Digital Workplace Transformation: Subtraction Logic as Deinstitutionalising the Taken-for-Granted
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In: Journal of Strategic Information Systems, Vol. 32, No. 1, 101757, 01.03.2023.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Digital Workplace Transformation
T2 - Subtraction Logic as Deinstitutionalising the Taken-for-Granted
AU - Zimmer, Markus Philipp
AU - Baiyere, Abayomi
AU - Salmela, Hannu
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s)
PY - 2023/3/1
Y1 - 2023/3/1
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - Business informatics
KW - digital transformation
KW - digital workplace transformation
KW - subtraction logic
KW - routines
KW - deinstitutionalisation
KW - ethnography
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85150438194&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/96d9f079-2e16-3fe4-9ff3-1d1cd8909993/
U2 - 10.1016/j.jsis.2023.101757
DO - 10.1016/j.jsis.2023.101757
M3 - Journal articles
VL - 32
JO - Journal of Strategic Information Systems
JF - Journal of Strategic Information Systems
SN - 0963-8687
IS - 1
M1 - 101757
ER -