Explaining IT Implementation Through Group Learning

Implementation of an IT system in an organization takes a certain amount of time. System usage becomes stable when users have appropriated the system and new work practices have been established. We propose a concept of group learning as a framework to highlight relevant aspects of such a process. A longitudinal case study with two opposite research results has provided a preliminary validation of the proposed model. A human resource information system (HRIS) was introduced in a hospital in two different settings. With one user group it was successfully implemented, and it failed in the other group. Analysis of the qualitative data shows a marked difference in the group learning processes between the two groups, which significantly contribute to the differences in success. These results confirm our assumption about the importance of learning processes in groupware implementation.