Theorising Robotic Process Automation as Socio-Technical Change: A Process Study
Date
Authors
Doolin, Bill
Techatassanasoontorn, Angsana A
Waizenegger, Lena
Wallace-Carter, Erin
Supervisor
Item type
Journal Article
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Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Australasian Association for Information Systems
Abstract
Robotic process automation (RPA) is increasingly adopted as a relatively inexpensive automation solution to reduce routinised and repetitive tasks and to initiate an organisation’s broader automation programme. Prior research has focused on highlighting RPA benefits for organisations with suggestions on how to maximise benefits and avoid challenges in RPA implementation. There is less understanding of the emergent and dynamic nature of RPA implementation. Drawing on key elements of socio-technical change, we conducted a process study of RPA implementation in a university. From our analysis, we identified five process patterns: initiation, mobilisation, configuration, adaptation, and evaluation, each of which has different implications for organisational trajectories of RPA implementation. Our findings also offer insights into how the changing role of RPA as an epistemic, technical, and agentic object is intertwined with the dynamics of automation and augmentation in RPA’s conception, development, incorporation into work routines, and evaluation of the initiative’s future.Description
Keywords
0806 Information Systems, 1503 Business and Management, 3503 Business systems in context, 4609 Information systems, Robotic process automation, Implementation, Process theory, Socio-technical change, Case study
Source
Australasian Journal of Information Systems, ISSN: 1326-2238 (Online), Australasian Association for Information Systems, 29. doi: 10.3127/ajis.v29.5451
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Rights statement
Copyright (c) 2025 Bill Doolin, Angsana A. Techatassanasoontorn, Lena Waizenegger , Erin Wallace-Carter. Creative Commons License. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License. AJIS publishes open-access articles distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Non-Commercial and Attribution License which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and AJIS are credited. All other rights including granting permissions beyond those in the above license remain the property of the author(s).