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While a key motivation for globally distributed software development (GDSD) is to harness appropriate human capital, ironically, scant attention has been paid to addressing the human resource management issues faced by information technology (IT) professionals involved in this context. One particularly challenging human resource issue is that of work–life conflict (WLC) of the IT professionals involved in GDSD, who routinely experience overlaps and conflicts between their work and personal life domains. While WLC concerns are relevant in almost any contemporary environment, the GDSD context adds several layers of challenges arising from issues such as time differences, requirements instability, and the use of certain systems development methodologies. Recent research indicates that WLC issues go beyond individual concerns and are of strategic importance for talent retention. To develop a deeper understanding of these recognized challenges, we utilize Border Theory as a metatheoretical framework to develop and empirically test a model of organization-related and GDSD-related antecedents of WLC. In addition, we examine the impacts of WLC on job-related outcomes. Our study adopts a mixed-methods design, where an exploratory case along with a review of the literature is used to develop the research model. The model is then tested using a survey of 1,000 GDSD workers in three countries. We believe that our findings are not only of theoretical interest for the information systems discipline but also potentially helpful in improving the working conditions of the GDSD workforce. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2017.0734 .

In this paper, utilizing the often taken-for-granted notions of space and time, we develop an understanding of how collaboration is possible among virtual team-members spread across the globe. We do so by interpretively examining the actual experiences and work practices of virtual team-members located in the US & Norway, engaged in information systems development (ISD) projects. We identify a number of collaboration inhibitors, along with strategies used by team-members to address the challenges posed by the mismatch in time zones and the lack of physical proximity.

The sociotechnical perspective is often seen as one of the foundational viewpoints—or an “axis of cohesion”—for the Information Systems (IS) discipline, contributing to both its distinctiveness and its ability to coherently expand its boundaries. However, our review of papers in the two leading IS journals from 2000 to 2016 suggests that IS research has lost sight of the discipline’s sociotechnical character—a character that was widely acknowledged at the discipline’s inception. This is a problem because an axis of cohesion can be fundamental to a discipline’s long-term vitality. In order to address this issue, we offer ways to renew the sociotechnical perspective so that it can continue to serve as a distinctive and coherent foundation for the discipline. Our hope is that the renewed sociotechnical frame for the IS discipline discussed in the paper holds potential to contribute to the enduring strength of our diverse, distinctive, yet unified discipline. It also prompts members of the discipline to think more deeply about what it means to be an IS scholar.

Agility is increasingly being seen as an essential element underlying the effectiveness of globally distributed information systems development (ISD) teams today. However, for a variety of reasons, such teams are often unable develop and enact agility in dealing with changing situations. This paper seeks to provide a deeper understanding of agility through an intensive study of the distributed ISD experience in TECHCOM, an organization widely recognized for its excellence in IT development and use. The study reveals that agility should be viewed as a multifaceted concept having three dimensions: resource, process, and linkage. Resource agility is based on the distributed development team's access to necessary human and technological resources. Process agility pertains to the agility that originates in the team's systems development method guiding the project, its environmental scanning, and sense-making routines to anticipate possible crises, and its work practices enabling collaboration across time zones. Linkage agility arises from the nature of interactional relationships within the distributed team and with relevant project stakeholders, and is composed of cultural and communicative elements. The paper highlights some of the difficulties in developing agility in distributed ISD settings, provides actionable tactics, and suggests contingencies wherein different facets of agility may become more (or less) critical.

Digital transformation is often described as organizational change that is simultaneously triggered and enabled by digital technologies. As with other types of organizational transformation, overcoming organizational inertia lies at the heart of digital transformation. However, our understanding of the specific processes employed by incumbent firms to overcome organizational inertia in digital transformation is currently limited. In this paper, we draw on the case study of AsiaBank, a large traditional bank in Asia, to explore the microfoundations of how incumbent firms tackle different types of inertia as they embark on a digital transformation journey. We identify four key digital transformation processes—i.e., embracing the consumerization of digital technologies, diffusing and appropriating digital business practices, enabling distributed organizing, and revamping IT architecture—that combine to reduce negative psychology, sociocognitive, sociotechnical, political, and economic inertia in digital transformation. Our findings expand the extant view on the role of agency in overcoming organizational inertia and contribute to the literature at the intersection of digital innovation and transformation.

