Abstract
The advances in technology and the increasing number and range of applications place considerable demands on IS management. The role and structure of IS departments have to adapt in order to realize the opportunities and control the risks discussed in this book. This chapter re-examines the organization of the IS function in the light of these changes. Our focus on the IS department means that we shall not consider the impact of the technology on the rest of the organization. There is conflicting evidence as to whether IT increases or decreases the influence and power of middle management relative to that of senior management. Whether IT favours more centralized or decentralized organizations depends upon the unique situation of the individual company. Such a discussion is outside the scope of this chapter; readers are referred to the growing body of literature [1,2].
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Suggested reading
The organizational environment Crozier, M., The Bureaucratic Phenomenon, Tavistock Publications, 1964.
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Keen, P.G.W., ‘Information systems and organizational change’, Communications of the ACM, 24(1), 24–33, 1981.
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End user computing Panko, R.R., End User Computing: Management, Applications, and Technology, Wiley, New York, 1988.
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IS departmental structure Earl, M.J., Management Strategies for Information Technology, Chapter 7, Prentice-Hall, Hemel Hempstead, UK, 1989.
King, J.L., ‘Centralized versus decentralized computing: Organizational considerations and management options’, Computing Surveys, Vol.15, No.4, 319–349, 1983.
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© 1991 I. O. Angell and S. Smithson
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Angell, I.O., Smithson, S. (1991). The organization of the information systems function. In: Information Systems Management. Information Systems Series. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21555-3_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-21555-3_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave, London
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