Information Technology, Control and Power: The Centralization and Decentralization Debate Revisited*

Bloomfield, Brian P.; Coombs, Rod

doi:10.1111/j.1467-6486.1992.tb00674.x

Cited by 185 publications

(107 citation statements)

References 23 publications

(12 reference statements)

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“…Disciplinary technologies are not exclusively constraining. Instead, they open up a new and legitimate discursive space for action (Bloomfield & Coombs, 1992). However, according to the problem we faced, the introduction of the UCAN was bound to bring subtle, negative, yet far-reaching effects on the autonomy of comprehensive/academic universities.…”

Section: Reflectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information System Innovation as a Social Action: The Case of Career and Vocational Helping Systems

Wang

Shiahhou

et al. 2014

Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology

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I n the past 10 years, under the common problems of unemployment of people with a higher education and the devaluation of diplomas, the concepts and practices of higher education governance have emerged and have gradually been embedded in university operations. Higher education in Taiwan faces the same problems as the rest of the world. Thus, guided by policies of the Taiwanese Ministry of Education (TMOE) and fuelled by the media, the education-job gap is becoming a discursive truth. With this background, the TMOE has invested numerous resources to establish an information system (IS) that attempts to guide the direction of university education using information technology. If the IS is poorly designed, the scope of its side effects and harm will be magnified by a massive number of IS users and the characteristics of procedure standardisation. We suggest another form of action -IS competition, in which more positive social changes can be created. Based on the analysis of the available data, the action of IS competition does have a positive impact on society. Keywords: disciplinary technology, information system, career and vocational helping systemsIn the past 10 years, under the common problems of the unemployment of people with a higher education and the devaluation of diplomas, concepts and practices of higher education governance have emerged, such as employability (Harvey, 2001), competence-based education (Frank et al., 2010), and higher education evaluation and accreditation (Kehm, 2010), and these concepts have gradually been embedded in university operations. Since information systems (ISs) can deal with complicated affairs, the information technology of higher education is included in this wave of higher education governance. With the progress of the wave, university professors are realising that the forms of curriculum outlines have become more and more complicated. There are increased options and charts in the forms of course outlines, academic and service activities, and learning portfolios. In addition, performance indices now include the number of interns, employment rate and tracking of graduates. Generally speaking, in the New Liberalism stream of thought, educational authorities tend to consider and regulate schools and students through competition in the global economic production system; and ISs have gradually become management tools to discipline schools and students within higher education governance. Administration, Fu-Jen Catholic University, 510 Chung Cheng Rd, Hsinchuang, Taipei County 24205 Taiwan ROC. E-mail: 051525@mail.fju.edu.tw According to Foucault (1982), a social governance system includes a legitimacy base that comes from the mutual production of power and knowledge and a variety of governance practices that are foundationally supported by this legitimacy. However, in the process of gaining a legitimacy base, a number of unreasonable governance practices may also be implanted. These irrational practices will not help solve the problem, and they may even cause more problem...

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Section: Reflectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Information System Innovation as a Social Action: The Case of Career and Vocational Helping Systems

Wang

Shiahhou

et al. 2014

Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology

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“…This was inferred as an attempt to compliment the decentralised work processes of teams such as the Notes Team. In fact, any centralisation and decentralisation attempts can be seen as instances of information politics (Bloomfield & Coombs, 1992 From NOESIS system's point of view, the senior managers and long term project staff of the department are still the main contributors to the system. However, with the tactic to use NOESIS as an induction tool for new project managers, the system could play a part in shaping newcomers with the influence of its main contributors.…”

Section: Power Shifts Realised In the Organisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They claim that failure of a system is more or less the embodiment of a perceived situation rather than actual failure of the system, and such embodiments can be the result of a political process. Bloomfield & Coombs (1992) investigated the debate of whether information technology centralises or decentralises power structures in an organisation and concluded that neither is true and that information technologies in place are themselves outcomes of power struggles. Robey & Markus (1984) postulated that system development can be both a rational and a political process; thus it is important for participants to be aware of the rituals that take place in the development process.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite the lack of studies, the importance of investigating information systems phenomena in organisations -from a power and political lens was especially emphasised by several scholars (Bloomfield & Coombs, 1992;Jasperson et al, 2002;Walsham, 1993). A recent review of power related studies in information systems recorded 82 studies dating back to 1980 (Jasperson et al, 2002).…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Information Systems and Intra-Organisational Power: Exploring Power & Political Aspects Associated With the Adoption of a Knowledge Sharing System in an IT Services Department

Attygalle¹,

Hellens²,

Potter³

2010

JIITO

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It is widely accepted that the successful adoption of information systems in organisations is dependent on the contextual factors relating to organisational culture, power, structure, and strategy. Of these, organisational power has been least investigated, especially in relation to information systems of a knowledge sharing context. Moreover, IS and power theories belonging to the emergent perspective of power have not been explored in detail in recent times. In this paper, an attempt is made to illustrate the intra-organisational power and political aspects associated with designing, implementing, using, and maintaining an information system used for sharing knowledge. This was achieved by investigating a case study focused on a knowledge sharing system of an IT services department in an Australian university. The findings were derived based on the analysis conducted using the elements of Political Variant of the Interaction Theory (PVIT), which we argue is a theoretical framework belonging to the emergent perspective of power. The analysis provided insights into how the investigated information system shaped, and was shaped by, the power relations of the organisational context. Moreover, the investigation confirmed the analytical strength and the applicability of the PVIT to modern case studies despite its age and lack of use. Based on the findings implications for future use of the PVIT are also drawn in this paper.

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“…Cooper (1994); Tolsby (1998) Impact on distribution of power Bloomfield & Coombs (1992); Poulymenakou and Holmes (1996). Note: a response of 1 indicates always, whilst a response of 5 indicates never Significant at the 1.0 % level;  2 = 12.67 > 11.34  2 (0.010), 3df.…”

Section: Transitional Issues (Ti)mentioning

confidence: 99%

An investigation of the factors affecting the successful treatment of organisational issues in systems development projects

Doherty

King

2001

European Journal of Information Systems

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Information Technology, Control and Power: The Centralization and Decentralization Debate Revisited*

Cited by 185 publications

References 23 publications

Information System Innovation as a Social Action: The Case of Career and Vocational Helping Systems

Information System Innovation as a Social Action: The Case of Career and Vocational Helping Systems

Information Systems and Intra-Organisational Power: Exploring Power & Political Aspects Associated With the Adoption of a Knowledge Sharing System in an IT Services Department

An investigation of the factors affecting the successful treatment of organisational issues in systems development projects

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