The use of legitimacy to inform decision-making in digitalisation
A Case Study conducted with Rolls-Royce
Case Study Authors
Liam Ruff (Rolls-Royce) and Dr Manoela Milena Oliveira da Silva (University of Bath)
Context
Digital technologies can potentially deliver significant economic, environmental, and societal benefits. However, with so many digital solutions available, the key question is which of the available options best meets the needs of the organisation, its workforce, society, and sustainability. We use the concept of legitimacy as a way to facilitate rich conversations which explore different stakeholder perspectives, helping to inform decisions about technology adoption.
Objective
For businesses to fully benefit from the productivity gains that new digital tools offer, they must carefully select and implement these technologies. The decision isn’t just about choosing the ‘best’ technology—it requires consideration of the wider context, including financial and societal factors. A key challenge is that while an organisation may seem to have a unified culture, differing opinions and perspectives often exist, particularly between individuals or departments. Uncovering these diverse viewpoints can be challenging.
Within the Centre we have used the concept of legitimacy - that an organisation’s actions are appropriate and acceptable within a certain social context - as a means to explore different stakeholder’s perspectives of adopting new technologies. By looking at technology acceptance through this lens we aim to capture diverse viewpoints, which can help guide organisation’s decisions on which technologies to adopt and how to implement them effectively.
Approach
To explore the concept of legitimacy in an industry setting we developed a deck of discussion cards designed for use in a stakeholder workshop setting.
Initially designed by Dr. Will Brown, the cards have been tested and refined by Dr. Emily Carey and Dr. Manoela Oliveira da Silva. The cards simplify ideas from legitimacy theory into nine main themes and through their design encourage the exploration of both positive and negative aspects during discussions.
To test these cards in an industrial setting, we partnered with Rolls-Royce. Following an initial session hosted by P-LD, the legitimacy cards were trialled in three further sessions at the company with a total of 15 participants both online and in person.
Insight
Participants reported that the cards encouraged them to consider the broader value and impact of digitalisation decisions allowing participants to share their opinions on the topic at hand. By keeping the focus on the specific problem rather than alternative solutions, the cards promoted constructive and targeted conversations. A key insight from the study is that the cards would be useful in justifying, planning, and implementing improvement projects into the business. Additionally, participants proposed that the cards could be used to check existing decision processes to help promote holistic thinking.
Artefacts
Legitimacy and Novel Technology Adoption - Dr Will Brown
Impact
“Given the breadth of potential digital investments/opportunities, P-LD tools such as the Legitimacy Cards trialled have the potential to help better facilitate discussions around digital demands/opportunities ensuring holistic understanding and assessment of the opportunity are considered, especially where there aren’t obvious quantitative factors. This will enable those with the most value and benefit to be selected for delivery to the business.
Following internal trials and feedback the Legitimacy Cards helped encourage a more rounded and engaged conversation around a given topic. Rolls-Royce are interested to see the issued version at the end of the P-LD programme and support further investigations on how the cards, or thinking behind them, can drive improvements to our project selection process of tools/capabilities.”
Liam Ruff, Digital Integration Engineer, Rolls-Royce
For further information on this case study please contact the P-LD at P-LD@bath.ac.uk
Acknowledgement
The work reported in this paper was supported by the Made Smarter Innovation: Centre for People-Led Digitalisation, at the University of Bath, University of Nottingham, and Loughborough University. The project is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) Grant EP/V062042/1.