Organizing Vision and Local is Practices : A France-U.S. Comparison

In their Organizing Vision model, Swanson and Ramiller called for more research on the relationship between inter-organizational “authorized” (legitimated) discourse on IT and organizational practices. In this paper, the research question is focused on national differences in the way cross-organizational discourses interact with local practices. The methodology used includes the identification of so-called “authorized” ideas through an analysis of both French and US publications (using thematic and lexicometric analysis), as well as IT forums, from 1999 to 2003. This analysis is then merged with an overview of French and American case studies. The results demonstrate strong differences in the OV production systems, as well as in organizational behaviour’s reaction to cross-organizational discourse