Information Systems and Human Service Organizations: Managing and Designing for the “Occasional User”

Abstract

Electronic information systems that provide functionality across all areas of service activity are being implemented in human service organizations with the aim of creating a "single source of truth." Their creation and maintenance as such relies on increased interaction with the IS of all staff within an organization, which has complicated the process of designing for end users' needs. Drawing from ethnographic research, a hitherto neglected type of user, the "occasional user," is identified and the problems they may pose explored. Strategies to manage and design for these problems are suggested to promote reflection and debate.Keywords: electronic information system, human services organization, information system design, occasional user, single source off truth INTRODUCTIONComputer-based information systems (IS), also referred to as case management systems (CMS), management information systems (MIS), integrated information systems (IIS), and so on (Ley and Seelmeyer, 2008), have become ubiquitous in human service organizations. As functionality has increased, they have developed beyond passive recorders of information about service users and service activity to become the "single source of truth" (Peckover, White and Hall, 2008) about a range of agency activities, including finance, human resources, and quality assurance. The expanded functionality of IS may provide efficiencies in information management for administrators and senior managers, but designing and implementing such systems presents particular challenges. For an IS to operate as the single source of truth within an organization, all members of the organization need to participate in using it to record data about their work. Consequently IS design has to meet the needs of a range of users, for example from relative novices with electronic technology who may lack both expertise and motivation through to those who are highly experienced and keen to adopt, and even adapt, emerging forms of technology to enhance their work. In this article, ethnographic research is used to draw attention to the potential problems posed by a particular type of user who has, hitherto, been neglected in the literature about IS design for and implementation in human service organizations, namely the "occasional user."The occasional user is defined as someone within a human services organization who would only need to use a particular IS, or part of it, on an occasional rather than regular basis. Of course, any part of an IS may be subject to occasional use by human service employees. As observed in the research that informs this article, specific examples of occasional use within an IS in a human services organization are human resources applications for booking and recording leave, booking cars and other forms of transport, case planning and court functions and case intake, transfer and closure functions. In this article, the particular challenge that occasional users pose for the design and implementation of IS will be explored, with the aim of prompting designers to con...

The Impact of Information System on Interactions of Child Welfare Professionals with Managers and Clients

“…Secondly, practitioners spend their time for verifying the information which may be inaccurate, missing or incorrect. One of the reasons behind inaccuracy, ill-timing and fragmentation of data entries may be the fact that social work practitioners use technology for their work tasks only because they feel obliged to do so [41]. These shortcomings of information may lead to issues of trust in IS [42].…”

“…According to reviewed research studies, the most common reason behind technical issues is lack of collaboration among IT system designers, companies that provide IS, organization managers, practitioners and other players involved in development of IS. The attempts to put particular views, activities and priorities of end users into a technical tool are rather problematic as designers may be inclined to put their own values and meanings or views of senior managers into IS without adapting them to specific conditions of the workplace and to the needs of practitioners [41][42][43]. Positions and interests of other external stakeholders are no less important to the process of IS development.…”

“…Consequently, this might diminish work duplication and make recording process faster. Availability of emerging mobile technologies may enhance ability of frontline practitioners to connect to IS also out of office and to access information about service users easily and quickly [41].…”

“…Finally, learning IS use would be made easier by supplying it with instructions, toolkits and training. The problems related to IS use by accidental users (new, inexperienced staff), can be minimized by providing instructions within IS [41] or by creating illustrative toolkit for workers and also toolkit for high-and mid-level managers planning IS. Practitioners do not need an exhaustive mapping of IS, but only illustrative and relevant examples [48].…”

A reflective characterisation of occasional user

“…For Gillingham (2014) an occasional user is "someone within a human service organization who would only need to use a particular information system on an occasional rather than regular basis." He said that the specific idea that assisted with conceptualizing the occasional user was that of the Marsden and Hollnagel's (1996) accidental user.…”