The dynamic environment of an organization makes management difficult. This is especially true in information systems (IS) departments. A new theoretical model, based on structured interviews with IS executives, proposes ways that some dimensions of the environment create problems for IS management. IS managers develop coping mechanisms to attenuate or prevent these problems. They use these coping mechanisms either to resolve the problems directly or to influence the environment to prevent the problems. The new theoretical model facilitates an organized study of the relationship between the IS department and its dynamic environment.
Recent research has shown that the difficulty of convincing top management of the potential strategic impact of information systems impedes information systems planning. Interviews with 20 top information systems executives revealed reasons for this difficulty and techniques that they use in attempting to overcome it. The results suggest the importance of information systems executives' skills and activities necessary for the selling of information systems products and services. The research also raises three controversial questions for future investigators.
Twenty information resource managers employed by medium to large organizations in diverse industries were interviewed to discover their difficulties in learning top management's objectives and their techniques for overcoming these difficulties. The thirteen difficulties can be viewed as strategy formulation or strategy communication problems. The sixteen techniques can likewise be viewed as facilitating strategy formulation or strategy communication. The research revealed that participants in strategy formulation have no problem understanding top management's objectives while information resource managers who do not participate in strategy formulation do experience that problem. This article will review the growing importance of information in organizations and the need to integrate the objectives and strategy of the organization with those of the information function. The research methodology section will then discuss sample considerations and the structured interview process which was used to gather data. Following this, the results will be presented. The findings indicate that it is useful to view the difficulties as roadblocks to the formulation of the IS plan or to the communication of that plan. Several techniques for overcoming these difficulties wilt be outlined and the implications of these findings for research and practice will be discussed.