Practice-/policy-oriented abstract: Understanding why employees do or do not comply with information systems security (ISS) procedures is an imperative in today’s organizations whose futures often depend on how well they protect and harness information assets. We use a predominantly inductive approach to develop a theoretical understanding of how employees’ reasons for engaging to ISS behaviors (ISSBs) change over time, using ideas from dialectics as our scaffolding. Our dialectical view of this process suggests that explanations for engaging in different ISSBs change over time as individuals seek to balance contradictory demands. Furthermore, our view suggests that new experiences and external events initiate a process of reevaluating tensions that can in turn lead to behavioral changes. Based on our observations and interpretation, we conclude that it is beneficial for ISS practitioners not only to be aware of factors that seem to promote compliance with ISSPs, but also to pay attention to the importance of opposing values and pressures, triggers, and ways to resolve the existing tensions related to an individual’s ISSBs. This will likely enable awareness about the dilemmas that individuals confront in ISS-related situations and potentially contribute to the design of better controls and procedures for ensuring compliant ISSBs. The various guidelines, procedures, and policies referred to as information systems security procedures (ISSPs) underlie information systems security behaviors (ISSBs) of many employees in organizations. Understanding the reasons for ISSBs—that is, why employees do or do not comply with ISSPs—is an imperative in today’s organizations, given that information is a valuable asset. In our study, we observed that employees’ reasons for engaging in ISSBs, such as selecting a password, locking a computer, and using a USB memory device, changed over time. Noting that the dynamic nature of ISSBs has not yet received sufficient consideration in information systems security (ISS) research, we use a predominantly inductive approach to develop a theoretical understanding of the ISSB change process, sensitized by ideas from dialectics. Our dialectical process view suggests that explanations for engaging in different ISSBs are not static but change over time as individuals seek to deal with, or balance, tensions or contradictory demands. Furthermore, our view suggests that “change triggers” (e.g., new experiences and external events) initiate a process of reevaluating tensions that can, in turn, lead to changes in ISSBs. A number of implications for future research and practice emerge from this dialectical understanding of the ISSB change process. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2018.0827 .

Improving the state of citizens’ health is an urgent priority in many low and middle income countries (LMICs), and health management information systems (HMIS) are widely seen as valuable tools for pursuing this priority. Yet, the potential of HMIS has been difficult to materialize in the LMIC context since routines and practices that work against effective use of HMIS are often deeply embedded in historical institutions and, consequently, are difficult to change. Using a longitudinal case study of HMIS in Kenya, we investigate the crucial role of identity work as a mechanism that links information technology (IT) affordances to institutions. In particular, our study revealed four types of identity work (disruptive, legitimizing, reinforcing, and transformative) that, through different affordances, led to distinct institutional consequences in terms of either maintaining or deinstitutionalizing existing dysfunctional HMIS-related routines and practices. We demonstrate the importance of context for theorizing the societal and development impact of IT and the role of IT materiality in influencing deinstitutionalization.

Big data has received considerable attention from the information systems (IS) discipline over the past few years, with several recent commentaries, editorials, and special issue introductions on the topic appearing in leading IS outlets. These papers present varying perspectives on promising big data research topics and highlight some of the challenges that big data poses. In this editorial, we synthesize and contribute further to this discourse. We offer a first step toward an inclusive big data research agenda for IS by focusing on the interplay between big data's characteristics, the information value chain encompassing people-process-technology, and the three dominant IS research traditions (behavioral, design, and economics of IS). We view big data as a disruption to the value chain that has widespread impacts, which include but are not limited to changing the way academics conduct scholarly work. Importantly, we critically discuss the opportunities and challenges for behavioral, design science, and economics of IS research and the emerging implications for theory and methodology arising due to big data's disruptive effects.

The importance of communication and trust in the context of global virtual teams has been noted and reiterated in the information systems (IS) literature. Yet precisely how communication and trust influence certain outcomes within virtual teams remains unresolved. In this study, we seek to contribute some clarity to the understanding of the theoretical linkages among trust, communication, and member performance in virtual teams. To this end, we identify and test three proposed models (additive, interaction, and mediation) describing the role of trust in its relationship with communication to explain performance. In testing the relationships, we note that the concepts of communication and trust are inherently relational and not properties of individuals. Thus, we argue that a social network approach is potentially more appropriate than attribute-based approaches that have been utilized in prior research. Our results indicate that the \"mediating\" model best explains how communication and trust work together to influence performance. Overall, the study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on virtual teams by empirically reconciling conflicting views regarding the interrelationships between key constructs in the literature. Further, the study, through its adoption of the social network analysis approach, provides awareness within the IS research community of the strengths of applying network approaches in examining new organizational forms.