A critical investigation of the implementation of an information technology service management project in a UK higher education institution

Mohammed, T

Abstract

This thesis investigates the implementation of an Information Technology Service
Management (ITSM) project in a UK Higher Education Institution, the implications for
employees and their working processes, and how employees live with these implications.
The ITSM was a public sector promoted philosophy for managing IT services delivery
and support encapsulated within broader government discourses of modernising public
institutions. The focus of the thesis is on the efforts of the Computing and Information
Services (CIS) Department to transform its service performance by seeking efficiency,
effectiveness, value for money, and customer focused culture through the adoption of the
information technology infrastructure library (ITIL) framework as the basis for the ITSM.
The aim of the research is bringing insights into and providing critical interpretations of
these efforts, and highlighting employees' transformative alternatives.
Drawing on the critical research tradition ethnographic field work was conducted
informed by the sociology of translation from Actor Network Theory and ideas from the
critical social theorist Foucault. Data generated questioned the universal truth claims of
the broader modernisation discourses as well as the managerial rationalisation discourses
and the instrumental deployment of information technologies for achieving efficiency
gains, consistency in IT service process, and cultural change within the CIS Department.
The study suggests that the achievement of the ITSM claims of performance
transformation and cultural change is contingent upon the micro dynamics of the local
context.
The theoretical contributions of the thesis are in addressing the recent call for Information
Systems (IS) researchers to explore and bring insights into the ITSM as an emerging area
of IS research, highlighting the usefulness of Foucault's latter work on the Ethics of the
'care of the self to critical IS research, and contributing to a growing body of empirical
critical IS research. The practical contribution of the research is in informing ITSM
professionals and institutions engaged in promoting ITSM best practice. The methodological contribution is in presenting an empirical framework for producing
insight, critique and transformative redefinition in critical IS research.

Citation

Mohammed, T. A critical investigation of the implementation of an information technology service management project in a UK higher education institution. (Thesis). Salford : University of Salford

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Oct 3, 2012
• Award Date: Jan 1, 2009