Capturing the Complexity in Advanced Technology Use: Adaptive Structuration Theory

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Capturing the Complexity in Advanced Technology
Use Adaptive Structuration Theory

• Geraldine DeSanctis and Marshall Scott Poole
• Organization Science, Vol. 5, No 2 (May, 1994),
  121-147.

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Key Questions in Technology Adoption

• Authors postulate that technology adoption is
  often different in reality than what was planned
  or anticipated.
• When new systems are adopted, what changes do
  they actually bring to the workplace?
• What technology impacts should we anticipate and
  how can we interpret the changes we observe?

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Proposed Evaluation Tool

• Adaptive Structuration Theory
• Designed as a framework for studying variations
  in organization change that occur as advanced
  technologies are used (122)
• Essentially measures the human component of
  technology adoption and helps determine the role
  of human interaction with new technologies

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Methodology

• Authors use AST to evaluate a group decision
  support system (GDSS)
• The GDSS consists of a terminal and specialized
  software to help aggregate, sort and manage group
  meeting information

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AST Background

• Decision-making school
• Emphasizes cognitive processes
• Belief that an individual will adopt a new
  technology if it serves to improve their
  productivity, efficiency and satisfaction
• Basic notion is that technological change is good
  and that failure to achieve results is connected
  with faulty implementation or delivery of the
  technology

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Decision-making School and GDSS

• Researchers generally find that groups utilizing
  some form of GDSS yield more desirable outcomes
  than groups in other conditions (123)
• No consensus has been reached as to exactly what
  technologies and behaviors are beneficial within
  the GDSS, however

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AST Background

• Institutional school
• The study of technology as an opportunity for
  change rather than as a causal agent for change
  (124)
• Change occurs as a result of social evolution
  rather than as a result of technological
  innovation
• As new technology is introduced, the social order
  adapts to maintain itself and reorganized around
  the meaning of the technology

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Institutional School and GDSS

• Studies focusing exclusively on GDSS are sparse
  although considerable interest exists regarding
  technology and social processes
• Institutional school downplays importance of
  technology and promotes social interaction

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Social Technology An Integrated Viewpoint

• The view that technology has structures in its
  own right but that social practices moderate
  their effects on behavior (125)
• In essence, the social technology school equates
  the importance of technological innovation and
  social evolution within an organization

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Advanced Information Technologies as Social
Structures

• Structural features
• Elements of social structure reinforced by the
  construction of the technology
• Provisions for a group leader or for anonymous
  contributions to the GDSS data bank
• If technology is restrictive, users have less
  choice in their possible actions and vice-versa

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Advanced Information Technologies as Social
Structures

• Spirit of advanced information technologies
• The general intent with regard to values and
  goals underlying a given set of structural
  features (126)
• How do users interpret the intent of the
  technology designers when using the system?
• Structural elements and spirit combined provide
  the structural potential of groups using GDSS

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Additional Structural Elements

• The constraints and limitations of the given task
• The organizational environment
• The alternatives available to a group presented
  with a specific GDSS

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GDSS in Action

• Structuration
• The act of bringing the rules and resources from
  an advanced information technology or other
  structural source into action (128)
• To capture structuration process, isolate the
  groups use of a single technology-based rule or
  resource at a particular point in time within a
  specific context this is appropriation

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Appropriation and Decision-making Process

• Groups may appropriate structural features in
  different ways
• Direct use of structures
• Relate structures to other structures
• Constrain or interpret structures as theyre used
• Judge the structures
• Groups may appropriate structures faithfully or
  unfaithfully

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Appropriation and Decision-making Process

• Group members may appropriate structures for
  instrumental purposes, such as increasing
  personal power
• The groups attitude while appropriating
  structures may determine the extent to which the
  structure is used within the group

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GDSS Appropriation Factors

• The nature of AIT appropriations will vary
  depending on the groups internal system and
  dynamic (131)
• In order to achieve the desired aims of the AIT,
  the appropriation and decision processes must fit
  the task at hand

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Major Constructs and Propositions of AST
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Diachronic Analysis

• Analyze each group individually
• Clearly elucidate structural features and spirit
• Conduct an appropriation analysis

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Diachronic Analysis
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Diachronic Analysis

• Steps to follow are listed on p. 138-139
• Based upon observations and analysis, decision
  processes and decision outcomes may be determined
• Groups adopting the same AIT may then be compared
  and the group with more desirable outcomes may be
  identified

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Problems with AST

• Meanings of actions are difficult to determine
  and quantify
• Scheme is interpretive and subjective and may be
  overcomplicated by the researcher
• Any model espousing reductionism is naturally
  suspect when applied to human behavior

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Conclusions

• AST facilitates between-group analysis which is
  valuable in determining the role of a specific
  technology in a group setting
• Although AST gives technology the necessary
  weight as a change motivator, social processes
  are equally important and accounted for within
  the model

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Future Directions of Study

• Further development of the theory and measurement
  approaches presented
• Test the explanatory and predictive power of
  AST (144)
• Examine how micro, global and institutional
  levels are linked