Power relations inscribed in the enactment of systems development methods

Abstract

Issues of power are often neglected in information systems (IS) studies and under-theorised in IS research. Systems development methods (SDMs) are commonly used in the IT industry to coordinate the activities between developers and clients. The role of power in the relationship between

Algorithms and hegemony in the workplace: Negotiating design and values in an Italian television platform

“…The findings of this study are consistent with those of Rowlands and Kautz (2022) that investigated the perception that IT developers had of their relationship with BCs in a banking group, and of the information systems development methods through which they organized their activities. Similarly to the operative workers in my study, their interviewees ‘framed their answers in terms of a subordinate relationship with the client, and portrayed themselves in a cooperative, but submissive role’ (Rowlands and Kautz, 2022: 279). Drawing on Clegg (1989), their analysis shows how three different forms of power can be inscribed in the enactment of information systems development methods.…”

“…When practices in an organization become, over time, institutionalized ordinary activities, it is more likely that specific arrangements become hegemonic. Indeed, day-to-day working practices and communications allow to build and diffuse power within an organization (Scott, 2001) and turn value-laden corporate arrangements into ‘unquestioned normative structures’ (Rowlands and Kautz, 2022: 301). Following this process, hegemonic relationships are naturalized by rituals and routines, such as walk-through meetings and briefings, which normalize working procedures as inevitable.…”

“…Findings highlight the hierarchical organization of tech work and the subordination of operative figures, such as data scientists (DSs) and colleagues, to the goals imposed by business clients (BCs) and to both internal and external forms of control (e.g., Mumby, 2015; Dorschel, 2021). In particular, it is shown how the subalternity of tech workers is materially and discursively constructed and forms of causal, dispositional and facilitative power exerted on them (Clegg, 1989; Rowlands and Kautz, 2022). In this environment, frictions, negotiations as well as concealing strategies by tech workers regarding the design and meaning of algorithms emerge, thus showing their cultural, contingent and multiple compositions (Seaver, 2017).…”

Micro-politics, Semiotic Power and Infrastructural Inversion: Theoretical Lenses for Geopolitical HCI

“…Rowlands and Kautz [22] study the relationship of different forms of obtrusive and unobtrusive power [23] in systems development methods. Obtrusive power is a hierarchy-based or economic-based form of power.…”

Power dynamics in organisations and the role of information systems

“…Another paper utilising the ‘circuits of power’ perspective is the article by Rowlands and Kautz (2022) ‘Power relations inscribed in the enactment of systems development methods’. The paper describes how different forms of power are inscribed in and enacted through an IS development methodology.…”