Blending bureaucratic and collaborative management styles to achieve control ambidexterity in IS projects

Managing information systems (IS) projects requires what we refer to as ‘control ambidexterity’, which is the use of different types of control to meet conflicting demands. This leads to the use of contrasting styles of IS project management and creates tensions in managerial practice, neither of which are well understood. We address this theoretical gap in our understanding based on an exploratory case study of an IS implementation project in the financial services industry. Adopting the lens of management styles as a meta-theoretical perspective, we sought to address two research questions: (1) Which management style(s) do IS project managers draw upon in practice and why? (2) What kinds of tensions result for IS project managers and team members from drawing upon contrasting management styles in combination – and how do IS project managers and team members deal with these tensions? Two contrasting styles of management emerged from our data – bureaucratic and collaborative – that are drawn upon by IS project managers to achieve control ambidexterity. Furthermore, drawing upon these two different styles in combination within the confines of a single project creates tensions. We explore these tensions and present an illustrative example of how IS project managers can deal with these tensions successfully in practice. Specifically, we find that they can be dealt with effectively by a tandem of two project managers who share responsibility for managing the IS project. The findings of this study have important implications for our understanding of control ambidexterity in IS projects.     

An institutional theory perspective on e-HRM’s strategic potential in MNC subsidiaries

This paper extends the application of institutional theory to electronic human resource management (e-HRM), and strategic information systems (IS) more generally, in a multinational corporation (MNC) subsidiary setting. By adopting Scott’s (2001) institutional theory perspective, this paper explores the effects of host-country institutional factors on strategic e-HRM practices in foreign subsidiaries. More specifically, the aims of this paper were, first, to shed light on how regulative, cognitive and normative institutional dimensions affect Western-based e-HRM practices in MNC subsidiaries in China, and second, to examine how these institutional factors influence the strategic potential of e-HRM in this setting. Based on interview data collected from key informants in 10 MNC subsidiaries from Beijing and Shanghai, the findings illustrate how institutional pressures create both positive transformational and negative dysfunctional consequences for subsidiaries, and that subsidiary responses to these pressures can substantially affect the ability of IS to achieve its strategic potential. Although observed local adaptations were seen to restrict the strategic potential of IS, in some cases responses seem to have enabled the transposition of a new set of strategic IS practices to this non-Western setting.     

Pre-project partnering impact on an information system project,project team and project manager

Information system (IS) managers have long recognised the need to use project management approaches in the design and delivery of their system development projects. The result has been the widespread use of project teams headed by a project leader or manager. However, given the fact that there has been a low success rate for IS projects, there is a growing need to seek out new methods and controls for projects. One approach involves the practice of altering the project environment prior to the commencement of project tasks. To determine whether such pre-project activities may be effective, a model is proposed and tested relating the activities to the performance of the project manager and characteristics of an effective project team. Data from a sample of 186 project team members indicate that the pre-project activities lead to more effective teams and managers and eventually to project success. Thus, it is important that organisations begin work on projects at an earlier stage.     

Output-driven information system planning: a case study

Information system (IS) plans can vary in length and detail. One must, therefore, be able to tailor the existing planning methodologies to produce the desirable outputs. This article proposes a framework of demand-centric adaptive IS planning process and applies it to a case study that demonstrates how to adapt the methodology to produce an IS plan for a small commercial bank. Following the output-driven adaptive approach, the project was completed on time with expected quality. The project document provides the bank’s management with guidelines for allocating their information resources to meet the current and future needs of business.     

The impact of legitimacy-based motives on IS adoption success: An institutional theory perspective

Firms frequently adopt new information systems (IS). To better understand IS adoption, research has been focused on motives for an IS adoption. In this study, three legitimacy-based motives (coercive, mimetic, and normative pressure) are examined for their impact on two success determinants (i.e., project management approach and team competence) and the subsequent impact of the success determinants on IS adoption success. In a quantitative study of Australian firms, we found that coercive pressure and normative pressure influence the project management approach, whereas mimetic pressure influences team competence. Both the project management approach and team competence in turn influence IS adoption success.     

