The Exercise Of Power And Information Systems Strategy: The Need For A New Perspective

Abstract- Computer based information systems (IS) in work-based organisation are generally acknowledged as incorporating a social as well as technical dimension. Information system strategy formation is something that people are said to engage in as they seek to determine what they wish to do with IS, presumably to assist the overall work effort, and yet while the role of power in relation to strategy has been raised by a range of authors, it remains relatively unexplored in relation to ISS. The argument advanced in this paper is that power is central to our understanding of strategy formation in relation to IS. Furthermore, the work of Hardy [36] indicates that we can think of mechanisms of power in at least four different ways, and this framework is discussed. The paper concludes by calling for research that addresses the multi-dimensionality of power, as a means of moving beyond the relatively limited view of ISS formation exhibited in the literature thus far. I