Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
IT Vision Contextual Setting
The
perception of the role of information technology
(IT) is synonymous with the
concept of one's
vision
for how IT ought to be exploited within a given organizational
environment. The term “vision” has been defined in several ways. Most definitions agree that
vision is one's conceptualization of a
potential future state
of an entity that is widely shared
with others (Collins & Porras, 1991; James, 1985; Locke, 1991; Nanus, 1992; Nanus & Bennis,
1989; Robbins & Duncan, 1988; Walton, 1989).
Developing a vision is a means of describing an idea and its potential impact. Former
AT&T Executive, Archie McGill stated, “The issue is that incremental change will get you
a ticket into day-to-day survival, but it won't get you a ticket for long-range survival. The
only way I know to get at fundamental change is by creating new visions of the company,
the organization, and its direction” (Walton, 1989, p. 53). Leadership expert Burt Nanus
suggested that articulating and gaining support for a vision (i.e., selling one's vision; acting
as a champion) increases the probability of successfully transforming the vision into reality
(Nanus, 1992).
Escalating IT costs, increased market pressure, and the growing sophistication of end
users have sparked interest among practitioners and researchers to develop a means of
focusing stakeholder attention and commitment toward broadly defined, common objectives
for IT. An IT vision is essentially an organization's rationale for investing in IT resources by
articulating the
role of IT within the organization
, in the future (e.g., 1 to 5 years). Past
research has shown the usefulness of considering the nature and impact of the organizational
leaders' shared
vision
of the role of IT (Feeny et al., 1992; Armstrong, 1995). In fact, Feeny
et al. (1992) found the IT vision contextual factor to be “the single most powerful discrimi-
nator” in their study of the CEO/CIO relationship.
The Feeny et al. (1992) CIO instrument, which operationalized Schein's (1989) four
strategic IT visions, is used here for the IT vision contextual setting. Presumably, the four
IT visions presented below relate to the
factors
CIOs consider when making decisions and
the
activities
that govern their behavior:
•
Transform: Agency can be fundamentally changed through the use of IT, including the
terms of our relationships with suppliers and customers and the boundaries among us
(
n
= 26).
•
Informate Up: Data and transactions allow more clear and organized management views
of the state and dynamics of the agency (
n
= 7).
•
Informate Down: Data and transactions provide a fuller picture at the operator level,
with members of the workforce gaining insight into their activities (
n
= 3).
•
Automate: Role of IT is to replace expensive, unreliable human labor, or at least
transform its productivity (
n
= 4).
Respondents were asked to indicate which of the four visions “best describes your
perception of the role of IT within your agency.”
Due to the small sample sizes of the latter three groups (i.e., informate up, informate
down, automate) these three groups were combined into one “Nontransform” group.
Because the Transform group represents the only CIOs sampled who perceive the role of IT
to be one in which their agency can be
fundamentally changed
, rather than merely a support
capacity, this seemed to be an acceptable consolidation for the IT vision contextual setting
