Strategic Information Management

Theory and Practice

Robert D. Galliers, Dorothy E. Leidner, Boyka Simeonova, Robert D. Galliers, Dorothy E. Leidner, Boyka Simeonova

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000041538
• Edition: 5
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Today, there are few in senior management positions who can afford to ignore modern information technology, and few individuals who would prefer to be without it. Modern IT is key to organizational performance; yet we often assume the benefits will occur without forethought or effort. As managerial tasks become more complex, so the nature of the required information systems changes – from structured, routine support to ad hoc, unstructured, complex enquiries at the highest levels of management. If taken for granted, serious implications can arise for organizations.

This fifth edition of Strategic Information Management has been brought fully up to date with recent developments in the management of information systems, including digital transformation strategy, the issues surrounding big data and algorithmic decision-making. The book provides a rich source of material reflecting recent thinking on the key issues facing executives, drawing from a wide range of contemporary articles written by leading experts in North America, Europe, and Australia. Combining theory with practice, each section is fully introduced, includes further reading and questions for further discussion.

Designed for MBA, master's level students, and advanced undergraduate students taking courses in information systems management, it also provides a wealth of information and references for researchers.

PART I

Foundations to Information Systems Strategy and Strategizing

WE BEGIN OUR DISCUSSION of key aspects of strategic information management by focusing on information systems (IS) planning and strategy making – the bottom layer of Figure P1.1 below. We start with something of an historical focus on IS planning approaches used by organizations and then reflect and provide a critique on some of the popular, taken-for-granted notions before considering in greater depth key conceptual underpinnings that arise from what we have learned on the topic over the years. We end with a chapter with a consideration of the practices concerned with aligning IS considerations within organizational strategies. Thus, as with the remainder of the book, we attempt to combine theory with practice. Additionally, we provide something of a snapshot of our thinking on IS strategizing over two decades and thereby provide a foundation for more recent treatments of the subject matter in subsequent chapters.

Figure P1.1 The focus of Part I: Foundations to Information Systems Strategy and Strategizing

In our search for articles that provide the necessary foundations, we decided to retain two of the chapters from the fourth edition of Strategic Information Management – Chapters 2 and 3 – while introducing new material that provides both a critical reflection on the past and a useful segue into the current and future. Thus, in Part I of the book, we set out to provide greater clarity to what is a key aspect of strategic information management, as well as to highlight the results of more recent thinking and practice.

As already noted, Chapter 1 is retained from the fourth edition of the book. It is written by Michael Earl and considers different approaches to strategic IS planning that had been developed and used by organizations in the 1990s. Based on a study of a number of companies’ actual experiences in IS planning, Earl found five different ‘styles’ of planning approach, ranging, inter alia, from those that were clearly business strategy-driven, to those that were very much focused on technological considerations, to those that focused on the organization of IS services. The framework that emerges from his study may be used as a diagnostic tool to analyze and evaluate an organization’s experience with, and capability in, IS strategizing (cf. Peppard and Ward, 2004).

Chapter 2, by Bob Galliers, is also retained from the fourth edition. In it, Galliers reflects on developments in IS strategy – or more particularly on the processes of IS strategizing over the years, but also on the almost total disregard for IS in the mainstream strategic management and organizational behavior literature for much of the last decade of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st. This is beginning to change thanks to the efforts of those who are concerned with the opening of strategy and the use of IT in this regard (e.g., Morton et al., 2019; Seidl et al., 2019; Whittington, 2014). See also Chapters 16 and 17 for considerations of the role and use of social media in this regard.

As noted in the Chapter 2, the reflections are provided against the backdrop of something of a hiatus in research on the topic in the IS literature at the time. The absence of research in this topic area was somewhat surprising given that IS strategy was becoming increasingly important, with flexible information infrastructures being a requirement for any organization dealing with the kind of turbulent and dynamic competitive environments they are facing. Add to this the emergence of algorithmic decision-making – so-called ‘big data’ – and the use of artificial intelligence; it is of no surprise that the topic is regaining its preeminent place in the IS universe (cf. Günther et al., 2017). The strategic opportunities and associated challenges concerning algorithmic decision-making are topics covered extensively in Chapter 19.

Chapter 3 is also written by Galliers; as the title of the chapter suggests, the focus is on confronting some of the common myths associated with topics in strategic IS that have been prevalent over the past 30 years or so. The topics considered in this chapter are the competitive advantage that can supposedly be derived from IT; knowledge management systems, and issues associated with business – IT alignment. In line with our treatment of the topic of strategic information management throughout the book, the chapter focuses more on the processes of strategizing than on the outcome of the process – the strategy itself. As noted in the introduction to the chapter, Galliers argues that benefit is to be gained from a more inclusive, exploratory approach to strategizing (cf. Galliers, 1993). This perspective is set against the common view, expressed widely at various times over the period, which is concerned more with the exploitation of IT for organizational transformation. Note, for example, the tenor of Hammer’s HBR article (Hammer, 1990). The arguments outlined in Chapter 3 are very much in line with the notion of ambidexterity originally brought to prominence by Michael Tushman (e.g., Tushman and O’Reilly, 1996). Implicit in them is the view that it is to be intellectually bankrupt to accept such common myths as ‘self-evident truths’. Too often we are subjected to hyperbole in the realm of strategic information management.

These arguments are extended in Chapter 4, which aims to unpack the concepts underlying the IS strategizing framework introduced in Chapter 2 by examining, in considerably greater depth, the literature that has informed our thinking on the topic. As with the preceding chapters, it focuses attention on the term ‘strategizing’, with a view to giving emphasis to the processes and practices of strategy making. Importantly, the chapter views IS strategizing as an integral aspect of business strategy rather than something apart that may require alignment (see Chapter 5). The aim is to provide a theoretical rationale for the whole framework and its constituent parts. In line with the rationale of the book to apply theory in practice, however, it concludes with a consideration as to how the framework may be put to good practical use in organizations.

Part I is brought to a close by a chapter that arises from a review of the literature on alignment. Written by Anna Karpovsky and Bob Galliers, the chapter makes the point that, despite the extensive literature on IT/IS-business alignment, the topic has tended to be treated in a predominantly static manner. While they argue that the increasing interest in taking a process perspective on alignment may well be a promising avenue to study the phenomenon’s dynamic nature, it provides only a partial picture of organizational practice in this regard. The authors point out that we still know very little about what it is that people in organizations actually do, on a day-to-day basis, to align IS and related concerns with business imperatives. Thus, in order to address the current gap in our understanding of the practices of aligning, there is a need for research that goes beyond the abstract macro analysis of alignment processes to that which considers the actual micro practices of aligning. This line of argument mirrors the view of ‘practice’ scholars referred to earlier in this Introduction – see also the special issue of JSIS on the topic (Peppard et al., 2014). The authors’ analysis of the literature on the topic leads to the identification and classification of aligning activities that are being undertaken in practice. While the classification of aligning activities is partial, based as it is on the extant literature only, it is argued that it may usefully form the basis for further research of the actual practices that are being attempted. The classification can be added to with further research and can be used in practice to compare and contrast with what is being attempted in individual organizations.

Thus, Part I provides a strong foundation for consideration of the other key topics covered in this book as part of the multi-faceted strategic information management problematique. It deals with how our thinking and practice hav...