Information
Technology and Organizations
Point Summary
Books and Articles
Marie-Claude
Boudreau, Karen D. Loch, Daniel Robey, and Detmar Straud, “Going
global: Using information technology to advance the
competitiveness of the virtual transnational organization,” Academy
of Management Executive, November, 1998, 12(4), pp. 120-128.
It
has become almost axiomatic that business success depends on expanding
the global reach of an organization. Moreover, the adoption of
the transnational organizational model for a multinational enterprise
is widely acknowledged as the preferred means of going global.
Designing effective transnational organizations depend on the
effective deployment of advanced information technologies.
Because globalization requires employees and business partners to be
geographically and temporally distant from one another, deploying
information technologies with a virtual organization is an obvious
choice for overcoming spatial and temporal boundaries.
Marianne
Broadbent and Peter Weill, “Management by maxim: How business
and IT managers can create IT infrastructures,” Sloan Management
Review, Spring, 1997, 38(3), pp.
77-92.
Decisions
on investments in information technology (IT) are both critical and
contentious. With a thorough understanding of a company's
strategic context, managers can identify business and IT maxims that
can help them determine the IT infrastructure capabilities necessary
to achieve their business goals. To achieve a business-driven
infrastructure through management by maxim, business and IT management
must share responsibility for the development of infrastructure.
Renae
Broderick and John W. Boudreau, Human
Resource Management, Information Technology, and the Competitive
Edge,” Academy of Management Executive, May, 1992, 6(2),
pp. 7-17.
Information
technology can improve human resources (HR) administrative,
operational, and planning decisions. However, the competitive
potential of many investments in HR information technology has not
been fully exploited. A framework is proposed that can help
managers see the ways in which different types of computer
applications can help achieve competitive objectives. The 3
primary areas of HR competitive objectives considered are cost
leadership, quality and customer satisfaction, and innovation.
These objectives are matched with different computer applications to
show the way that such matches offer competitive benefits. Three
specific applications are considered: 1. transaction processing,
reporting, and tracking systems, 2. expert systems, and 3.
decision support systems.
Robert
I. Benjamin and Jon Blunt, “Critical IT Issues: The Next Ten Years,”
Sloan Management Review, Summer, 1992, 33(4), pp. 7-19.
A
vision of what the information technology (IT) function in a large
organization must become in order to enable progress is presented.
A best case scenario for computing environment in the year 2000
includes such essential elements as: 1. a hierarchy of powerful
computing capabilities, 2. connections to high bandwidth public
networks, and 3. sophisticated user interfaces that incorporate
advanced ergonomic design concepts. Such a scenario is based on
several assumptions about technology, including the improvement of
cost performance and the standardization of the client-server
architectural model. The restructuring of the industrial
enterprise and the globalization of business are corporate drivers
that will influence the IT function. Application models will
contribute to a revolution in systems development practices. The
major challenge for IT executives will be helping their organizations
exploit the upcoming technology opportunities.
Robert
I. Benjamin and Eliot Levinson, “A framework for managing IT-enabled
change,” Sloan Management Review, Summer, 1993, 34(4),
pp. 23-33.
MIT's
Management in the 1990s program concluded that the benefits of
information technology (IT) are not being realized because investment
is heavily biased toward technology and not toward managing changes in
process and organizational structure and culture. It is argued
that IT-enabled change is somewhat different from change driven by
other concerns. Nonetheless, a number of models from the change
management literature can be quite useful. Their framework
provides a common language for managers implementing IT-based change
and shows how technology, business process, and organization must be
adapted to each other for such change to be effective.
Tim
R V Davis, “Information Technology and White-Collar Productivity, “ Academy
of Management Executive, February, 1991, 5(1), pp. 55-67.
Although
the introduction of the latest information technology (IT) has been
accompanied by hype and fanfare, white-collar productivity has not
shown appreciable improvement. There are a number of reasons why
productivity improvement efforts have failed, including: 1. an
unclear method for managing office work and evaluating white-collar
productivity, 2. inadequate integration of IT with other
business functions, 3. a lack of involvement and oversight by
senior management, 4. the automation of inefficient systems, 5.
the introduction of incompatible hardware, software, and databases,
and 6. disregard for the worker-machine interface in the design
of jobs. The success of productivity programs can be improved
by: 1. redefining white-collar productivity to include
effectiveness, efficiency, and transformations, 2. exploiting
the strategic advantages of IT over incremental gains in efficiency,
3. developing an IT strategy and introducing network standards
for organizational connectivity, and 4. encouraging user
involvement in the implementation of IT.
