The human dimension in the institutionalisation of enterprise content management

South African Journal of Information Management

 
 
Field Value
 
Title The human dimension in the institutionalisation of enterprise content management
 
Creator Venter, Hester L. Mearns, Martie A.
 
Subject Information Science; Knowledge Management; information user behaviour enterprise content management institutionalisation; human-centric solutions; systematic interdisciplinary approach; human behaviour; knowledge management facilitation.
Description Background: Enterprise content management (ECM) solutions should be fully institutionalised to achieve improved efficiency, effectiveness or productivity. An ethnographic study spanning 10 years revealed a fragmented view of human behaviour during the institutionalisation of ECM, which was triggered by an implementation at NamPower.
Objectives: Inherent human dimensions observed during the implementation and institutionalisation process sparked discussions with project team members, peers and colleagues, discovering that observed behavioural patterns transcended single institutional boundaries, revealing a globally manifested phenomenon. Consequently, the study focused extensively on the failures of people’s issues in institutionalisation rather than on procedural or technological failures.
Method: Data collection utilised an information management maturity instrument, gathering 108 responses and conducting a comparative analysis with 296 additional respondents to provide empirical data. This process included a critical analysis of human behaviour frameworks, serving as the theoretical foundation for conceptualising an interdisciplinary approach to human-centred ECM institutionalisation.
Results: Data collection highlighted areas for improvement, and the critical analysis of human behaviour frameworks led to a better understanding of the human ecological context in employees’ interactions with information.
Conclusion: The results indicated involvement of various disciplines in ECM institutionalisation, perpetuating typical siloed approaches, resulting in a fragmented understanding of human behaviour. This paper discusses the complexity of the human ecological dimension and advocates for an interdisciplinary approach to ECM institutionalisation.
Contribution: Knowledge managers, with their deeper understanding of the human dimension, are ideally positioned to facilitate a systematic interdisciplinary approach to the institutionalisation of ECM, essential for achieving critical success.
 
Publisher AOSIS
 
Contributor None
Date 2025-12-01
 
Type info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion — Ethnography
Format text/html application/epub+zip text/xml application/pdf
Identifier 10.4102/sajim.v27i1.2050
 
Source South African Journal of Information Management; Vol 27, No 1 (2025); 14 pages 1560-683X 2078-1865
 
Language eng
 
Relation
The following web links (URLs) may trigger a file download or direct you to an alternative webpage to gain access to a publication file format of the published article:

https://sajim.co.za/index.php/sajim/article/view/2050/3348 https://sajim.co.za/index.php/sajim/article/view/2050/3349 https://sajim.co.za/index.php/sajim/article/view/2050/3350 https://sajim.co.za/index.php/sajim/article/view/2050/3351
 
Coverage Namibia Present day individuals of working age from diverse backgrounds
Rights Copyright (c) 2025 Hester L. Venter, Martie A. Mearns https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
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