Analyzing the role of organizational culture in the implementation of user-centered design: Disentangling the approaches for cultural analysis

Usability is an important quality characteristic of a software product or system. User-centered design (UCD) is an approach focusing on making systems usable. Improving the position of UCD in organizations has proven to be a challenge. Organizational culture has been identified as an influential factor affecting the successes and failures of organizational improvement efforts. However, there does not exist studies of the effects and consequences of organizational culture in the implementation of UCD. In addition, there exists a lack of methods and theoretical models with which to reliably, systematically and meaningfully analyze organizational culture in relation to improvement efforts. This paper examines existing research within organizational studies, and proposes three approaches - comparative, interpretive and clinical - within which the role of organizational culture can be examined in relation to implementation of UCD. Implications for prospective research are outlined.