THE IMPACT OF USING IT ARTEFACTS ON ORGANIZATIONAL ATTENTION: THE CASE OF A CITY HALL

Using the concept of organizational attention proposed by William Ocasio (1997), which states that formal, informal and unofficial communication engages collective attention in issues and action al-ternatives relevant for decision, our study investigates the role played by IT artefacts in shaping at-tentional engagement. Based on a case study of the City Planning Division of the Porto City Council in Portugal, our findings reveal that IT artefacts channel attentional engagement, expanding or hin-dering the ability to understand situations. When shifts in attention are promoted by a changing strategy (the dominant pattern of attention) without the corresponding change in the IT infrastruc-ture, serious difficulties may arise in sharing perceptions that strongly bind collective cognition and action to the achievement of organizational goals (collective attentional engagement). In order to circumvent arising problems, unofficial IT-supported communicative practices tend to emerge. Our exploratory research extends the literature on organizational attention and information systems by providing insights on the impact of IT use on organizational attention