The purpose of this research is to explore what is driving the end user to deviate from the mandated approach to using an Enterprise Systems (ES). This deviation is the form of the development of workarounds using ad hoc information technology (IT) tools. These tools, which this dissertation calls a feral information system (FIS), are used in conjunction with, or instead of, the mandated IS (Houghton and Kerr, 2006). The research questions for this dissertation were to: A) determine how end users acquired the skills to build a feral information system; B) explore how end users (as knowledgeable agents) appropriated and allocate available resources, be this for an ES or FIS, to fulfil the demands for information; and C) determine the circumstances of an agent’s deployment of resources as an interposing mechanism to defend the FIS and parry away ES proponents.
Description
Submitted in the fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, University of the Sunshine Coast, 2017.