cameron and green making-sense-of-change-management

IT-based process changegauge how much and what sort of attention the development andrunning of IT systems should be given by themselves and by others.To make this decision it is necessary to look at two factors: strategicimpact of application development and strategic impact of existingsystems. For some organizations, the development of new innovative ITsystems has a significant strategic impact; for others, they are morefocused on installing off-the-shelf packages to enhance some aspect ofinternal performance. Similarly, some organizations are 100 per centdependent on IT to maintain operational performance, such as manufacturingorganizations. For others, it might take quite a period of time beforea disruption in IT services would create a significant performance dip.The grid in Figure 8.1 is useful for assessing the organization’s currentIT strategic position and thus deciding how much senior managementattention needs to be spent on IT issues, and how IT should be managed.It is worth noting that the organization may change its position on thegrid over a number of years.Strategicimpact ofexistingsystems(operationdependence)HighLowFactorySupportStrategicTurnaroundLowHighStrategic impact of innovative applications development portfolio(strategic value)Figure 8.1 IT strategic gridSource: adapted from Cash et al (1992)‘Support’ organizations may spend a lot of money on IT, but they are nottotally dependent on IT systems for operational success day to day, minuteto minute. Neither do they gain strategic advantage from innovative applicationdevelopments. A doctor’s surgery would qualify here. In this case,senior management can be quite distant from the IT planning process.285