Learning and Adapting to Mobile Technologies: An Intra-organizational Assessment

Abstract

This paper aims at proposing central elements for understanding the underlying processes embedded in the use and adoption of mobile information and communication technologies (mobile-ICT) in firms. Organizational and socio-technical aspects are approached using a multiple-case study of different companies in Portugal, following their simultaneous adoption of new specific mobile technologies. Although qualitative results show that in general, users report a positive perception about technological and contextual features of mobile-ICT, such as technological adequacy for mobile work, swiftness and quality of service, information and communication access, relationships with colleagues, chiefs and external partners or the potential to foster daily timesaving; quantitative analysis unveils different using and learning patterns among knowledge-workers and traditional-workers. We discuss those different patterns of adaptive activity highlighting the role of end-users as agents of change, by taking into account diverse issues: formal training and learning-by-doing; changing relationships among individuals; leadership and power relations and redistribution of competences