D. C. Gash
ABSTRACT
A variety of current forces have created pressures for the restructuring of organizational units responsible for supporting information services. Changes in the internal structure of information systems units, however, are not always made through formal, rational, and organizationally-planned procedures, but often emerge as a result of ongoing negotiations between members of IS departments. Members of various specialty groups, such as data processing, office automation, and information center staffs, may in fact engage in substantial political maneuvering and jockeying for position as subunit roles become redefined and resources are reallocated.
This paper proposes that it may be fruitful to study the process through which internal structures of information systems or services units are modified from perspectives of organizational negotiation, encompassing notions of political strategies and alliances, segmentation and intersection of subunits, and the creation of negotiable issues. The negotiated order perspective, borrowed from sociology, provides useful ontological and methodological frameworks for this endeavor. Data from larger case analyses are presented to illustrate instances of renegotiation of role relationships among specialist groups, who attempt to create distinctive competencies to ensure their survival and guard their domains.
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Index Terms
- Negotiating IS: Observations on changes in structure from a negotiated order perspective
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