ICTs in the Contemporary World seminar

A Re Re-conceptualisation of the Interpretive Flexibility of Information Technologies: Redressing the balance between the Social and the Technical

Neil F. Doherty
The Business School, Loughborough University

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Tuesday 6 March, 2007
3.00 - 5.00 p.m.


Fifth Floor, Tower One

Interpretive flexibility – the capacity of a specific technology to sustain divergent opinions – has long been recognised as playing an important role in explaining how technical artefacts are socially constructed. What is less clear is how a system’s technical characteristics might limit its ability to be interpreted flexibly. This gap in the literature has largely arisen because recent contributions to this debate have tended to be rather one-sided, focussing almost solely upon the role of the human agent in shaping the technical artefact, and in so doing either downplaying or ignoring the artefact’s shaping potential. The broad aim of this study was to reappraise the nature and role of interpretive flexibility but giving as much consideration to how an information system’s technical characteristics might limit its ability to be interpreted flexibly, as we do to its potential for social construction.

In this seminar the results of two in-depth case studies will be presented, in order to propose a re-conceptualisation of the role of interpretive flexibility. In short, this model helps explain how the initial interpretations of stakeholders are significantly influenced by the scope and adaptability of the system’s functionality. Stakeholder interpretations will then, in turn, influence how the system’s functionality is appropriated and exploited by users, to allow divergent interpretations to be realised and sustained. However, it is also recognised that a tension is likely to arise between the social and the technical: the natural desires of human agents to continually re-interpret and modify their technologies, to perfectly match their dynamic requirements, are likely to be kept in check by the difficulties of making significant adjustments to a technology’s functional constraints. Consequently, it is argued that whilst the technical artefact is shaped through human agency, organisational practices are also greatly shaped by the technology.

Neil Doherty is a Professor of Information Management, Neil Doherty holds an honours degree in Management Science, an MSC in Engineering Management and a Doctorate in Software Engineering. Prior to joining the Business School at Loughborough University, Neil spent may years as a programmer, systems analyst and team leader, working on a variety of IT projects, primarily in the oil and gas and manufacturing sectors. Since joining Loughborough University, Neil has had papers published in a range of academic journals, including European Journal of Information Systems, Journal of Information Technology, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, IEEE Transactions in Engineering Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of End User Computing, Behaviour and IT and Information and Management.

Please note places will be available on a first-come-first-serve basis - registration is not required.

For any further queries regarding this seminar or to request information about future events please contact Frances White, Research Coordinator

Page last updated 05 February 2009

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