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Lee, Heejin

heejin@unimelb.edu.au

Temporal Implications of Information Systems in Organisational Work: an exploratory study

(1997)

Time is generally considered taken-for-granted and natural. This research begins with the proposition that time is social and cultural. As such, time may interact with, and be affected by, anything that makes up the social world. Information technologies have become an essential part of social world. Therefore time is affected by information technologies in organisations.

This research investigates how information technologies, here electronic data interchange (EDI) technology, affect temporal orders in organisational work in trading companies in Korea. It conducted case studies of three companies using Korea Trade Network (KTNET) and analysed the way information technologies have affected their working processes in terms of time. Although they have sped up the flow of work process and thereby allowed us to save time, we do not know what happens other than the speeding-up and the time-saving. This research aims to illuminate more concretely changes in temporal orders of organisational work generated by the new information technology.

The dimensions of temporal order are derived from previous research on time in organisational studies.

This research will contribute by increasing our knowledge of temporal as well as cultural impacts of information systems on organisations.

Supervisor: Jonathan Liebenau, PhD

Heejin Lee is currently a lecturer in the Information Systems Group at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Dr Heejin Lee's personal web page.

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