Handbook of Principles of Organizational Behavior - Soltanieh ...

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Use Information Technology
for Organizational Change
MARYAM ALAVI AND YOUNGJIN YOO
The information age is upon us. With a few clicks of a mouse button, we can instantly
access everything from current stock prices to video clips of current movies, with millions of
bytes of information in between. Like the steam engine helped enable the transition into the
industrial age, information technologies are fueling the transition into the information age.
The phrase information technologies (IT) refers to computer and communication technologies
(both hardware and software) used to process, store, retrieve, and transmit information
in electronic form. Today, information technologies are pervasive in industrialized
nations and are changing the way we work and live with an accelerating pace. According to
Forrester Research, it was estimated that there would be over 1 billion personal computers
(PCs) in the world by the end of 2008 and the number is expected to double by 2015. While
it will have taken 27 years to reach the first billion PCs in the world, it will take only seven
years to reach the next billion (Champan, 2007 ). When we consider new forms of computing
devices such as the mobile phone, the number is even more overwhelming. Consider the
following. According to a report by Reuters (November 29, 2007), there were over 3.3 billion
mobile phone subscribers in the world in November 2007, which is the half of the world
population. Furthermore, there are 50 countries in the world that have more mobile phones
than people. One can presume this dramatic penetration of IT will only accelerate over the
coming decade. According to Computerworld, the average spending on information technologies
in the USA by various industries grew to 6.4% in 2008 from 3% in 1993.
Why do firms invest so heavily in IT? What are the organizational impact and outcomes
of IT? What positive changes can be expected and realized from IT applications in organizational
settings? These questions have been of great interest to both researchers and
practitioners in the field of information systems (IS) over the last 40 years. It is expected
that the study of the organizational impact and benefits of IT will increase in popularity
and importance due to the increasing dependence of global commerce on IT as well as
the steady introduction of new information technologies with new capabilities.