IT and Organizational Behavior and Change

Public Information Technology. Organization Behavior, and Organization Theory

Effects of IT on Organizational Structure

Flattening Organizational Structures by Shrinking Middle Management?
Deterritorializing Organizations through Telework?
Centralizing or Decentralizing Organizational Structure?
Reinforcing or Eroding Organizational Power Structures?

Effects of IT on Organizational Behavior

Does IT Weaken Organizational Norms through De individuation?
Does IT Intensify Social Networking and Thus Build Social Capital?
Does IT Improve Managerial Decision Making?
IT and Theories of Organizational Change
Does IT Promote the Diffusion of Innovation?
Is IT Linked to Organizational Evolution toward the Consolidation of Control?

Summary

Discussion Questions for Garson, Chapter 15

1. How has IT investment in private and non profit organizations affected middle management? What structural changes have occurred? Is this unique to public organizations?
2. What conflicting viewpoints exist with respect to teleworking? What action has Congress taken to promote telework? What is the usual managerial view of telework?
3. What are the organizational benefits of a centralized IT office? What are the costs? How does this relate to an organization's management system?
4. Describe reinforcement theory's traditional view of IT with respect to power structure.
5. How is IT related to de individuation? Can you think of a first-hand observation or experience?
6. How do you think information technology affects social networking? Is information technology likely to increase social capital in an agency? Why or why not?
7. How has the process of organizational decision-making changed with IT? Is information technology likely to improve the quality of decisions? Why or why not?
8. IT and innovation do not always go hand in hand. What attributes enhance the diffusion of IT innovations?
9. An "information society" does not guarantee a democratic society. How might IT be used to reinforce non-democratic trends in an organization? In a society?
10. Does information technology tend to change organizational structure?

Discussion Questions for Rocheleau, Chapter 6: Politics, Leadership, And Information Technology

1. What is Rocheleau's thesis in this chapter and how does the DOIT example support it? pp. 177-8
2. What are the "secular trends" Rocheleau sees with regard to structuring the governance of IT? pp. 183-4
3. Who is Paul Strassmann and what is his IT governance philosophy? p. 185
4. Who is apt to be a more effective CIO, a political appointee or a career administrator? pp. 186-7
5. What are some key trends Rocheleau sees in IT purchasing? pp. 189-90
6. What is Rocheleau's point about "perception is reality" in IT? p. 192
7. Rocheleau enumerates 7 ways the IT unit can become embroiled in external politics. What are these? pp. 194-5 ff.