The ethnology of information: Cultural learning through cooperative action research in a multinational firm

Abstract

Business information systems traditionally focus on technical matters. This paper explores the creation and implementation of information systems that integrate organizational business, social, and cultural knowledge. By using an extended case study set in grounded theory, we document how one company used cooperative research to meet these goals. In particular, we show how such research permits the reformulation, modification, or rejection of working hypotheses from a theoretical academic through a practitioner level. The cooperative research systems were grounded in ethnography, participant observation, improvement cycles, and detailed work processes. The information systems were effective in both monocultural and multicultural environments.