IT-Related Organisational Change: An IS Theory of Reciprocal Change

Abstract

Information Technology (IT) is indispensable to modern, competitive organisations and is instrumental in the many changes experienced by these organisations. The paper argues that IT-related organisational change follows a reciprocal, causal and cyclical pattern. The pattern begins with an organisation’s social system causing changes to be made to its IT system, which reciprocates by causing changes to be made to the social system. These changes cycle ad infinitum. It is in this environment of IT-related organisational change that managers have to plan, organize, control, govern and lead their organisations toward their organisational goals. To do this effectively, they require theory for explaining and predicting these environments. Indeed, there are existing theories, models and frameworks that address various aspects of IT-related organisational change. However, based on an analysis of these, it was evident that none focuses explicitly on the reciprocal, causal and cyclical changes that occur as social systems and IT systems interact and has been operationalised and tested in various organisational contexts. This was the research problem. Thus, the objective of the paper was to propose such a theory for explaining and predicting IT-related organisational change. The paper is appropriately theoretical in nature and grounded in the academic literature. A framework from the academic literature, Weber’s framework, was used to guide the development of the proposed theory. Weber’s framework specifies the essential parts and qualities of an IS theory. The essential parts are constructs, associations, states and events and the essential qualities are importance, novelty, parsimony, level and falsifiability. For strategic and operational management, the proposed theory is parsimonious yet comprehensive enough to guide the planning, analysis, design, development and implementation of their IT-related organisational change. In addition, it promotes mitigation of undesirable and unintended consequences of IT-related organisational change. For researchers, the proposed theory provides a basis for explaining and predicting change within IS and provides direction for future research in the domain. In addition, the paper presents a process, based on the literature, for informing theory development and clarifying research constructs.