Understanding champion behaviour in a health-care information system development project – how multiple champions and champion behaviours build a coherent whole

Abstract

Champions are commonly suggested as a means of promoting the adoption of information systems. Since there are many different definitions of the concepts of champion and champion behaviour in the literature, practitioners and researchers may be confused about how to exactly use these concepts. A qualitative analysis of a single case study in a Swedish health-care organisation enabled us to explain how different champion behaviours relate to each other and how multiple champions interact. Combining our rich case observations with an analysis of champion literature reveals how champion behaviours form a coherent and meaningful whole in which networks of different types of champions at different levels in an organisation utilise their network of relations, their knowledge of the organisation and their insight into strategic decision-making politics to time and orchestrate the framing of innovations and the involvement of the right people. In conclusion, championing is a complex performance of contextually dependent collective social interaction, varying over time, rather than a heroic act of one individual promoting an idea. Future studies need to focus more on how the relations between different champions and their behaviours develop across innovations and over time, in order to develop a richer understanding of championing.

Keywords:

• champions
• champion behaviours
• information system development
• organisational change
• health-care informatics

Acknowledgements

We thank the members of the VGR organisation for their generosity in sharing their experiences. We are also grateful for the support and insightful comments of the Associate Editor and two anonymous reviewers.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Joeri van Laere

About the authors

Joeri van Laere is an Assistant Professor at University of Skövde, Sweden. He holds a Ph.D. in Information Systems from Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. Joeri performs research at the interface of organisation science, communication science and information systems. His research interests include decision support, crisis management, gaming-simulation, knowledge management, organisational change and distributed work. He has published at several international conferences such as ECIS, HICSS, and ISCRAM, and in journals including the Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, the Journal of Information Fusion and the Journal of Production, Planning and Control.

Lena Aggestam

Lena Aggestam is an Assistant Professor at University of Skövde, Sweden. She holds a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stockholm University, Sweden. Based on systems thinking, in the areas of learning organisations and knowledge management, her research interests include change management and how to achieve sustainable development, information systems development and critical success factors. She has published at several international conferences such as ECIS, HICSS, and IRMA, and in journals including the International Journal of Knowledge Management, Information, the Journal of Cases on Information Technology and the International Journal of Systems and Service-Oriented Engineering.