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ProceedingsofIRIS23.LaboratoriumforInteractionTechnology,UniversityofTrollhättanUddevalla,2000.L.Svensson,U.Snis,C.Sørensen,H.Fägerlind,T.Lindroth,M.Magnusson,C.Östlund(eds.)TheInvolvementofHumanandNonHumanStakeholdersCombiningActorNetworkTheoryandActionResearchVidarHepsøvihe@statoil.comStatoilResearchCentre,Trondheim,NorwayNorwegianUniversityofScienceandTechnology(NTNU),Trondheim,NorwayAbstractScienceandTechnologyStudieshasopenedtheblackboxesofsocio-technicalsystemsandarguedthattechnologicalartefactsareaproductofhumanactionandvalues,andshapesocialaction.Theblackboxesofinformationtechnologiesareopenedinaquesttounderstandthewayvariousstakeholders,ITincluded,shapeaction.Acasethatdescribesthedevelopmentofanewoffshoreinstallationispresented.Heredifferentartefactsrepresentedvoicesofstakeholders,thesevoiceswerebroughttothesurfaceinadesignofworkintheneworganisation.ActorNetworkTheory(ANT)isusedtocapturethedescriptivebehavioralaspectsofdifferentkindsofstakeholdersinthecontextandtheiractivitiesinactornetworks.ActionResearch(AR)isusedtoproposeaprescriptiveagendaforhowtohandletheinvolvementofstakeholders.Thepapertriestoshowhowanunderstandingoftheinvolvementofpotentialstakeholders,akeyissueinAR,canbeimprovedwiththehelpofANT.Keywords:ActorNetworkTheory,Actionresearch,groupware,LOTUSNOTES1.IntroductionDesignofinformationsystemsisincreasinglyadesignofworkandorganisationsandcannotbeseenasanisolatedphenomenainrelationtoorganisationdevelopment.Itmustbeintegrated(Wulf&Rohde1995,Levin1997).Traditionally,thesocialandthetechnicalsystemwereseenasseparateentitieswithmutualinteraction,associo-technicalsystems(Herbst1974).ScienceandTechnologyStudies(Law1992,Williams1996,Latour1996,Callon1991,Monteiro&Hanseth1995)hasopenedtheblackboxesofsocialandtechnologicalsystemsandarguedthattechnologicalartefactsareaproductofhumanactionandvalues.Silentvoicesareinscribedintothetechnologicalartefacts(Law1992,Callon1991)thatshapesocialaction.Theconsequenceofsuchaperspectiveisthreefoldseeninrelationtothedesignofworkandorganisations,andshouldbeofinteresttoanumberofscholarsandlaymenthatareworkingwithorganisationdevelopment.First,onehastoopentheblackboxesofinformationtechnologiesandtrytounderstandthewaytheyactuallyshapeaction.Second,sincesuchITartefactsshapeactiontheyrepresent“cannedaction”orvoicesofparticularstakeholdersthathavedevelopedorusedtheartefacttomaintaintheirinterests.Third,iftechnologicalartefactsrepresentvoicesofstakeholders,thesevoicesmustbebroughttothesurfaceinadesignofworkandorganisations.AnumberofmanagementorientedtheoriesrangingfromBPRtoknowledgemanagementattempttoproviderecipesforlargeprocessesofdesignofworkandorganisations,butmanylackthenecessaryhistoricalcontextanddepthtounderstandhowvariousstakeholdersworkwithintheblackboxesofthesocialandtechnologicalsystemswithinorganisations.Inthispaper,wewillpresentanexamplefromamicrosituation,anactionresearchprojectinStatoilwhichwillhopefullymeetthechallengeofcontextanddepth.Indoingso,ourapproachwillbebothdescriptiveandprescriptive.ActorNetworkTheorywillbeusedtodescribetheactionofdifferentkindsofstakeholdersandtheiractivitiesbecauseithasaframeworktounderstandwhathappenswithintheblackboxesofsocialandtechnologicalsystems.ActionResearchwillbeusedtoproposeamoreprescriptiveagendaforhowtohandletheinvolvementofstakeholders.Thestructureofthepaperisasfollows.IstartwithatheoreticaloverviewofActorNetworkTheoryandActionResearch’spositionswhenitcomestodealingwithstakeholdersandwepresenttwosub-questions.Section2introducesthecase,firsttheStatoilandNorneorganisation.ThenIpresentanorganisationaldevelopment(OD)processinNorneandthedevelopmentofanITapplicationthatshouldsupportthisODprocess.Theinvolvementofstakeholderswillbegivenparticularattention.Section3containsananalysisofthecasewithrespecttotwosub-questions.SinceActionResearchhasnotbeenfinegrainedenoughtohandlethemechanisms,sometechnical,somenot,thatshapesocialaction,weanalysethecaseintermsofhowthecasecanbeseenasdevelopmentofaheterogeneousactornetwork(thefirstsub-question).Last,wepresentthroughcaseexampleshowacombinationofANTandAR’sstakeholderframeworkispossiblethroughBrunoLatours“DueProcess”,andargueforacombination(thedescriptivevs.theprescriptive)oftheseframeworks(thesecondsub-question).Ourmainquestionis:howcananunderstandingoftheinvolvementofpotentialstakeholdersinorganisationandITprojects,akeyissueinAR,beimprovedwiththehelpofANT?1.1.Actornetworktheoryandactionresearch,twostrangebedfellows?Severalresearchers(Monteiro&Hepsø1998,Monteiro&Hanseth1995)havearguedthatActorNetworkTheory(ANT)(Callon1991,Law1992,Latour1996)isagoodframeworktostudysocialactionclosetopractice,thatis,tostudythepracticeofhumanandnon-humanactorsinreallifesituations.WhyhavewechosenANTandnotsomeothertheorythathastriedtolookatorganisationalformsinrelationtotechnology?WewillfollowtheargumentofMonteiroandHanseth(1995)here,thatmost1perspectivesarenotfinegrainedenoughtounderstandtheintricatemechanisms-sometechnicalandsomenot-thatshapesocialaction(thatishowspecificelementsandfunctionsofaninformat