Designing IT for Governance - The Case of Employee-Owned Businesses. The Case of Employee-Owned Businesses

We investigate three small employee-owned businesses: a consultancy, a business within art restoration, and a software business, and how they apply and reshape digital resources to commonly govern their businesses as there is no single tool that caters to their specific needs. Using the concept of digital bricolage as a lens, we find that the businesses apply a combination of digital resources at hand to meet their needs, they use these tools in well-known ways, and create new solutions, but do not look for ideal solutions. We furthermore find that believing in a common set of values shapes “the bricolage”, an aspect not found in the literature. These shared values further inform how technologies are used in practice. The values are shared internally but differ between the businesses. This has implications for the design of future tools that can help businesses govern collective decision-making.