The Situatedness of Work Practices and Organizational Culture.

This paper addresses the themes of work practices and organizational culture as situated actions and the implications for information systems innovation uptake. It reports on research being conducted in Tanzania that brings an ethnographic research approach to understanding relations between local health care practices and health information systems (HIS) development, by asking how health workers' practices and everyday actions are influenced by the context of their specific situation. The research is being conducted in the context of a globally distributed open source software project to introduce and enhance health information systems (HIS) in developing countries. Drawing on cultural historical activity theory, the study highlights the need for understanding each information system user's and each organization's specific and detailed work processes and how situational and organizational factors may come together with the HIS innovation processes in meeting the challenges discussed. In order to establish fully the potential of activity theory to HIS innovation processes, situatedness of work practices focusing on the organization context is emphasized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]