Michael
J. Earl and Jeffrey L. Sampler, “Market mangement to transform
the IT organization,” Sloan Management Review, Summer, 1998,
39(4), pp. 9-17.
In
recent years there have been calls and prescriptions for business
transformation. There has also been growing pressure for radical
change in how the IT function is organized and managed. There
have been, however, no robust models or frameworks developed to guide
executives in the process of transformation, that is, how to do it.
A 4-stage model in which the balance of attention allocated to supply
or demand shifts over time, but in which neither side is ever ignored,
is presented. The case study company, BP Exploration,
transformed its IT organization during a 6-year period. The
4-stage model involves: 1. recognizing disequilibrium, 2.
emphasizing supply management, 3. emphasizing demand management,
and 4. maintaining equilibrium.
David
F. Feeny and Leslie P. Willcocks, “Core IS capabilities for
exploiting information technology,” Sloan Management Review,
Spring, 1998, 39(3), pp.
9-21.
To
achieve lasting competitiveness through IT, companies face 3 enduring
challenges: 1. focusing information systems (IS) efforts
to support business strategies and using IT innovations to develop
new, superior strategies, 2. devising and managing effective
strategies for the delivery of low-cost, high-quality IS services, and
3. choosing the technical platform on which to mount IS
services. Three strands of research - on the CIO's role and
experience, the CIO's capabilities, and IS/IT outsourcing -
demonstrate that businesses need 9 core IS capabilities to address
these challenges. These capabilities include business systems
thinking, architecture planning, and informed buying. IS
professionals and managers need to demonstrate a changing mix of
technical, business, and interpersonal skills.
Mark
Keil, “Escalation of commitment in information systems development: A
comparison of three theories,” Academy of Management Journal,
(Best Papers Proceedings 1995), pp. 348-352.
Runaway
information technology (IT) projects can absorb resources beyond the
point at which most observers would advocate either canceling or
redirecting the project. The escalation literature provides a
promising theoretical explanation for this phenomenon. A study
compares 3 escalation theories - agency theory, self-justification
theory, and prospect theory - by applying them to a single case study
involving IT project escalation.
Antonio Kovacevic
and Nicolas Majluf, “Six stages of IT strategic management,” Sloan
Management Review, Summer, 1993, 34(4), pp. 77-87.
Wading
through all the advice on strategic planning for information
technology (IT) can be difficult. The presented methodology is
aimed at incorporating IT into a firm's mainstream strategic
management decisions. The methodology involves 6 stages:
1. providing the adequate framework for generating the IT
strategy, 2. exploring the major external forces that determine
IT attractiveness, 3. identifying the basic external IT
strengths and weaknesses, 4. defining the IT action programs, 5.
preparing the budget and allocating resources, and 6. defining
the appropriate organization and management processes and dealing with
cultural issues. Only a system clearly linked to the long-term
drivers of a firm's strategy has the chance to become an important
contributor to the business's success.
Jerry
Luftman and Tom Brier, “Achieving and Sustaining Business – IT
Alignment,” California Management Review, Fall 1999.
This article
identifies the major enablers and inhibitors in the achievement of
business-Information Technology (IT) alignment. Alignment involves the
activities that management performs to achieve cohesive goals across the
IT and functional (e.g., finance, marketing, manufacturing)
organizations.
Donald
A. Marchand, William J. Kettinger, John D. Rollins, John D.,
“Information orientation: People, technology and the bottom
line,” Sloan Management Review, Summer, 2000, 41(4), pp.
69-80.
Excellence
at investing in and deploying IT is not sufficient to achieve superior
business performance; companies must also excel at collecting,
organizing and maintaining information and at getting their people to
embrace the right behaviors and values for working with information.
