The confluence of widely available malleable technology and the Òbring your own deviceÓ (BYOD) trend creates a new dynamic for information technology innovation in the workplace. Nontechnical users are empowered to adapt pliable technology in the course of normal usage episodes. We develop a theoretical perspective of adaptation behaviors by extending the adaptive structuration theory (AST) to the level of individuals, and present a topology of adaptation behaviors to capture the rich landscape of this emerging phenomenon. Based on this new theoretical perspective, we propose a research model and perform a survey study targeting young professionals to empirically investigate adaptation of malleable IT by users. Our findings reveal the compounding effects of four distinct adaptation behaviors including the insight that task adaptation mediates the effect of technology adaptation on individual performance. This study contributes by providing a theoretical framework for examining adaptation behaviors, extending AST to the level of individuals, and addressing specific criticisms of AST in the information systems literature.
The relationship between information technology (IT) and a key organizational design variable, firm size, is an important area of study, particularly given the ongoing transition to an information-based economy. To better understand the more nuanced aspects of the relationship, we formulated a bidirectional and time-lagged model that incorporates different perspectives from organizational theories and transaction cost economics. Our two models—the bidirectional and one-year lagged model and the bidirectional and two-year lagged model-were tested using nine-year panel data on IT spending, IT stock, coordination costs, firm size, and relevant control variables for 277 manufacturing firms. We found a sequential interaction between IT and firm size in both of the two models: as a firm grows in size, its coordination activities increase; the firm then uses more IT to handle the increased activities of coordination; this increased use of IT, in turn, decreases coordination costs, and eventually, the size of the firm decreases. It was also found that the presence of coordination costs is necessary for the sequential interaction between IT and firm size, indicating coordination between and within firms is a major reason for firms to invest in IT and for IT effect to take place on firm size. This study has taken an initial step by attempting to empirically examine dual causality and longitudinal effects between IT and firm size, and to reconcile different theoretical perspectives on the relationship between them. We hope this work can act as a catalyst for developing a better understanding of the complex relationship between IT and organizations, with the ultimate goal of offering robust prescriptions for successful structural change.
This study investigates the job satisfaction of information technology (IT) professionals in an environment where computer aided software engineering (CASE) tools are used. Although the recent downturn in the economy might have temporarily eased the IT labor shortage, issues of recruitment and retention of qualified personnel are key to the success of IS development projects. This study presents a model of the combination of CASE tool usage and job satisfaction as related to internal career orientation. Two hypotheses based on this model were tested using empirical evidence collected through a survey method. The first examines whether the career orientation of IS personnel influences their job satisfaction. The second incorporates the impact of CASE tool usage on this relationship. The results indicate that in a CASE tool environment, personnel with a predominant technical career orientation have more job satisfaction than those with a predominant managerial orientation. However, there is a significant and positive synergy between the sophistication of the CASE tool used and managerial competence orientation leading to higher job satisfaction. These findings indicate that combating the IT personnel shortage through task automation may also increase worker satisfaction, thereby decreasing turnover. Careful selection of the CASE tool for use may result in this win-win situation.
Many organizations have undertaken major business process change (BPC) initiatives over the past ten years. Earlier thinking on this topic indicated a significant role for information technology in these initiatives, while more recently the importance of change management has been emphasized. This paper examines a model that proposes various antecedents to successful BPC. Three case studies with varying degrees of BPC project success are described in the context of this model, with the specific goal of determining facilitators and inhibitors to the success of these change efforts. The results indicate that the successful project tended to have facilitators in all dimensions of the framework, including the change environment, process management, and change management. The least successful project exhibited inhibitors primarily in the area of cultural readiness and change management.
Numerous corporations today are outsourcing specific information systems (IS) functions. The diversity of these outsourcing arrangements goes well beyond that associated with the more traditional facilities management. This paper examines outsourcing trends and reports the results of an empirical study on IS outsourcing. Overall IS outsourcing and its five component functions namely, applications development, systems operations, telecommunications, end-user support, and systems planning and management--are examined for their relationships with outsourcing success. The effect of service quality of the provider and the ability of companies to build a partnership on these relationships are hypothesized and studied. Data from senior executives in 188 companies are gathered. Outsourcing success is found to be highly related to the degree of outsourcing of two functions, systems operations and telecommunications. The results indicate that transaction cost theory provides a good framework for IS outsourcing and that asset specificity of outsourcing transactions needs to be considered in any decision to outsource. Also, both service quality of the vendor and elements of partnership such as trust, cooperation, and communication are important for outsourcing success. Implications of the study for research and practice are discussed.
This study empirically develops a taxonomy that has implications for matching information technology (IT) and organizational structures. The taxonomy of IT structure is based on the degree of centralization of computer processing, capability to support communications, and the ability to share resources. By using a multistep cluster analysis, both the membership and number of groups are derived from the responses of 313 firms. Four IT structures are identified: centralized (centralized processing, low communication, low sharing), decentralized (decentralized processing, low communication, low sharing), centralized cooperative (centralized processing, high communication, high sharing), and distributed cooperative computing (decentralized processing, high communication, high sharing). Centralized computing is related to functional organizational forms with low integration and centralized decision making. Decentralized computing is related to product organizational forms with decentralized decision making. Centralized cooperative computing is related to functional organizational forms with high integration. Distributed cooperative computing is related to both matrix and product organizational forms with high integration. The ability to identify and understand the implications of IT structure is of critical importance to both academic and management practitioners.
As more organizations undertake business process reengineering (BPR), issues in implementing BPR projects become a major concern. This field research seeks empirically to explore the problems of implementing reengineering projects and how the severity of these problems relates to BPR project success. Based on past theories and research related to the implementation of organizational change as well as field experience of reengineering experts, a comprehensive list of sixty-four BPR implementation problems was identified. The severity of each problem was then rated by those who have participated in reengineering in 105 organizations. Analysis of the results clearly demonstrates the central importance of change management in BPR implementation success. Resolutions of problems in other areas such as technological competence and project planning were also determined to be necessary, but not sufficient, conditions for reengineering success. Further, problems that are more directly related to the conduct of a project such as process delineation, project management, and tactical planning were perceived as less difficult, yet highly related to project success. This situation was also true for human resource problems such as training personnel for the redesigned process. These findings suggest that reengineering project implementation is complex, involving many factors. To succeed, it is essential that change be managed and that balanced attention be paid to all identified factors, including those that are more contextual (e.g., management support and technological competence) as well as factors that pertain directly to the conduct of the project (e.g., project management and process delineation). As one of the first pieces of empirical evidence based on a field study, this research emphasizes the importance of addressing BPR implementation within the broader context of organizational change in a complex sociotechnical environment.