Newcastle Upon Tyne and District Branch Website

When

Wednesday 22nd March
7.00pm

Where

Station Hotel Station Hotel
Newcastle

Contact

E-mail: Secretary: Lynne Dagg Telephone: 0191 565 2376

Information

The systems analyst and emancipatory practice: A participatory action research project in an NHS Acute Hospital

Dr Teresa Waring

Abstract

There have been many approaches to systems development and implementation that have been undertaken over the past thirty years. Most of these approaches have had limited success particularly where integration of systems is involved and where organisational politics are prominent. This paper explores what it means to conduct research in the area of integrated Information Systems (IS) implementation that has at the heart of it organisational power and politics. The work that is described here is referred to as 'critical research' and was initially inspired by Hirschheim and Klein (1989), Kendall and Avison (1993) and Alvesson and Willmott (1992) where the concept of 'emancipation' features highly and is underpinned by the theoretical ideas from the work of Jurgen Habermas.

The research took place over a five year period and included four major integrated systems implementations within three Hospitals in the North East of England. The paper focuses on the final implementation where the hospital (Hospital Z) wanted to integrate both the manual and computer systems within the department of Gynaeoncology with the hospital centralised computerised systems. The first section of the paper provides an overview of the theory that has informed the study. The second section comprises the research methodology and fieldwork undertaken within the hospital. The third section takes a reflexive approach to the discussion of the empirical material and finally the fourth section draws some conclusions on carrying out critical research for the participants and researcher.