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Studies of the dark side of Information Systems are encountered with increasing frequency. In this paper, we investigate how selected hotel employees in China deliberately subvert IT Policy in order to gain access to the IT applications that they believe essential to work. Following a review of the literature on IT governance, resistance and subversion, we engage in an interpretive case study of employee practices, drawing on the Work Systems framework to analyse employees’ work practices and subversive behaviour. We suggest that subversive IT behaviour may be more common than the limited literature would suggest and encourage researchers to probe these organisational practices and solutions in depth.

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Subverting Organisational IT Policy:A Case in China

Studies of the dark side of Information Systems are encountered with increasing frequency. In this paper, we investigate how selected hotel employees in China deliberately subvert IT Policy in order to gain access to the IT applications that they believe essential to work. Following a review of the literature on IT governance, resistance and subversion, we engage in an interpretive case study of employee practices, drawing on the Work Systems framework to analyse employees’ work practices and subversive behaviour. We suggest that subversive IT behaviour may be more common than the limited literature would suggest and encourage researchers to probe these organisational practices and solutions in depth.