TY - JOUR
T1 - Virtualisation of an administrative work environment in higher education
T2 - Managing information in a developing country university
AU - Adam, Ibrahim Osman
AU - Effah, John
AU - Boateng, Richard
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2017, © Emerald Publishing Limited.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how higher education institutions (HEIs) in developing countries can migrate their physical administrative work environment to a virtual platform to improve information management. Design/methodology/approach: The paper employs an interpretive case study approach and a combined lens of activity and agency theories to understand how a developing country HEI attempted to improve its information management by migrating from a physical to a virtual administrative work environment. Findings: The findings show how contradictions caused by role conflicts, administrative staff’s fear of elimination and external consultants’ limited understanding of administrative rules and procedures can hamper work environment virtualisation. Such challenges should be resolved in order to achieve a successful virtual work environment that supports timely and accurate information management. Research limitations/implications: The study is limited by its single case perspective in one developing country. However, future studies can compare the experiences of HEIs from developed and developing countries in order to account for contextual differences. Practical implications: The study provides practitioners with insight into how to address conflicts between employees (as potential users) and external consultants during virtual system development and implementation. In particular, role conflict, fear of eliminating some administrative staff and consultants’ limited understanding of administrative work procedures should be resolved for successful work environment virtualisation. Originality/value: The study is the first attempt to offer rich insight into the challenges associated with administrative work environment virtualisation for improved information management in HEIs, through the principal-agent relationship.
AB - Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to understand how higher education institutions (HEIs) in developing countries can migrate their physical administrative work environment to a virtual platform to improve information management. Design/methodology/approach: The paper employs an interpretive case study approach and a combined lens of activity and agency theories to understand how a developing country HEI attempted to improve its information management by migrating from a physical to a virtual administrative work environment. Findings: The findings show how contradictions caused by role conflicts, administrative staff’s fear of elimination and external consultants’ limited understanding of administrative rules and procedures can hamper work environment virtualisation. Such challenges should be resolved in order to achieve a successful virtual work environment that supports timely and accurate information management. Research limitations/implications: The study is limited by its single case perspective in one developing country. However, future studies can compare the experiences of HEIs from developed and developing countries in order to account for contextual differences. Practical implications: The study provides practitioners with insight into how to address conflicts between employees (as potential users) and external consultants during virtual system development and implementation. In particular, role conflict, fear of eliminating some administrative staff and consultants’ limited understanding of administrative work procedures should be resolved for successful work environment virtualisation. Originality/value: The study is the first attempt to offer rich insight into the challenges associated with administrative work environment virtualisation for improved information management in HEIs, through the principal-agent relationship.
KW - Activity theory
KW - Agency theory
KW - Developing country
KW - Higher education institution
KW - Information management
KW - Work environment virtualization
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85028977952&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1108/JEIM-06-2016-0119
DO - 10.1108/JEIM-06-2016-0119
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85028977952
SN - 1741-0398
VL - 30
SP - 723
EP - 747
JO - Journal of Enterprise Information Management
JF - Journal of Enterprise Information Management
IS - 5
ER -