An understanding of culture is important to the study of information technologies in that culture at various levels, including national, organizational, and group, can influence the successful implementation and use of information technology. Culture also plays a role in managerial processes that may directly, or indirectly, influence IT. Culture is a challenging variable to research, in part because of the multiple divergent definitions and measures of culture. Notwithstanding, a wide body of literature has emerged that sheds light on the relationship of IT and culture. This paper sets out to provide a review of this literature in order to lend insights into our understanding of the linkages between IT and culture. We begin by conceptualizing culture and laying the groundwork for a values-based approach to the examination of IT and culture. Using this approach, we then provide a comprehensive review of the organizational and cross-cultural IT literature that conceptually links these two traditionally separate streams of research. From our analysis, we develop six themes of IT-culture research emphasizing culture's impact on IT, IT's impact on culture, and IT culture. Building upon these themes, we then develop a theory of IT, values, and conflict. Based upon the theory, we develop propositions concerning three types of cultural conflict and the results of these conflicts. Ultimately, the theory suggests that the reconciliation of these conflicts results in a reorientation of values. We conclude with the particular research challenges posed in this line of inquiry.

Review: a review of culture in information systems research: toward a theory of information technology culture conflict

By mid-1998, approximately 200 different controlled experiments had been published in 230 articles in refereed journals or major conference proceedings, which examined processes and outcomes in computer-supported group decision making. This paper is a concise overview of what has been studied and how: the systems, independent, intervening, adaptation, and dependent variables, manipulated or measured, and experimental procedures employed. Part I categorizes the contextual and intervening factors. Part II analyzes 1,582 hypotheses resulting from pairings of independent and dependent variables. The results show that the modal outcome for GSS systems compared with face-to-face (FtF) methods is "no difference," while the overall percentage of positive effects for hypotheses that compare GSS with FtF is a disappointing 16.6 percent. Experiments with seven to ten groups per treatment condition working on idea-generation tasks and using GSS technology show an improvement up to 29.0 percent. These results are moderated by technology, process structure, communication mode, group factors, task type, the number of experimental groups per treatment condition, and the type of dependent variable measured. The purpose of this paper is to aid the GSS researcher by presenting detailed results of what has been studied and found in previous experiments, along with a discussion of what needs to be studied.

An assessment of group support systems experimental research: methodology and results

Many IS scholars argue that global organizations need to understand cultural differences if they are to successfully deploy information technology. We agree that an understanding of cultural differences is important, but suggest that the concept of â€œnational cultureâ€ that has tended to dominate the IS research literature is too simplistic. In this article, we challenge information systems researchers to go beyond models of national culture. We propose that IS researchers should adopt a more dynamic view of culture â€“ one that sees culture as contested, temporal and emergent.

Beyond Models of National Culture in Information Systems Research

In an organizational setting, national culture is not the only type of culture that influences managerial and work behavior. Rather, behavior is influenced by different levels of culture ranging from the supranational (regional, ethnic, religious, linguistic) level through the national, professional, and organizational levels to the group level. The objective of this study is to integrate these different levels of culture by explicitly recognizing that individualsâ€™ workplace behavior is a function of all different cultures simultaneously. It is theorized that the relative influence of the different levels of culture on individual behavior varies depending on the nature of the behavior under investigation. Thus, for behaviors that include a strong social component or include terminal and moral values, supranational and national cultures might have a predominant effect. For behaviors with a strong task component or for those involving competence values or practices, organizational and professional cultures may dominate. These propositions are illustrated with examples from the IS field. This paper is a conceptual study and therefore extends theory and the current understanding of how culture is examined by not only explicitly recognizing that behaviors are simultaneously influenced by multiple levels of culture but by also specifying conditions under which certain levels of culture dominate. Such an approach has the potential to inform researchers and practitioners about the generalizability or universality of theories and techniques across national, organizational, and professional borders.

Levels of Culture and Individual Behavior: An Investigative Perspective

http://www.cis.gsu.edu/mgallivan/journal/Gallivan_and_Srite_Info_and_Organization_2005.pdf

Information technology and culture: Identifying fragmentary and holistic perspectives of culture

Few studies of group support systems (GSS) have considered cultural dimensions in their analysis of GSS applications, and even fewer have used empirical data to test their hypotheses. This cross-cultural field study was an exploratory investigation of the effects of "national culture" (U.S. and Mexican) upon group consensus levels and perceptions of participation equity and satisfaction within GSS environments and non-GSS (manual) environments. Within both the U.S. and Mexican cultures, results indicate no significant differences in consensus levels between GSS and manual treatments. However, both U.S and Mexican groups generated significantly greater relative changes in consensus levels using GSS technology versus manual technology. Comparison between cultures shows that Mexican groups generated higher levels of consensus than U.S. groups with main effects due to culture and experimental treatment (i.e., GSS support).While U.S. group participants reported no differences in satisfaction among experimental treatments, Mexican participants reported higher satisfaction levels using GSS-supported environments. In a similar pattern, U.S. participants reported no differences in perceived participation equity between treatments, while Mexican GSS participants reported higher participation equity than Mexican manual participants. A comparison study between cultures found that Mexican participants across all treatments perceived higher levels of satisfaction and participation equity than U.S. participants with main effects due to culture.

https://www.jstor.org/stable/info/40398232

Consensus and perceived satisfaction levels: a cross-cultural comparison of GSS and non-GSS outcomes within and between the United States and Mexico

/pdf/productivity-consensus-and-participation-equality-in-mexico-enxm2v91cp.pdf

Litva Lazaneo

Papers

Consensus and perceived satisfaction levels: a cross-cultural comparison of GSS and non-GSS outcomes within and between the United States and Mexico

Productivity, Consensus and Participation Equality in Mexico:A Field Study Comparison of GSS and non-GSS Outcomes