IT Symbolism and IT Implementation Strategies

IT symbolism is so rich that becomes complicated for managers to understand and control all its dimensions. How could managers take into account the symbolic dimensions of an IT during implementation? We first distinguish three typical symbolic meanings associated with IT: IT as a Solution; IT as an Utopia and IT as a Threat. Then we present a detailed description of these three symbolic meanings and we associate them with IT implementation strategies. We obtain a descriptive grid that managers can use to manage IT symbolic dimensions during implementation.