Information and Knowledge Management using ArcGIS ModelBuilder

Gunilla Myreteg
social context (Orlikowski, 2000). Organizational life is complex with a lot of things going on: a “mishmash
of interrelated influences” (Scapens, 2006, p. 10) that we need to understand. The social
dimension makes the process of implementing an ERP system complex and indeterminate.
The analysis investigates the possibilities and obstacles that may occur during the process, regarding
how, when and by whom information should be stored in, or taken out of, the ERP system. The
purpose is to develop an understanding of how an ERP system is involved in the process of storing
and recalling information about events and transactions taking place in the organization. The
understanding will however not lead to a generalization of explanations that predict the process,
conditioned or restricted by a number of contingency variables, or the like. This is not possible, since
human behaviour is carried out in a complex environment and also depends on “the very facts of
human long-term memory and of the capability of human beings individually and collectively, to learn.”
(Simon, 1979, p. 510) Organizational life and practices are affected by broad economic, social, and
organizational trends, but are also affected and shaped by unique factors in the specific organization.
2. Organizational memory and ERP systems
Information about the past can and is stored in the organization (Walsh and Ungson, 1991). The
possibilities of automation of routines through the use of IT (Zuboff, 1988) have led to a reducing of
costs for information storage. Still, not everything is recorded; a distinction is made between what is
considered relevant to future actions or not (Levitt and March, 1988). The organizational memory is
orderly but contradictive, due to inconsistencies and ambiguities (Levitt and March, 1988). Claims are
made that the ERP system may be used by management as a means to take control of processes of
efficiency, and ensuring a wise decision making, since it supports standardization and automation,
which may serve as a foundation for mutual understanding, coordination, and the sharing of real-time
information within the organization (Chapman, 2005). The ERP system is embedded within the
organization as it is closely involved with surrounding conditions (Orlikowski, 2000). Experience plays
an important role when an ERP system is implemented, and both formal training and participation in
practice are useful means in the process of learning the new technology (Robey, et al., 2000). A risk
lies in an organization relying on past experiences so that they form a competency trap (Levitt and
March, 1988), where old experiences have shaped the organizational memory in a way that becomes
an obstacle to letting new experiences change organizational action (Robey, et al., 2000) even when
the old procedure is inferior.
The notion of organizational memory has been elaborated upon in the field of information systems by
use of the theoretical concepts acquisition, retention, maintenance, search and retrieval (Figure 1).
Acquisition Retention Search Retrieval
Producer of
Holding storage
(ERP system)
Consumer of
information information
Maintenance
Figure 1: The ERP system as part of the organizational memory (elaborated from Stein and Zwass,
1995, p. 103).
Acquisition is when the organization, by internal or external, organizational or individual producers of
information, acquires information. If this information is put into a holding storage, such as an ERP
system, the information is retained within the organization. An organizational memory is created. After
retention it is necessary to maintain the information within the holding storage, so that it is saved over
time. This leads to the possibility of later making a search for the information in the holding storage.
This possibility means that organizational memories can be recalled: retrieval. The fact that
information may be acquired and saved by one person, and later searched for and “remembered” by
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