Using the theory of the professions to understand the IS identity crisis

Academic information systems (IS) is struggling with an identity crisis that is grounded in limited consensus about the discipline's core concepts, its important research questions and its boundaries. The result is a pluralistic discipline that has triggered an ongoing debate about whether the ‘liquidity’ characteristic of IS is a natural consequence of rapidly changing technologies or if it is indicative of a chaotic state that is unsustainable. This paper looks at IS through a new and different lens by using the theory of the professions to gain insight into current and heretofore unidentified problems facing the discipline. Casting IS as a profession presents an integrated view of academic IS, IS practice and IS education grounded in a framework that explores connections among these three elements. The paper concludes with a discussion of the processes by which professions evolve and likely consequences for IS research, practice and education.     

Building Effective Project Teams

Most IS managers know that managing a project to its successful completion is not an easy task. Conflicts among team members often delay a project's schedule and can ruin the team's morale. Although most managers usually follow the traditional, authoritative style of management to control their team members, this style is no longer considered as effective as the more contemporary, collaborative approach. This article describes how IS managers can manage their projects more effectively by creating collaborative project teams.     

Fostering trust in virtual project teams: Towards a design framework grounded in a TrustWorthiness ANtecedents (TWAN) schema

Several collaboration problems in virtual project teams that work in knowledge-intensive contexts can be attributed to a hampered process of interpersonal trust formation. Solutions to trust formation problems need to be based on an understanding of how interpersonal trust forms in face-to-face project teams as well as on insight into how this process differs in virtual teams. Synthesizing literature from various disciplines, we propose a model for the formation of interpersonal trust between project team members. Taking this model as a starting point, we analyse how virtual settings may alter or even obstruct the process of trust formation. One method to improve the formation of interpersonal trust in virtual settings is to facilitate the assessment of trustworthiness. This can be done by making information available about individual virtual project team members. Previous research in virtual project teams focussed principally on the medium by which information is spread, for example, by phone, mail, or videoconferencing. Most researchers failed to take the specific content of the information into account, although there is general agreement that personal, non-task-related information is important to foster trust. For this, we propose to use the antecedents of trustworthiness, which until now have mainly been used as a framework to measure trust, as a design framework instead. This framework of antecedents can also be used to determine which type of information is relevant to assess each other’s trustworthiness. We review existing literature on the antecedents of trustworthiness and extend the well-accepted antecedents of ‘ability’, ‘benevolence’ and ‘integrity’ with several other antecedents, such as ‘communality’ and ‘accountability’. Together, these form the TrustWorthiness ANtecedents (TWAN) schema. We describe how these antecedents can be used to determine which information is relevant for team members assessing others’ trustworthiness. In future research we will first verify this extended cognitive schema of trustworthiness (TWAN) empirically and then apply it to the design of artefacts or guidelines, such as a personal identity profile to support the assessment of trustworthiness in virtual project teams.     

Mobile information systems and organisational control: beyond the panopticon metaphor?

With their ubiquity, mobile information systems (IS) may be used in ways that challenge the dynamics of organisational control, forcing IS scholars to revisit the panopticon metaphor and possibly offer new conceptual tools for theorising about information technology (IT)-based organisational control. Yet little IS research has offered critical reflections on the use of the panopticon to represent the control potential of mobile IS. This study investigates whether the way mobile IS are engaged in the workplace reinforce panoptic control systems or generate other types of control logics, requiring another conceptual lens. A qualitative exploratory case study investigated a consulting company whose professionals equipped themselves with mobile IS. The study reveals the emergence of a subtle, invisible form of ‘free control’ through mobile IS. Although consultants are mobile, flexible, and autonomous, a powerful communication and information network keeps them in a position of ‘allowed subjection’. Free control is characterised by a shift in the location of authority, a time-related discipline, a deep sense of trust, and adherence to organisational norms that the professionals themselves co-construct. These characteristics, which render such control even more pernicious than panoptic arrangements, deserve more attention in further IS research.     

An historically grounded critical analysis of research articles in IS

In order to explore scientific writing in Information Systems (IS) journals, we adopt a combination of historical and rhetorical approaches. We first investigate the history of universities, business schools, learned societies and scientific articles. This perspective allows us to capture the legacy of scientific writing standards, which emerged in the 18th and 19th centuries. Then, we focus on two leading IS journals (EJIS and MISQ). An historical analysis of both outlets is carried out, based on data related to their creation, evolution of editorial statements, and key epistemological and methodological aspects. We also focus on argumentative strategies found in a sample of 436 abstracts from both journals. Three main logical anchorages (sometimes combined) are identified, and related to three argumentative strategies: ‘deepening of knowledge’, ‘solving an enigma’ and ‘addressing a practical managerial issue’. We relate these writing norms to historical imprints of management and business studies, in particular: enigma-focused rhetorics, interest in institutionalized literature, neglect for managerially grounded rhetoric and lack of reflexivity in scientific writing. We explain this relation as a quest for academic legitimacy. Lastly, some suggestions are offered to address the discrepancies between these writing norms and more recent epistemological and theoretical stances adopted by IS researchers.     

