Module 2 discussion
Decision Making and Information Politics
As IT applications become more reutilized all across the
board, one of the interesting features are the occasional employees who know
more than the IT staff about some critical thing, often many of them.
Communication between staff and IT then becomes much more complicated, because
the balance of power between the two groups based on the dependence of staff on
IT for help and support breaks down. While there is certainly nothing wrong
with knowledge about technology it can lead to mixed messages, confused goals,
feelings of lack of appreciation and lack of support, and generally less than
effective maintenance of IT across-the-board. We certainly don’t want to
discourage our staff from acquiring technical knowledge, but we also don’t want
them to use that knowledge as a political weapon against IT’s control of IT. Or
do we? Maybe it’s a good thing to have a level of stress between staff and IT
if it serves to keep both groups on their toes and trying to outdo each other.
At any rate, user support isn’t just looking after the least
technological staff; increasingly, it’s also providing for the power users, and
those who would be power users. Have you had any experience with this
knowledge-based tension between staff and IT? Even if you haven’t, can you see
how it could be a problem? What should we be doing about it?
We’ll be interested in your ideas here.
(Note: Students are STRONGLY encouraged to respond to each
others posts and to ask each other questions based on their posts. Obviously,
the earliest posters will have to respond to the “seed” question to
get the discussion started. But subsequent posters should read through all the
previous responses and can respond to something in a previous post rather than
the “seed” question. For example, if you have had a similar problem
as a previous poster or disagree with a point that a previous poster made, you
can respond directly to the previous poster and get credit for participating in
the discussion.)
