European Conference on Information Systems May 28 th 2015, Münster Raffaele Ciriello Alexander Richter Gerhard Schwabe Track 23: Openness and IT 1 PowerPoint Use and Misuse in Digital Innovation Institut für Informatik
Aug 21, 2015
European Conference on Information Systems May 28th 2015, Münster
Raffaele Ciriello Alexander Richter Gerhard Schwabe
Track 23: Openness and IT 1
PowerPoint Use and Misuse in Digital Innovation
Institut für Informatik
Tu#e, E.R., 2003. The cogni3ve style of PowerPoint. Graphics Press Cheshire, CT.
1996: NASA Space Shuttle crashes after engineers document the fatal threat in PowerPoint
2
Stark, D., Paravel, V., 2008. PowerPoint in Public Digital Technologies and the New Morphology of Demonstra3on. Theory, Culture & Society 25, 30–55.
2003: Colin Powell uses PowerPoint to motivate the invasion of IRAQ
3
2011/2012 – Apple/Amazon CEOs ban PowerPoint
Isaacson, W., 2011. Steve jobs. JC LaTès. Rose, C., 2012. Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos Talks Tech: Video [WWW Document]. Bloomberg.
4
2013: PowerPoint remains the main work tool in project-based organizations
Schoeneborn, D., 2013. The Pervasive Power of PowerPoint: How a Genre of Professional Communica3on Permeates Organiza3onal Communica3on. Organiza3on Studies.
5
Motivation
Large User Base (Parks 2012)
§ 1 billion PowerPoint installations § 350 PowerPoint assisted
presentations each second § 500 million active users
6
Surprising Phenomena
§ PowerPoint as main work product in project-based organizations (Schoeneborn 2013)
§ PowerPoint as malleable artifact that shapes ever more practices (Yates and Orlikowski 2007)
How do employees use PowerPoint in digital innovation? ? Ciriello, R., Richter, A., Schwabe, G. – Power Point Use and Misuse in Digital Innovation – ECIS 2015 – Münster 6
Research Design
Ciriello, R., Richter, A., Schwabe, G. – Power Point Use and Misuse in Digital Innovation – ECIS 2015 – Münster 7
Setting
§ European banking software provider founded in 1990s § Rapid growth to an international marked leader § 2008’s financial crisis increased the pressure to innovate
Data Analysis and Interpretation
Qualitative data analyses over interview transcripts, collected slides and field reports § Codebook (DeCuir-Gunby et al. 2011)
§ Genre analysis (Yates and Orlikowski, 2007)
Data Collection
Ethnographically informed field study (Robinson et al. 2007)
§ 62 semi-structured interviews
§ 41 collected slide decks
Idea Generation & Mobilization
Results
§ Brainstorming § Structuration § Freedom of Expression § Mind Maps § Directly Presentable
Ciriello, R., Richter, A., Schwabe, G. – Power Point Use and Misuse in Digital Innovation – ECIS 2015 – Münster 8
Advocating & Screening
Diffusion & Implementation
Commerciali-zation Experimentation
Idea Generation & Mobilization
PowerPoint
Blinded for Confiden3ality
Advocating and Screening
Results
§ Persuading Presentations § Creating a movement § Spreading the Idea § Provide appealing high level
overview
Ciriello, R., Richter, A., Schwabe, G. – Power Point Use and Misuse in Digital Innovation – ECIS 2015 – Münster 9
Advocating & Screening
Diffusion & Implementation
Commerciali-zation Experimentation
Idea Generation & Mobilization
PowerPoint
Blinded for Confiden3ality
Results
Ciriello, R., Richter, A., Schwabe, G. – Power Point Use and Misuse in Digital Innovation – ECIS 2015 – Münster 10
Experimentation
§ “Paper Point Prototyping” § Collaboration § Collecting Feedback § Sharing digital documents
among project team
Advocating & Screening
Diffusion & Implementation
Commerciali-zation Experimentation
Idea Generation & Mobilization
PowerPoint
Blinded for Confiden3ality
Results Advocating & Screening
Diffusion & Implementation
Commerciali-zation Experimentation
Idea Generation & Mobilization
PowerPoint
Commercialization
§ Working paper § Modelling tool
Ciriello, R., Richter, A., Schwabe, G. – Power Point Use and Misuse in Digital Innovation – ECIS 2015 – Münster 11
Blinded for Confiden3ality
Results
Ciriello, R., Richter, A., Schwabe, G. – Power Point Use and Misuse in Digital Innovation – ECIS 2015 – Münster 12
Diffusion and Implementation
§ Product Presentation § Training Documentation
Advocating & Screening
Diffusion & Implementation
Commerciali-zation Experimentation
Idea Generation & Mobilization
PowerPoint
Blinded for Confiden3ality
PowerPoint Ambivalences Allowing greater freedom of
expression Inhibiting creativity vs.
Persuasiveness of aesthetic slides
Overshadowing the idea’s actual degree of maturity
vs.
… which can display facts that do not yet exist in reality
… when presentations do not provide sufficient information on the idea’s actual state
… as a ready-to-hand tool … when using PowerPoint to brainstorm early ideas already.
Universal business language Misinterpretations vs.
… when communicating with people from different social worlds
… when PowerPoint documents serve multiple purposes (e.g. presentation AND project report)
Ciriello, R., Richter, A., Schwabe, G. – Power Point Use and Misuse in Digital Innovation – ECIS 2015 – Münster 13
Conclusions
Ciriello, R., Richter, A., Schwabe, G. – Power Point Use and Misuse in Digital Innovation – ECIS 2015 – Münster 14
§ People seem to favor general tools over specialized tools
§ Power point should be seen as important part of innovation practices
§ Digital innovation should be seen as a bundle of practices where PowerPoint mediates interaction to a large extend
Thank you – Any questions?
search.dilbert.com/comic/Powerpoint
Ciriello, R., Richter, A., Schwabe, G. – Power Point Use and Misuse in Digital Innovation – ECIS 2015 – Münster 15
References
DeCuir-Gunby, J.T., Marshall, P.L., McCulloch, A.W., 2011. Developing and using a codebook for the analysis of interview data: An example from a professional development research project. Field Methods 23, 136–155.
Desouza, K.C., 2011. Intrapreneurship: managing ideas within your organization. University of Toronto Press.
Parks, B., 2012. Death to PowerPoint! BusinessWeek: lifestyle. Robinson, H., Segal, J., Sharp, H., 2007. Ethnographically-informed empirical studies of
software practice. Information and Software Technology 49, 540–551. Schoeneborn, D., 2013. The Pervasive Power of PowerPoint: How a Genre of
Professional Communication Permeates Organizational Communication. Organization Studies.
Schoeneborn, D., 2013. The Pervasive Power of PowerPoint: How a Genre of Professional Communication Permeates Organizational Communication. Organization Studies.
Stark, D., Paravel, V., 2008. PowerPoint in Public Digital Technologies and the New Morphology of Demonstration. Theory, Culture & Society 25, 30–55.
Yates, J., Orlikowski, W., 2007. The PowerPoint presentation and its corollaries: how genres shape communicative action in organizations. Communicative practices in workplaces and the professions: Cultural perspectives on the regulation of discourse and organizations 67–91.