Toward an ‘IT Conflict-Resistance Theory’: action research during IT pre-implementation

Most empirical research on users’ resistance toward Information Technology (IT) has been conducted after implementation of IT in organisations. Little research has been done on the way individual and group resistance emerges and evolves during prior stages of projects. This focus on pre-implementation phases is important since Information Systems (IS) managers need to anticipate potential conflicts and users’ resistance that can involve project failure. While IS literature has separately developed theories on resistance and conflicts, we conceptualise a whole theoretic-system we call ‘IT Conflict-Resistance Theory’ (IT-CRT). This theory is used as driver for a 2-year action research project conducted at Netia Corporation (a worldwide leader in video and audio broadcasting) during preliminary phases of its Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation project. According to our findings, while conflicts toward IT implementation are often considered to have negative effects and require being actively managed by top managers, the case study delivers an alternative observation: a passive-like attitude of managers during the IT pre-implantation phase does not prevent the resolution of a socio-political oriented conflict between two groups of employees. Our observations illustrate how the avoidance management style invites team members to cope with conflict situations and to express tacit causes of resistance. While most Management Information System methods tend naturally to maximise users’ satisfaction and to reduce potential resistance, the IT-CRT theory developed in this article supports an alternative approach: enhancing resistance in order to anticipate and resolve latent conflicts that are directly or indirectly related to the project. The underlying message of this article for researchers and practitioners is to consider users’ resistance toward IT as a key process embedded into IT choices and IS design.     

Managing as designing: ‘opportunity knocks’ for the IS field?

In response to anxieties about our discipline's decline, this opinion piece ‘looks to the future’, arguing a strong prospectus for the IS field, based on its direct relevance to general management practice. The thesis set out is inspired by the recent upsurge in interest in ‘managing as designing’. Reformulating management as design, I argue that we have a formidable knowledge-base of tools, theories and critique relevant to any manager, not just the MIS-inclined specialist. A case study of yet another failed information system (in U.K. children's services) is presented to show just how uniquely relevant our discipline is, in the workplace of today. Other pertinent issues are explored, such as synergies with the growing vogue for evidence-based management. The paper concludes by considering implications for research, including the need for a less exclusive approach to publishing and dissemination emphasising the need to make our work more accessible to lay practitioners.     

A model of information systems development project performance

abstract. Performance in information systems development (ISD) projects can be critical to business success. But, while project performance has been the subject of much debate, there has been little empirical research into its determinants. A survey of IS projects in the UK and New Zealand is analysed to test hypotheses concerning performance in terms of both project completion and budget (time-cost) variances. Subsequently, a secondary analysis of the findings is used to build a more complete empirical model of project performance. The paper helps to develop the theory of IS development project performance and also has significant implications for practice. Discussion of the findings highlights the importance of project team dynamics, risk management, senior management support for strategic projects and user participation in ensuring successful IS project performance.     

Fraping,social norms and online representations of self

This paper reports on qualitative insights generated from 46 semi-structured interviews with adults ranging in age from 18 to 70. It focuses on an online social behaviour, ‘fraping’, which involves the unauthorised alteration of content on a person’s social networking site (SNS) profile by a third party. Our exploratory research elucidates what constitutes a frape, who is involved in it, and what the social norms surrounding the activity are. We provide insights into how frape contributes to online sociality and the co-construction of online identity, and identify opportunities for further work in understanding the interplay between online social identities, social groups and social norms.     

Impacts of collaborative IS on software development project success in Indian software firms: a service perspective

The collaborative work of team members has become a common occurrence in software development projects. Collaborative information systems (CIS), designed to facilitate and support teamwork, appear critical for software project success. However, the quality and convenience of the services and functions delivered by CIS have not received robust attention in academia. Hence, the current study investigates the role of the CIS service characteristics of service quality and service convenience in teamwork and software development project success using DeLone and McLean’s (D&M) Information System (IS) Success Model as the theoretical framework. This study incorporates the success indicators of teamwork quality, teamwork performance, and project success as measured by software quality and project performance. Data from 153 Indian software companies confirm that collaborative IS services, as well as teamwork quality/performance, are central to software development project success. We believe that the findings of this study will be helpful to project managers of software development firms.     

