The Digital Transformation Conundrum: Negotiating Complexity Through Interactive Framing

The aim of our article is to explore the interactive dynamics ensuing a digital implementation initiative whilst critiquing the nature and process of digital transformation. We analysed the data emerging out of 59 semi-structured interviews and 90 hours of non-participant observation in order to contextualise our investigation within the healthcare setting which in our case was a large hospital undergoing one of the biggest single-site implementation of digital health technology in Europe at its time. Our empirics is aided by ethnographic techniques and Gioia’s methodology has resulted in a grounded model which has implications for both scholars and practitioners. Through discussion with the end-users within the organisation, the findings highlight three processual landmarks which have been theorised using Erving Goffman’s conceptualisation of ‘framing’. In our study these have been referred to as intrinsic, frictional, and transitional frames, depicting the cognitive progression of end-users when interacting with digital artefacts as well as negotiating the institutional complexity. The three dynamic frames exhibit stage-specific occurrences and offer a complete abstract of a very large and difficult digital implementation project. Theoretically, our study offers a basis for scholars to conceptualise the processual nature of digital transformation through the lens of framing. Interactive dynamics remain underrated or largely ignored when it comes to implementation of such large projects, but we make it salient through the three empirically derived socio-cognitive frames. These frames in our view serves as a practical toolkit for practitioners in any setting visualising the implementation of a digital transformation project.