The unintended consequences of information system change on organizational memory: remembering and forgetting in English and Ontarian child protection services

Thesis

This thesis set out to enhance our understanding of the unintended consequences of information technology change on organizational memory in child protection services. It sought to resolve puzzles about how ‘perfect’ digital memory could be accompanied by forgetting and how organizational amnesia could be concurrent with bureaucratic inertia. Information technology change in this sector is ostensibly aimed at addressing key challenges exposed by child death reviews, performance audits, and research into child outcomes, such as the issue of past information not being available for front-line or policy decision making. However, the promise of digitization was not always achieved. A motivation for undertaking this research was thus to better understand divergences between what was intended and what was realized. Focused and theoretically informed qualitative field research that included observation, interview, and document analysis was carried out in child protection organizations that were implementing new information technologies (the Child Protection Information Network enterprise case management system in Ontario, and predictive analytics tools using machine learning in England). Findings called into question the completeness of existing theories of organizational memory. The interpretive approach to analysis suggested that there might be additional forms of memory (grounded in fundamental ontology) that could help to account for the unexplained phenomena encountered in the field research, resolve the puzzles, and offer a novel foundation for the study of memory phenomena in government. The final contribution is an extended typology of organizational memory that can provide memory-related rationale for unintended consequences of information system change in child protection. This theoretical extension of organizational memory has implications for how we understand identity change, accountability, technology adoption, and learning in public sector organizations. The findings suggest that if information technology is built without attending to the different forms of memory at play, then it may not achieve its desired objectives.

Authors: Vogl, TM

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-gpqoym1p4
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: public administration; phenomenological-hermeneutic circle; fundamental ontology; organizational memory; interpretive; digital government; identity; child welfare; technology
• Subjects: Organizational change--case studies; Child welfare; Information storage and retrieval systems; Public administration--fata processing; Technology and state; Predictive analytics; Social sciences--fieldwork; Qualitative research--methodology; Internet in public administration; Organizational learning; Public administration