Strategic Information Management Third Edition Challenges and Strategies in Managing Information Systems_5 potx

Table 6.6 Key issues in information systems management – Singapore 1987 Rank Description of the issue#1 Measuring and improving IS effectiveness #2 Facilitating and managing end-user com

to the development of a sound technology infrastructure that will supportbusiness strategy and organizational goals The appearance of this issue mayhave again been driven by strategic concerns A lack of a coordinatedstrategy for technology infrastructure may have prevented companies fromtaking timely advantage of business opportunities as they emerged.

• Rank 7 IS organization alignment The organizational positioning of the

IS department within the company has a direct impact on its effectiveness

In early days of computing, IS was relegated to Accounting or Personneldepartments, and had the image of a service/overhead function While thatimage has been mostly erased, there are still issues relating to its properalignment For those who view IS as a strategic function, the IS departmenthas moved up in the organizational hierarchy Large companies today havepositions such as Chief Information Officer (CIO) and vice-president ofinformation technology Another issue relating to alignment is the question

of centralized, decentralized, or distributed IS organization Technologycan effectively support any option; the key issue is that the IS organizationshould be consistent with the company organization and philosophy

• Rank 8 Competitive advantage Information technology and information

systems in a firm can be used in ways that provide a decided advantageover its competitors Early examples of firms using IT in such mannerinclude American Airlines, United Airlines, American Hospital SupplyCo., and Merrill Lynch The 1980s provided a major thrust for usinginformation technology as a source of competitive advantage This issuestill ranks among senior IS executives as one of the top issues Informationsystems dubbed as ‘strategic information systems’ are targeted towardscustomers, suppliers, or competitors, and are an essential part of acompany’s competitive strategy While targeting information systems atexternal entities is one source of competitive advantage, other sourcesinclude using IT for organizational redesign, improving organizationaleffectiveness, streamlining of business processes, and integration ofbusiness activities

• Rank 9 Software development The development of software represents a

major expenditure for the IS organization, yet it remains fraught withproblems of poor quality, unmet needs, constant delays, and exceededbudgets At the same time, the organization is presented with more options:in-house development, software packages, and outsourcing Newerdevelopments, e.g software engineering methodologies, prototyping andCASE tools, promise to provide some much-needed help However,organizations are further challenged as they have to constantly evaluatenew technologies and development paradigms, such as distributedprocessing, visual languages and object oriented programming Forexample, much of the new development is being done using the C++ orsimilar programming languages

• Rank 10 Telecommunication systems Telecommunication systems provide

the backbone for an organization to do business anywhere anytime, withoutbeing constrained by time or distance While the earlier focus intelecommunication systems was on connecting users to a centralizedmainframe computer, the renewed emphasis is on providing connectivitybetween different computing centers and users, who are widely dispersedgeographically, and many times globally Telecommunication networks alsoneed to substantially multiply their bandwidth in order to carry all types ofsignals: data, graphics, voice, and video Challenges that face theimplementation of telecommunication systems include huge financialinvestments and lack of common industry standards Yet, for those who haveimplemented backbone networks, the rewards have been tremendous

Other issues

Issues ranked just below the top ten include understanding the role of IS,multi-vendor data interchange and integration, managing distributed systems,and planning and using CASE technology It is apparent that these issues have

a strategic orientation, and relate to planning and successful use of emergingtechnologies in the organization

Key MIS issues in newly industrialized nations

Several countries have made rapid economic growth in just over a decade.These countries have emerged as the ‘newly industrialized countries’ (NICs)and are now beginning to prosper While the precise categorization of anycountry into any class is somewhat contentious, and is also subject tomovement over time, countries like Taiwan, Hong Kong, Ireland, SouthKorea, and Singapore fall into this group The latest key issue results that areavailable from some of these countries are included in the chapter Singapore

issues were reported by Rao et al (1987), Hong Kong issues by Burn et al.

(1993), and Taiwan issues by Wang (1994) and Palvia and Wang (1995) TheSingapore results are shown in Table 6.6, and Hong Kong results in Table 6.7.Once again, there is a certain degree of similarity between these countryissues We discuss only the Taiwan issues as representative of issues of newlyindustrialized countries, as it is the most recent study of all, and one of theauthors was directly involved with it

Key issue ranks

The key IS issues in Taiwan were obtained by conducting a survey of seniormanagers in Taiwan, who were well-versed in technology (Wang, 1994;Palvia and Wang, 1995) Responses were obtained from 297 managers on a

Table 6.6 Key issues in information systems management – Singapore (1987) Rank Description of the issue

#1 Measuring and improving IS effectiveness

#2 Facilitating and managing end-user computing

#3 Keeping current with new technology and systems

#4 Integrating OA, DP, and telecommunications

#5 Training and educating DP personnel

#6 Security and control

#7 Disaster recovery program

#8 Translating IT into competitive advantage

#9 Having top management understand the needs and perspectives of MIS

department (IS role and contribution)

#10 Impact of new technology on people and their role in the company

Source: Rao, K V., Huff, F P and Davis, G B Critical issues in the management of

information systems: a comparison of Singapore and the USA Information Technology, 1:3,

1987, pp 11–19.

