A Technological Frames Perspective on Information Technology and Organizational Change

When information technologies (IT) have a central role in organizational change programs, understanding how organization members make sense of technology is critical to influencing their actions and to achieving planned outcomes. Orlikowski and Gash articulated a theoretic framework centered on technological frames of reference (TFR) to investigate interpretive processes related to IT in organizations. The TFR framework has been cited across a wide range of publications and has formed the basis for a genre of studies on the interpretive aspects of IT and organizational change. In this article, the author assesses these research contributions and argues that further theoretic development is needed for the TFR framework to reach its potential contributions to knowledge. The author outlines the following research strategies that could facilitate TFR theory development: focusing analysis on frame structure, investigating framing as a dynamic interpretive process, and examining the cultural and institutional basis of organizational frames.