordance lens to understand the affordances (and constraints) for complementary control that emerge in the use of mobile technologies by both employees and managers. Based on a qualitative case study of the implementation and use of a mobile Sales Force Automation tool at a multinational company, we identify three informational affordances for control and analyse how these were actualised to enhance both management control and employee autonomy. Our study contributes to extant literature on the relation between mobile technologies and autonomy and control by showing the central role of mobile technologies’ affordances in redistributing informational demands and benefits of control in the interaction between managers, employees, and mobile devices.

Previous studies have not fully investigated the role of source accessibility versus source quality in the selection of information sources. It remains unclear what their (relative) importance is. Three different models have been identified: (a) an exclusively accessibility‐driven model, (b) a cost‐benefit model in which both accessibility and quality are significant influences, and (c) an exclusively quality‐driven model. Moreover, the conditions under which accessibility and quality are important are not well understood. The goal of our study is to shed more light on both issues by assessing the role of different dimensions of accessibility and quality and how their importance is affected by time pressure. We conducted a policy‐capturing study in which 89 financial specialists participated. Each judged 20 scenarios in which the accessibility and quality of human information sources, as well as time pressure, were manipulated. Results showed that both accessibility and quality affect the likelihood of asking a human information source for information. Moreover, although the weights attached to physical accessibility and the source's perceived technical quality were indeed moderated by time pressure, in both conditions we find support for a cost‐benefit model of information seeking, in which both accessibility and quality are significant influences.

A common collaboration structure in global software development (GSD) is clustering, wherein people tend to be closer to others with whom they share common characteristics. Clusters often create barriers in communication, coordination and expertise awareness between remote teams, restraining the development of transactive memory (TM). In order to overcome such barriers, the role of brokers has emerged. In this paper, we examine the role of brokers as facilitators in the development of transactive memory. We use social network theory to analyze the collaboration of an EU-funded project, where development teams come from different partners and different locations. Our results suggest that task-based clusters emerge and that project members who coordinate activities as well as those who contribute to the code development act as brokers. Our empirical evaluation shows that clustering has a negative effect on TM and that brokers can moderate that effect.

In the past few years, software engineering researchers have adopted social network analysis techniques to understand collaboration patterns in global software teams. In this paper, we investigate current research in global software development where social network theory is used as an analysis technique. We do so through a systematic literature review where we collect and analyze previous work that adopt a social network perspective in distributed software development. We use the 3C collaboration model to classify our results based on the communication, coordination and cooperation aspects of global networks. Our results reveal two main coordination structures used in distributed teams, namely the clustering and the core-periphery structure. The analysis of the cooperation activities of the global networks reveal differences between planning and practice. Finally, several tools have been identified that aim to improve communication patterns among distributed team members.

Software Development Governance (SDG) is an emerging field of research, under the umbrella of information technology governance. SDG challenges increase when software development activities are distributed across multiple locations. Coordination of knowledge management processes requires specific attention in multi-site development. This paper outlines a multi-site software governance structure, based on three aspects: the business strategy that binds the relationship of the remote offices, the structure and composition of the remote teams and the way tasks are allocated across sites. Knowledge management processes (including knowledge creation, knowledge transfer and communication) are identified and the influence of different governance structures on these processes is discussed. We do so through a case study at Océ, a multi-national company in printing systems.

In this paper, a social capital perspective is applied to the relationship between the IT department and the Business organization. IT and Business are conceptualized as different occupational communities, with different understandings of their work. Our focus is on the level of social capital and the process of knowledge sharing between these occupational communities. We analyze the role that these factors play in reaching a mutual understanding within the process of IS development, and the influence this has on the perceived performance of the IT organization. Our study, combining qualitative and quantitative methods, points out that a lack of social capital (structural, relational as well as cognitive) can serve as an explanation for the often problematic relationship between these communities. Our analyses also show that social capital is especially relevant for the Business organization's perception of IT performance, whereas the IT department's perception is that performance is primarily dependent on the exchange of information.

This paper explores the process of adoption, use and effects of an ICT application (electronic mail) in an organization. This process is considered to be a learning process, in which users, over time, learn to use email to a greater extent, for a broader range of tasks, and more effectively. The results of a longitudinal case study are described. In four time periods (1993, 1995, 1997 and 2000), random samples of users were surveyed with regard to their use of email and its effects. This produced a unique dataset. The longitudinal character of this case study provided an excellent opportunity to follow the learning process through time, and analyse the influence of different variables on the course of this process. MANOVAs show empirical support for the 'learning process', manifested in changes in extent, ways and effectiveness of email use. The analysis indicates that technological innnovation could be an important influence on the course of this learning process.