Abstract

Abstract. This paper aims at exploring the linkages between standardizing aspects of global information infrastructures and professional identity. In doing so, this paper adopts Beck and Giddens ’ theory of ‘reflexive modernization ’ to analyze how the introduction of a global information infrastructure (the GIS) in a Maritime Classification Company (MCC) transformed work practices and professional identity of ship surveyors. The analysis of the MCC case suggests that tensions between the professional identity of surveyors and the ways in which the GIS infrastructure standardized local practices introduced new risks and ‘radical doubt ’ in surveyors’ work. As a consequence, surveyors strive to re-construct their professional identity and establish new systems of trust to accommodate risk and the standardizing aspects of the GIS infrastructure. While these unanticipated transformations lead to innovative new ways of working through users ’ improvisations and reskilling, it also undermined some of the initially envisioned organizational transformations. Thus, risks do not stem from poor design or lack of strategic alignment, but are rather reflexively produced and diffused through use and management of the technology itself. The paper concludes by giving some implications for theorizing information infrastructures and for the practice The potential for advanced information and communication technologies to enable globally distributed work and global business strategies as well as improving control and coordination, is widely acknowledged in the Information Systems literature (e.g.

Citations