{"title":"Information systems development and business fit in dynamic environments","authors":"P. Kanellis, Peggy Papadopoulou, D. Martakos","doi":"10.4018/978-1-59140-061-5.CH016","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This teaching case describes the effects of privatization on a large industrial organization and sets the context for illustrating the vulnerability of information systems in turbulent environments. Upon privatization, the company put in place a number of business information systems that crippled them with respect to their initial purpose. At the same time, the policy of the company gave users almost complete autonomy and freedom with respect to meeting their own systems and informational needs. Using this freedom, business unit users developed their own small applications, and cannibalized the overarching systems to give themselves a system that worked by adapting it to their needs. The case presents a detailed, factually accurate chronology of the events, raising awareness to the issue of information systems flexibility by detailing the ensuing repercussions on an organization whose information systems were incapable of dealing with a frantic pace of environmental contingencies.","PeriodicalId":43384,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Cases on Information Technology","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.7000,"publicationDate":"2003-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Cases on Information Technology","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-59140-061-5.CH016","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"COMPUTER SCIENCE, INFORMATION SYSTEMS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
This teaching case describes the effects of privatization on a large industrial organization and sets the context for illustrating the vulnerability of information systems in turbulent environments. Upon privatization, the company put in place a number of business information systems that crippled them with respect to their initial purpose. At the same time, the policy of the company gave users almost complete autonomy and freedom with respect to meeting their own systems and informational needs. Using this freedom, business unit users developed their own small applications, and cannibalized the overarching systems to give themselves a system that worked by adapting it to their needs. The case presents a detailed, factually accurate chronology of the events, raising awareness to the issue of information systems flexibility by detailing the ensuing repercussions on an organization whose information systems were incapable of dealing with a frantic pace of environmental contingencies.
期刊介绍:
JCIT documents comprehensive, real-life cases based on individual, organizational and societal experiences related to the utilization and management of information technology. Cases published in JCIT deal with a wide variety of organizations such as businesses, government organizations, educational institutions, libraries, non-profit organizations. Additionally, cases published in JCIT report not only successful utilization of IT applications, but also failures and mismanagement of IT resources and applications.