From Implementation to Integration: How employees stabilize additional ERP functionalities in existing routines
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2025-07-07
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en
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Abstract
As ERP systems like SAP increasingly structure organizational routines, understanding how
users incorporate new functionalities remains a crucial challenge. While current literature has
emphasized the role of technological artifacts in stabilizing routines (D’Adderio, 2011) and the
mutual shaping of human and material agency (Leonardi, 2011), less is known about the
stabilization process of additional functionalities being layered upon already existing routines,
and how different user perceptions shape this process. This thesis investigates how employee
perceptions shape the stabilization of SAP Scheduling functionalities within existing work
routines at a pharmaceutical company.
Through interviews and observations, the study found that affordances and constraints
alone cannot explain user behavior. Instead, four perception-based user groups emerged:
positive, negative, mixed, and passive. Each group followed a distinct stabilization trajectory.
Surprisingly, passive users, who showed low engagement and limited expectations, were most
likely to reach full black-boxing. In contrast, highly engaged positive users remained stuck in
loops of adaptation and disappointment.
These findings challenge the current literature, which saw active engagement as a
facilitator for stabilization. They also demonstrate that stabilization is not a static endpoint but
a recursive process, shaped by evolving user perceptions. The thesis introduces the concept of
re-black-boxing and highlights how imbrication mediates shifting user-system relationships
over time.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen