Information Technology

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Information Technology Information Systems
really Business Systems
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The problem of users
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Can you really manage users?
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Example from ING Financial
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IT doesnt matter
Harvard Business Review article 2003
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Versatilitys the it for IT workers The
Greenville News, page E1, Sunday, March 26, 2006
Make no mistake If you are an IT specialist who
ignores or downplays the demand to develop
business-oriented competence, you are at risk of
being unemployable within the next five years.
By 2010, 6 of 10 people affiliated with the IT
organization will assume business-facing (vs. IT
contained) roles.
business knowledge and leadership, and skills in
communication, negotiation, and networking are
becoming imperatives for IT careerists.
many times people will discount these as soft
skills which are treated as not important. But
pure techies are not going to survive.
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IT/IS managers do things like these
Initiating and prioritizing work
Planning projects
Specifying requirements
Designing system features
Testing validating
Implementing the change
What ideas from the book challenge your thinking
here?
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Types of IT/IS application systems
Transactions - customer and internal (movement
of resources)
Management tactical (evaluation control) and
strategic (direction)
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Guiding Issues
A decision is only an opinion until an action is
taken
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Guiding Issues
A decision is only an opinion until an action is
taken The fundamental issue for all of us is
how do we get people to do those things that
add value to the organization and refrain from
doing those things that reduce value
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Guiding Issues
A decision is only an opinion until an action is
taken The fundamental issue for all of us is
How do we get people to do those things that add
value to the organization and refrain from doing
those things that reduce value The moment you
measure . The intersection of empirics and
behavior
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Guiding Issues
A decision is only an opinion until an action is
taken The fundamental issue for all of us is
How do we get people to do those things that add
value to the organization and refrain from doing
those things that reduce value The moment you
measure . Teasing a story out of the data What
is it about data that can direct future behavior?
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A timeless debate on role!
Meet users needs vs. Produce correct
business practices
reactive
proactive
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Lets take a break and then look at
Organizational Change
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Managing Change is an episodic activity
Point Change has a beginning, a middle, and an
end. Change is an effort to sustain
equilibrium, meaning a change in one variable
begins a chain of events that requires
adjustments in other variables. Implementing
change in an organization is like captaining a
large ship traveling across calm waters to a
specific port with a crew that has traveled
together many times, until a storm appears. That
is, implementing change is like responding to a
break in the status quo needed only in occasional
situations.
Counterpoint The episodic approach may have
been the dominant paradigm for handling change,
but it has become obsolete. Todays environment
is more characterized by constant and
chaotic change, rather than an occasional disturba
nce in an otherwise peaceful world.
Implementing change in an organization is more
like white water rafting with 10 people who have
not worked together or traveled the river
together before. the river is dotted by
unexpected turns and obstacles and the exact
destination of the raft is not clear. Change is
a natural state and managing change is a
continual process.
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Continuous Radical Unintended
Evolutionary
Purposeful functional
Purposeful organizational
Academy of Management Journal, June 2007
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How would the type of change impact Innovation?
Leadership? Employee readiness or
resistance?
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Quadrants 1, 2, and 3 move away from Equilibrium
but towards stability.
Quadrant 4 moves away from equilibrium but
towards Instability Emergent adaptations occur
as individuals and subunits improvise and learn.
These adaptations accumulate, gather momentum,
and become transforming as they occur in the
midst of major system instability. The
momentum for radical change seemd to lie at the
intersection of an emergent idea that bubbled up
from below, destabilizing conditions that
encouraged emergent self- organization, and
leaders who were skillful at recognizing and
giving meaning to emerging patterns.
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The rationale for change?
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Asymmetries of Organizational Change
Motivation and Benefit
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Organizational Change Content (Burke Litwin,
1992)
distal
Cascading
External Environment
proximal
downsizing evolutionary new
technology reorientation mergers
acquisitions radical
P E F O R M A N C E
distal
Strategy Structure Culture Power Control
Systems
Organization level
Structure Goals Work Processes Norms
Work Unit level
Individual level
Job Workplace
proximal
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SO, how does organizational change translate down
to the employees?
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Organizational Change
Lewins Change Model (3 stages) Unfreezing -
create motivation to change Changing - putting
in place the new (processes, tools, etc.) focus
is on learning Refreezing - making the new
normal compliance, identification or
internalization
the reason so many change efforts run into
resistance or outright failure is usually
directly traceable to their not providing for an
effective unfreezing process before attempting a
change induction (Schein, 1979)
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Resistance to change - response to threat NOT
human nature Some traits more open to change
than others tolerance for ambiguity openness
to experience learning orientation positive
self-efficacy internal locus of
control Resistance to change is more of the
result of change barriers than the cause of
failed change.
Employee resistance is symptomatic not
problematic !!!!!
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Breaking Social Habits
Dissatisfaction Disequilibrium Discomfort
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Organizational Change
Steves Model
participants
end
high
beginning
low
adversaries
neuters
supporters
committers
How do you reverse the curves?
Manage the risks !!
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Behavior Model
Individual
skill
Traits States KSAs Needs Attitudes
effort
Motivation Process
Behavioral Outcome
cognition emotion physiological
Job Design Hygiene factors Reinforcement Goals Jus
tice Feedback Culture
facilitator/inhibitor
Choice Striving
Situation