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

IT-based process change• Since people are important sources and integrators of information,any maps of information should include people.• There is no such thing as information overload; if information is reallyuseful, our appetite for it is insatiable.IT systems such as Lotus Notes and other forms of groupware are oftenreadily taken up by employees because of the range of ways of sharinginformation offered. However, people need to have time to explore andlearn about the possibilities of these systems so that they can make bestuse of them. E-mail is now taken for granted, but also has downsides suchas ‘non-information overload’ rather than information overload. Nonrelevante-mails take time to scan, process and delete. It is almost too easyto share information via e-mail, and people will do it for their ownreasons (such as covering their backs, making themselves look good,bringing network power into play and making others look bad) ratherthan for the benefit of the recipient.IT systems are expensive to implement. Therefore, it would be beneficialif executives could start to see the difference between deciding toimplement an IT system, and deciding to change the company’s information-sharinghabits. Experience shows us that the first will certainlynot guarantee the second, and the second often requires a culturechange which requires energy, commitment, sponsorship and cleardirection (see Chapter 8).NEW RULES FOR A NEW AGEAs we were writing this chapter, we noticed an interesting article in theHarvard Business Review entitled ‘IT doesn’t matter’ (Carr, 2003). Thewriter suggested that IT is an infrastructure technology, rather than aleading edge one. This means that it is no longer a scarce resource thatcan give an organization an important competitive edge. It is now readilyavailable at less cost, but companies are still investing.For the last 25 years companies have been investing in IT systems to thepoint where they are now firmly built into the infrastructure ofcommerce. Compare this with the progress of the railway, or the electricitygenerator. At certain points during this progression there have305