This research throws light on to the role of social issues in developing a successful information system. In a case study of a community health organization, we describe how IT management carried out an integrated set of actions over a two-year period to obtain legitimation for an Intranet system from its eventual stakeholders. We suggest that, in general, a failure to obtain such legitimation may be a factor in systems failure. We use Structuration Theory and Activity Theory to develop a Legitimation Activity Model, which we present as a generalised set of activities that may be applied to other settings when legitimation is sought for an information system.
Donal J. Flynn, Zahid Hussain