Power, politics, and MIS implementation
Communications of the ACM
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The role of the Data Processing or Information Department is to bridge the gap between the available information technology and the use and users of that technology in the organization at large. Changes in available technology and changes in the nature or scale of information use engender changes in the way the Information Department carries out its mediating role. The growth in the volume of end-user requests for systems, and the character of the systems requested, have made traditional DP methods inadequate. This has led to changes in the organization of work in these departments. This paper presents international survey data on a number of different strategies that have been used to enable Information Departments better to meet enduser demands. It considers factors which lead to the adoption of different strategies in different circumstances. Data from USA, Japan, UK and Scandinavia are used to examine some of the social and cultural factors which can influence the organization of the Information Department.