Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research

Hasu, M. (2000). Constructing Clinical Use: An Activity-Theoretical Perspective on Implementing New Technology. Technology Analysis and Strategic Management, 12 (3), 369-382. (Special issue on The Intersection of Innovation Studies and Critical Management Studies)

How do individual users survive an introduction of an innovation into complex technological and organizational contexts? An analysis is presented of the implementation of radically new technology, a neuromagnetic measuring system (MEG), to hospital environment. The analysis, in 1997, covers the attemp during its first five months to take MEG into clinical use at a hospital laboratory, and follows the central actor, a consulting phycisian who was hired to start the clinical service. An activity-theoretical framework is used to analyze the difficulties of the multi-organizational implementation process. The framework (1) emphasizes the importance of analyzing the perspectives of different actors on implementation; (2) provides means to explore the developmentally significant contradictions in an organizational setting of an implementation, and (3) discusses the user problems and user initiatives signalling a need for collective learning within implementation.