The prototypical Narrative Elements in Information Systems Implementation Narratives: Towards Critical Narrative Approach.

Abstract

Information systems (IS) implementations, e.g., their development and use, emerges from subjectively perceived social realities. Practitioners such as developers, managers, and users, make sense of the world essentially as storytellers. They resort to narratives when searching for explanations. While narratives are a complex form of comprehension and knowledge transfer, they reflect the reality resided by their tellers. Thus approaching them critically can reveal much about the realities and reasoning processes behind explicit words and actions. Understanding more about such aspect would benefit the IS practitioners who work in the trenches between social and technical. Yet critical narrative approach has not found a steady position in IS. This paper presents and illustrates a viable starting point for such discussion. The paper contributes by presenting and instructing an initial idea for critical narrative approach in IS implementations.