This paper presents the results of a 2-1/2-year international research
project. It is shown that senior managers view strong IT practices,
competent management of information and good information behaviors as
components of one higher-level idea - information orientation IO) -
which measures a company's capabilities to effectively manage and use
information. Guidelines for effective IO are discussed.
M.
Lynne Markus and Robert I. Benjamin, “The magic bullet theory in
IT-enabled transformation,” Sloan Management Review, Winter,
1997, 38(2), pp. 55-68.
Many
large-scale change management projects involving new information
technology (IT) fail for reasons unrelated to technical feasibility and
reliability. It is also well known that good technology
implementation and change management techniques can substantially
increase the chances of success. Yet many organizations fail at
IT-enabled transformation. In order to successfully implement
change, both line managers and IT specialists must give up their belief
in the magical power of IT. The hard reality of IT-enabled
transformation is that change is everyone's job. The magic bullet
theory of IT and organizational change states that IT changes people and
organizations by empowering them to do things they could not do before
and by preventing them from working in old, unproductive ways.
Failure to employ best practices in IT-enabled change stems from
mistaken beliefs about the causes of change - belief in IT as a magic
bullet.
John
F. Rockart, Michal J. Earl, Jeanne W. Ross,
“Eight imperatives for the new IT organization,” Sloan
Management Review, Fall, 1996, 38(1), pp. 43-55.
The
growing importance of information, coupled with the increased
distribution of the technology to knowledgeable users, has both
information technology (IT) professionals and business managers
re-examining the role the IT unit. There are 8 imperatives in
which IT organizations must excel in order to succeed: 1. Achieve
2-way strategic alignment. 2. Develop effective
relationships with line management. 3. Deliver and implement
new systems. 4. Build and manage infrastructure. 5.
Reskill the IT organization. 6. Manage vendor partnerships.
7. Build high performance. 8. Redesign and managed the
federal IT organization.
Carol
Saunders, Mary Gebelt and Qing Hu, “Achieving Success in Information
Systems Outsourcing,” California Management Review, Winter, 1997.
The conventional
wisdom is that companies should never outsource core functions. This
study of thirty-four large companies, which outsourced for at least two
years, demonstrates that outsourcing can be successful even when
information systems are viewed as core functions. However, outsourcing
negotiations must reflect the role of the company performing the
outsourced functions and the nature of the outsourced work. A critical
key to success in outsourcing arrangements lies in having tight
contracts, even when the outsourcing vendor is viewed as a strategic
partner or the IS function is considered to be core. This article offers
prescriptions for writing contracts and creating balanced arrangements
to enhance outsourcing success.
N.
Venkatraman, “Beyond outsourcing: Managing IT resources as a value
center,” Sloan Management Review, Spring, 1997, 38(3), pp. 51-64.
While
outsourcing might be attractive for some parts of a value center, it is
not a substitute for crafting a strategy to leverage information
technology (IT) resources for business success. An effective
strategy framework recognizes 4 interdependent sources of value from IT
resources and the approaches for managing each source. The 4
components are: 1. the cost center, 2. the service center,
3. the investment center, and 4. the profit center.
Collectively, the 4 components balance the role of IT in today's
operations with the requirements in tomorrow's business context.
N.
Venkatraman, “IT-enabled business transformation: From automation to
business scope redefinition,” Sloan Management Review, Winter,
1994, 35(2), pp. 73-87.
The
role of information technology (IT) in shaping tomorrow's business
operations is a distinctive one. It has become a fundamental
enabler in creating and maintaining a flexible business network. A
framework that breaks IT-enabled business transformation into 5 levels
is described and guidelines are offered for deriving maximal benefits.
The framework is based on 2 dimensions: the range of IT's potential
benefits and the degree of organizational transformation. The
central thesis is that the benefits from IT deployment are marginal if
only superimposed on existing organizational conditions. The
framework's 5 levels are: 1. localized exploitation, 2.
internal integration, 3. business process redesign, 4.
business network redesign, and 5. business scope redefinition.
Organizations should first determine the level at which benefits are in
line with the costs or efforts of the needed changes and then proceed to
higher levels as the demands of competition and the need to deliver
greater value to the customer increases.
N.
Venkatraman and John C. Henderson, “Real strategies for virtual
organizing,” Sloan Management Review, Fall, 1998,
40(1), pp. 33-48.
