On the Role of Socio-Technical Inertia in Organizational Transformations

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Type and Duration

PhD-Thesis, February 2014 until November 2019 (finished)

Coordinator

Hilti Chair of Business Process Management

Main Research

Business Process Management

Field of Research

Process Management

Description

Investments in information technology (IT) can have a substantial impact on the performance of organizations. However, technology alone does not create a competitive advantage. Complementary changes in organizational resources are needed to activate the potential. In productive environments IT resources are closely tied to organizational entities, which together form socio-technical systems. Accordingly, changes in IT infrastructures, like the implementation of new technologies, can substantially change organizational structures and processes. Information Systems (IS) research studies these changes under the label of "IS-enabled organizational transformation."
Changes triggered by IT are complex and challenging, so studies indicate high failure rates. Though the phenomenon has a long tradition in research, IS-enabled organizational transformation can still be considered a contemporary and relevant research area.
The dissertation project is paper-based aims at contributing to this field of research through literature reviews and case studies.

Reference to Liechtenstein

IT can substantially change all types of organizational processes and structures. As such, the dissertation is relevant to most, if not all, contemporary industrial and administrative organizations, and so it is with regional companies. Accordingly, it is planned to conduct case studies with companies in Liechtenstein during the course of the dissertation.

Keywords

Information Systems, Enterprise Systems, Enterprise Transformation, Business Transformation, Organizational Transformation