IT roll-out or IT-related organizational change in focus? : A qualitative study on how perspective differences influence IT-enabled change programs

Sammanfattning: We have studied a global corporation that is implementing an IT-enabled change program which affect the whole organization. In this change, there exists many different perspectives that we divided into groups to enable analysis. The different perspectives hold differing missions and knowledge bases which in turn affect their respective understanding of the change and its purpose. In this study, we have divided perspectives according to two dimensions: program – project and business – IT. The aim has been to understand how these different perspectives affect change implementation. We have interviewed individuals from multiple positions in the organization to understand their view on what is happening in the organization and how they relate to the various issues found in the change program. We have found that there are many instances where misunderstanding can arise because the stakeholders involved in the change lack mutual understanding of each other’s perspectives. When there is an imbalance between perspectives, IT-enabled change is likely to become an IT roll-out and not an IT-related organizational change. We believe that when stakeholders of change broaden their awareness and understanding regarding the different perspectives that exist, they can enable coordination and cooperation between perspective groups. This will in turn help with successful change implementation.