The motivation of information technology consultants: The struggle with social dimensions and identity

Increasingly, customer companies hire external information technology (IT) consultants, often on a special project basis. These consultants are employees of professional service firms, although they receive their assignments from the hiring companies, report to them, and are supervised by them. Using semistructured interviews with 12 IT consultants in Sweden, we examine the factors that influence their work motivation, including the effect of this dual allegiance—to the service firm and to the customer company. The data indicate that the primary motivators are the variety in tasks and the opportunity to influence and/or manage an entire project. Neither monetary incentives nor the consultancy firm norms are strong motivators. A factor that affects work behavior and motivation is the subordinate identity that IT consultants must assume with their powerful clients. The article concludes with practical suggestions for managers who seek to understand what motivates employees who work at a distance, under external control. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Rethinking ‘IT/IS use in a technological mature society’ from the actuality point of view: critical learning in reflection on SSM meeting about ‘IT/IS use’

The history of the human-centered system movement (Gill in AI Soc 10(2), 1996) tells us that information technology (referred to as IT below) has come to dominate our life-world or societal functions. Since from 1990s, its streaming influence could be called ‘abnormal.’ Since entering the twenty-first century, the IT system has been on automatic acceleration and has been spreading more and more rapidly to many facets of our lives. In many sectors, this ubiquitous streaming of IT is seen to be central to societal development, and in a Japanese sense, IT could be seen as a resource to realizing technologically a mature society. This trend of IT seems to be unstoppable. In this sense, IT dominance can be regarded as abnormal to the point that IT-centered information systems (referred to as IS below) fall far short of the deep appreciation of the complex and diverse life needs of people and societies, and this leads to the implementation of IT/IS from technological perspective, with a belief that everything, which we can do could be and should be, done now by IT/IS. However, as IT/IS have become to be embedded in many facets of societies and are influencing over our everyday life, we need to examine them not from the point of ‘capability’ but ‘allowability,’ in other words, not from the perspective of technology (cognition), but from the prospective of intuition and feeling of actual life (action). We term reality as seen in the narrow sense of cognition and actuality as seen in terms of action (Uchiyama in Theory and practice of actuality, Daito Bunka University, Tokyo, 2003). We draw a distinction between the two classes of ‘IT/IS’ systems, those which belong to the ‘reality’ and those which belong to the ‘actuality.’ To appreciate this distinction, we propose that this requires not only an understanding of the design of these IT systems but of the methodology of their use and their evaluation. To carry out the process of evaluation of IT/IS systems, we need to develop a new ‘appreciation’ methodology which enables us to rethink ‘IT/IS’ as ‘A system to use IT/IS.’ This idea is similar to the idea of Beck’s (World risk society theory (trans: Shimamura K), Chikuma Scholastic Collection (in Japanese), 2010) reflecting the modern. So, we propose a strict distinction between the two systems classes of ‘IT/IS’ which we call belonging to the ‘reality’ and ‘A system to use IT/IS’ which we call belonging to the ‘actuality.’ The methodology to deal with ‘actuality’ has not yet been developed, but Checkland and Poulter’s (Learning for action, Wiley, New York, 2006) soft systems methodology (referred to as SSM below) intends to deal with this kind of class of systems, that is, ‘human activity systems.’ He uses the key concept of ‘accommodation’ which means ‘to live with different individual world views based on sharing of actuality,’ and thus, he proposes to overcome the idea of consensus which is the agreement with the ‘reality’ level. In this paper, we adopt a methodology based on the SSM’s accommodation and not based on the consensus on the ‘reality’ level. By using such a methodological thinking, we reconsider the problem of evolving technologically a mature society which can be seen as a problem relevant to ‘A system using IT/IS’ rather than the problem of IT/IS itself. In doing so, we could draw some innovative orientations in the field of IT/IS which by traditional methodology could not be drawn. It is not certain whether our attempt could make a difference to the runaway of IT/IS. We illustrate this purpose by studying a workshop process which highlights that even participating experts of IT/IS themselves felt apprehensive about the more and more focus on the implementation of IT/IS solutions both in the present and the future. We believe that the first step toward this purpose is to explore the new orientation of IT/IS use. The aim of this first step is to make a difference to the ‘abnormal’ situation and hope to create a foothold for the reorientation of ‘A system to use IT/IS.’