In this paper, we build a theoretical framework to extend research into users' and designers' cognitions and values by proposing a systematic approach to examining the underlying assumptions, expectations, and knowledge that people have about technology. Such interpretations of technology (which we label technological frames) are central to understanding technological development, use, and change in organizations as they critically influence the way people act around technology. We suggest that where the technological frames of key groups in organizations--such as managers, technologists, and users--are significantly different, difficulties and conflict around the development, use, and change of technology may result. We use the findings of an empirical study to illustrate how the nature, value, and use of a groupware technology were interpreted differently by various organizational stakeholders, resulting in outcomes that deviated from those expected. We argue that technological frames offer an interesting and useful analytic perspective for explaining and anticipating actions and meanings around information technology that are not easily obtained with other theoretical lenses.ii Some fifteen years ago Bostrom and Heinen (1977) suggested that many of the social problems associated with the implementation of information systems (IS) were due to the frames of reference of system designers. Building on this work, Dagwell and Weber (1983) and Kumar and Bj0rn-Andersen (1990) examined the influence of designers' values and views of users on systems development, while Boland (1978Boland ( , 1979 showed that designers' conceptual frameworks influenced the kind of systems they designed. Ginzberg (1981), in turn, investigated how users' expectations of a pending information system significantly shaped their attitudes toward it. Since these studies, researchers have considered designers' and users' perceptions and values as part of their examination of the social aspects of information technology (Hirschheim and Klein, 1989;Kling and Iacono, 1989;Markus, 1984).While a cognitive thread has clearly run through IS research, this has nevertheless not led to a systematic articulation of the role of frames of reference in systems development and use. In this paper we hope to lay the groundwork for such a systematic approach to social cognitions around information technology. We argue that an understanding of people's interpretations of a technology is critical to understanding their interaction with it. To interact with technology, people have to make sense of it. And in this sensemaking process, people develop particular assumptions, expectations, and knowledge of the technology, which then serve to shape their subsequent action towards it. While these interpretations of technology become taken-for-granted and are rarely surfaced and reflected on, they nevertheless remain particularly significant in influencing how actors in organizations think about and act towards technology. Weick (1990:17), for example, has noted: ...

The implementation of a new human resource information system (HRIS) represents a major form of planned organizational change for the Human Resource function, yet little research has been conducted on this issue. This article presents a longitudinal case study of the reactions of the Human Resource community in a large energy company to the planned implementation of a new corporate HRIS. Implementing an HRIS to enhance strategic and business decision‐making has important organizational development implications. A new HRIS (1) represents an attempt to enable Human Resources to become more of a business partner, (2) changes the nature of HR work to encompass a greater information broker and decision support role, and (3) alters power dynamics and communication patterns involving Human Resources. Varying levels of resistance and ambivalence were found regarding the extent to which human resource information systems skills were valued as a critical competency. While there is a trend, toward attitudinal convergence within the human resource community, over time, the results suggest that user skill level may be more strongly related to variance in attitudes toward the value of a new HRIS than to hierarchical level or business unit affiliation. The study also found that face‐to‐face seminars were a significantly more effective intervention than was written communication in influencing favorable intention to use the HRIS.

A framework, based on users' interpretations of technology, applies the notion of orders of organizational change to the implementation of information technology. This framework allows for the examination of intended and unanticipated modifications to interpretations and uses of information technology in orgnizations over time.Infonnation technology has often been thought of as an organizational intervention, designed to bring about desired changes (Kling and Scacchi, 1982;Markus, 1983 FRAMESRecent literature in organizational behavior has applied the idea of individual organizing frameworks or schemata-borrowed from cognitive psychology (Bartlett, 1932;Neisser, 1976)--and extended it to groups and organizations (Calder and Schurr, 1981;Gray, Bougon and Donnellon, 1985). A variety of terms have been used to convey this idea of organizing mental schemata, including "paradigms" (Kuhn, 1970;Sheldon, 1980), "frames" (Goffman, 1974), "cognitive maps" (Bougon, Weick, and Binkhorst, 1977), "interpretive frames" (Bartunek and Moch, 1987), "interpretative schemes" (Giddens, 1984), and "mental models" (Carroll, 1985 (Moch and Banunek, 1990). To the degree that these interpretations are commonly shared (Smircich, 1983), some theorists argue theŷ We will use the term "frames" in this paper to refer to this concept. constitute elements of organizational culture. Schein (1987Schein ( , 1988 (Goodman and Burke, 1982

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I n general, t h e r e has been inadequate i n t e g r a t i o n between t h e i n f o r m a t i o n systems ( I S ) and human resource management (HRM) f i e l d s .