Implementing information technology in the NHS: the role of narrative

This paper analyses how groups use narratives in social processes of sensemaking and identity construction and in the pursuit and legitimation of their selfish interests. It does so through an examination of the narrativity of the experiences reported by the developers and users of an information technology (IT) system linking a haematology laboratory and a specialist haematology ward in a large acute hospital. The research contribution the paper makes is twofold. First, it illustrates the importance of group-level narratives in enacting organizational realities and especially in the social construction of IT systems. Second, it suggests that the narrative understanding of groups is a significant domain of organizational inquiry because it is through the spread and acceptance of their narratives that groups exercise their most profound influence.