Making Enterprise Systems Work: The Role of Organizational Defensive Routines

Submitted by Michael D Myers on Tue, 2009-12-22 19:35

Publication Type:

Journal Article

Authors:

Lee, David J C; Michael D. Myers

Source:

Pacific Asia Journal of the AIS, Volume 1, Number 2, p.1-19 (2009)

Keywords:

Enterprise Systems Failure, ERP, Defensive Routines, Organizational Learning, Ethnography

Abstract:

This paper discusses some of the challenges that organizations face when trying to make enterprise systems work. Using critical ethnography, we studied the implementation of an enterprise system in a small-medium sized enterprise within a large conglomerate in Australasia. We found that organizational learning around strategically important issues failed to occur. This failure to learn negatively impacted the implementation of the enterprise system. We use the theory of organizational defensive routines to help explain this failure.