Digital Workplace Transformation: Subtraction Logic as Deinstitutionalising the Taken-for-Granted

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

Digital technology enables the transformation of work and workplaces. Previous digital workplace transformation (DWT) literature has shown how organisations add new digital technologies to create new workplace routines. However, such an emphasis on addition may hinder scholarship from recognising that some established workplace technologies and routines must disappear for new ones to emerge. Adopting the concept of deinstitutionalisation, we examine the rationale for and the process of how an organisation abandons workplace routines that conflict with its intended DWT. Referring to this as subtraction logic, we advance two contributions. First, we conceptualise how deinstitutionalisation of established workplace routines and technologies unfolds in DWT by outlining a process model that synthesises addition and subtraction. Second, we highlight the underlying rationales for DWT. With these insights, we shift the gaze from the dominant addition logic, which advocates for appropriating new digital technologies, to the equally important value of subtraction, i.e., removing existing workplace technologies (or inscribed institutional rules) to abandon workplace routines that conflict with the intended DWT. Hence, our study highlights the oft-ignored subtraction logic in DWT.
Original languageEnglish
Article number101757
JournalJournal of Strategic Information Systems
Volume32
Issue number1
Number of pages20
ISSN0963-8687
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.03.2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Author(s)

    Research areas

  • Business informatics - digital transformation, digital workplace transformation, subtraction logic, routines, deinstitutionalisation, ethnography

Press/Media items

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. Portfolio
  2. Biodegradability of some antibiotics, elimination of the genotoxicity and affection of wastewater bacteria in a simple test
  3. Vom Wildwuchs zur Norm
  4. Investigation and Modelling of the Influence of Cooling Rates on the Microstructure of AZ91 Alloys
  5. Linking Prefunding Venture Structure and Venture Capital Exit Performance
  6. Networks of Clusters
  7. Linking stakeholder survey, scenario analysis, and simulation modeling to explore the long-term impacts of regional water governance regimes
  8. Geometrical Accuracy in Two-Stage Incremental Sheet Forming with Active Medium
  9. Land use change and the future of biodiversity
  10. Spatial variation in human disturbances and their effects on forest structure and biodiversity across an Afromontane forest
  11. Long-term drought triggers severe declines in carabid beetles in a temperate forest
  12. Systemic Risks from Different Perspectives
  13. The global distribution of authorship in economics journals
  14. Plastics in our ocean as transdisciplinary challenge
  15. Characterization of selected microalgae and cyanobacteria as sources of compounds with antioxidant capacity
  16. Case study analysis of laser-assisted Low-Cost Automation assembly
  17. Materialitäten der Kindheit
  18. Non-sterile fermentation of food waste with indigenous consortium and yeast – Effects on microbial community and product spectrum
  19. Portraying myth more convincingly
  20. Nestedness in fragmented landscapes: a case study on birds, arboreal marsupials and lizards
  21. Mechanisms behind elevational plant species richness patterns revealed by a trait-based approach
  22. Joseph Heller
  23. When do customers engage with a company?
  24. Sustainable Development as a Challenge for Undergraduate Students: The Module "Science Bears Responsibility" in the Leuphana Bachelor's Programme
  25. Reconsidering adaptation as translation
  26. Robert Walser lieben
  27. The European Commission’s Expert Groups
  28. The politics of expertise and ignorance in the field of migration management
  29. The effectiveness of interventions during and after residence in women’s shelters
  30. Three-dimensional microstructural analysis of Mg-Al-Zn alloys by synchrotron-radiation-based microtomography
  31. Fluidity, Identity, and Organizationality
  32. The mediating role of entrepreneurial orientation in the task-environment-performance relationship
  33. Innovative approaches in mathematical modeling
  34. Ideological Stances in Yoruba Nation Secessionist Discourse in Nigerian Virtual Communities
  35. Building a bridge between school and university
  36. QUANT - Question Answering Benchmark Curator
  37. Students' Time Allocation and School Performance
  38. Sustainable engineering education in research and practice
  39. How health message framing and targets affect distancing during the Covid-19 pandemic
  40. A Social–Ecological Systems Framework as a Tool for Understanding the Effectiveness of Biosphere Reserve Management