| This action-research project addresses the issues affecting information technology development and deployment, in particular web-based applications intended to improve management and working processes to drive employee involvement, information, knowledge sharing, and performance improvement. The issues represented in this study are addressed in the context of IT implementation processes, which, studies show, often fail, are abandoned, delivered late or over budget, or do not deliver the expected business results. This study explores the use of clinical inquiry in an organization to gain better insights of the main individuals driving the introduction of change through IT and their ways of working. Shein (2001) supports clinical inquiry as a means of enhancing the helping process and of creating useful data for concept and theory building. This research approach is particularly suited to IT-related organizational research. “Clinical Inquiry is capable of facilitating the integration of diverse forms of knowledge and expertise for executive management and IT specialists to shape the introduction of IT” (Coghlan & McDonagh, 2001, p. 376).; More specifically, this study provides a discussion of IT specialists, senior leaders, employees and organizational development/change management internal consultants, as individuals interacting across their occupational differences, and cultures, to work together to design and deploy organization development interventions to facilitate the introduction of web-based applications including technology strategy and planning; needs assessment; system design; knowledge transfer and implementation; descriptive case studies revealing different levels of perception about the issues surrounding IT deployment processes; and a basis for development of an IT-s implementation framework.; This dissertation will address the following questions: What organizational development interventions will help organizations bridge the IT learning gap to facilitate the implementation of web-based applications? How can IT and OD form partnerships to enable the development of IT applications?; Based on the data and study results, a theoretical framework and model is proposed that resulted from the clinical inquiry practice and investigating the IT and behavioral phenomenon following an action-research approach of experiencing—reflecting—interpreting—and taking action. |
