  There is strong pressure to achieve greater uniformity, standardisation and
application of best practices in the service professions, a sector which is
growing in presence and importance. At the same time, there is a conflicting
demand for the delivery of high quality or highly priced or knowledge intensive
specialised or localised services. Our paper analyses information systems
embedded efforts of standardising service work through an indepth
interpretative study of an ongoing standardisation initiative within the field
of nursing. Nursing provides a graphic illustration of the dilemmas involved in
the standardisation of service work. In nursing, standardisation is commonly a
feature of projects to improve both efficiency and quality in health care. In
contrast to the dominant conception of standardisation as a largely topdown,
imposed process, we offer a view of standardisation as incomplete,
co-constructed with users and with significant unintended consequences. The
paper contributes by developing a theoretical perspective for the
standardisation of information-system-embedded service work and operational and
practical implications for system design and health care management.