Current
models of organizational strategy and structure fail to meet the
challenges of the information age. Based on a field study, an
architecture for virtual organizing is developed that focuses on the
importance of knowledge and intellect in creating value.
Information technology lies at the heart of this business model for the
next century. This approach incorporates 3 interdependent vectors:
1. customer interaction, 2. asset configuration, and 3.
knowledge leverage. Each of the 3 vectors has 3 stages, and each
vector raises a distinct series of questions for managers. The
overall challenge for companies is to harmonize the 3 vectors and to
undertake external benchmarking when experimenting with different
approaches to design.
Case Studies
John
Cross, “IT Outsourcing: British Petroleum’s Competitive Approach,” Harvard
Business Review, May-June 1995.
In
1993, BP Exploration Operating Co. Ltd., the $13 billion division of
British Petroleum Co. that explores for and produces oil and gas,
outsourced all its information technology operations in an effort to cut
costs, gain more flexible and higher quality IT resources, and refocus
the IT department on activities that directly improve the overall
business. BP Exploration took a different path to outsourcing than most
companies have taken. The company sought a solution that would allow it
both to buy IT services from multiple suppliers and to have the pieces
delivered as if they came from a single supplier. To that end, three
contractors were hired and required to work together to deliver a single
seamless IT service. This arrangement--multiple IT suppliers that act as
one--is the cornerstone of the company's outsourcing strategy. The IT
department has final accountability for IT services, but it is not mired
in the operations. Only by relinquishing operations could IT employees
begin to focus on doing business instead of running the business.
Mahmoud
M. Watad, Frank J. DiSanzo, “Case study: The synergism of
telecommuting and office automation,” Sloan Management Review. Winter,
2000, 41(2), pp. 85-96.
A
company's sales workforce must be able to present their products and
services using state-of-the-art personal computer technology. To
communicate effectively with the company's main office, a salesforce
working in the field must be able to collect and transmit order data
from remote locations. A discussion of how a company combined salesforce
automation with a telecommuting program to create 2 new business
strategies designed to improve organizational performance is presented.
A framework for conducting a cost/benefit analysis is also provided. It
is concluded that the start-up cost of the telework program was high
because the IT infrastructure was not current; however, the direct costs
and savings offset each other within 3 to 4 years. Additionally, ongoing
costs declined rapidly, depending on the number of new teleworkers
joining the organization.
Nicole
A. Wishart, Joyce J. Elam, and Daniel Robey, “Redrawing the
portrait of a learning organization: Inside Knight-Ridder, Inc.,” Academy
of Management Executive, February, 1996, 10(1), pp. 7-20.
Contemporary
descriptions of the "learning organization" have appeared
throughout the management of literature. These descriptions
portray learning organizations as capable of adapting to changes in the
external business environment by practicing continuous renewal of their
structures and practices. Many accounts of learning organizations
suggest that the path to becoming a learning organization is often
wildly experimental, intensely focused around team processes, structured
into nonhierarchical clusters, and operating in virtual time/space
through electronic networks. For many managers, such a radical
image might discourage attempts to enhance performance by becoming a
learning organization. Ongoing experimentation, innovative human
resource programs, radical revisions in structure, and generous doses of
information technology may simply be too risky, especially where payoffs
are uncertain. By offering a less radical portrait of one learning
organization, Knight-Ridder Inc., a discussion demonstrates that
learning can be attained by using more conventional means.
Philip
W. Yetton, Kim D. Johnston and Jane F. Craig,
“Computer-aided architects: A case study of IT and strategic change,” Sloan
Management Review, Summer, 1994, 35(4), pp.
57-67.
In
traditional theories of how information technology (IT) is applied, a
firm develops a business strategy, then chooses the structure and
management processes, aligns IT, and ensures that employees are trained
and their roles are well designed. Analysis is presented of a case
in which business transformation occurred along a different, almost
reverse, path to fit, through the incremental adoption of IT. At
Flower and Samios, a small architectural firm located in Australia,
business strategy emerged gradually and was an outcome, rather than a
driver, of change. The case shows how individual mastery,
organizational learning, and the management of risk are critical
components of a strategic change in which IT becomes an integral part of
a firm's core business processes.
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