Table 6.7 Key issues in information systems management – Hong Kong (1989)

Rank Description of the issue

#1 Retaining, recruiting and training MIS/IT/DP personnel

#2 Information systems/technology planning

#3 Aligning MIS/DP organization

#4 Systems reliability and availability

#5 Utilization of data resources

#6 Managing end-user/personal computing

#7 Application software development

#8 Information systems for competitive advantage

#9 Telecommunications technology

#10 Integrating of data processing, office automation, and telecommunicationsTie Software quality assurance standards

Source: Burn, J., Saxena, K B C., Ma, Louis and Cheung, Hin Keung Critical issues of IS

management in Hong Kong: a cultural comparison Journal of Global Information

Management, Vol I, No.4, Fall 1993, pp 28–37.

7-point Likert scale on 30 issues The majority of the respondents were ISexecutives A wide range of organizations, both in terms of size and type ofbusiness, were represented in the study The ranked list is provided in Table6.8 Once again, we focus on the top ten issues.

• Rank 1 Communication between IS department and end users

Com-munication between these two groups of people is necessary as onegroup is the user and the other the builder End users in Taiwan seem to

be unable to specify their information needs accurately to the IS group.They also have an unrealistic expectation of the computer’s capabilitiesand expect the IS staff to quickly automate all of their operations At thesame time, IS employees may lack a good understanding of theorganization’s business processes, and use terminology that end users donot understand The communication problem between the users and the

Table 6.8 Key issues in information systems management – Taiwan (1994)

Source: Palvia, P and Wang, Pien An expanded global information technology issue model:

an addition of newly industrialized countries Journal of Information Technology Management,

Vol VI, No.2, 1995, pp 29–39.

IS community is further aggravated due to the low level of tion skills among IS graduates.

communica-• Rank 2 Top management support Top management support is required as

IS projects require major financial and human resources They also maytake long periods of time to complete As such, the call for top managementsupport is pervasive in the MIS literature Taiwan is no exception Topmanagement support was found to be especially important in encouragingthe use of microcomputers in Taiwan (Igbaria, 1992) Senior management

is expected to demonstrate its support by both allocating a suitable budgetfor the IS department, and by showing leadership and involvement At thesame time, top management support will strengthen the IS department byhelping acquire the support of other functional departments Without strongtop management endorsement and support, the IS department would havelittle chance to achieve its mission

• Rank 3 IS strategic planning IS strategic planning in Taiwan is difficult

due to rapid changes in technology, lack of familiarity with IS planningmethodologies, inadequate understanding of business processes, short termorientation of firms, absence of successful domestic planning models, topmanagement’s unwillingness to provide adequate funding to implementstrategy, and lack of top management support for the planning process.Lack of appropriate strategic planning in other countries has had the effect

of producing system failures and creating uncoordinated ‘islands ofautomation’

• Rank 4 Competitive advantage In the private sector, several retail,

wholesale, transportation, and media firms have begun to build tion systems that can be utilized to make new inroads, create businessopportunities, and enable an organization to differentiate itself in themarketplace Even public organizations have made progress Stories ofhow public organizations (e.g a government-run hospital and theadministrative office of a village) use IT to improve their administrativeeffectiveness and reduce the waiting time of clients, have been reported.The aggressive promotion of IT by the government has helped to raisefurther the IS practitioner’s consciousness of the competitive impacts ofinformation technology

informa-• Rank 5 Goal alignment The needs and goals of the IS department can

often be at odds with the organizational goals A major incongruenceresults in potential conflicts and sub-optimization of IS resources IS staffare often interested in developing large scale and technically advancedsystems which may not meet the needs of the business and the end users

In order to assure goal alignment, senior management needs to clearlycommunicate the organization’s goals, policies, and strategies to the ISstaff In fact, a carefully crafted IS strategic planning process (issue #3)would facilitate goal alignment

• Rank 6 Computerization of routine work In the USA, computerization of

routine work (such as accounting functions and transaction processing)was the first priority and was done in the 1960s and 1970s Even thoughTaiwan is classified as a newly industrialized country, the extent ofcomputer usage in business is far behind that in USA As a paradox, theproduction of IT products has had a striking growth in Taiwan, while thebusinesses themselves have been slow in adopting the technology In asense, the IS evolution in many organizations is still in Nolan’s initialstages (Nolan, 1979) For these organizations, automation of routine work(i.e transaction processing systems) is evolving, yet critical

• Rank 7 IT infrastructure In vibrant economies, a responsive IT

infrastructure is vital to the flexibility and changing needs of a businessorganization The technology infrastructure issue is exacerbated by acombination of evolving technology platforms, integration of custom-engineered and packaged application software, and the rigidity of existingapplications Many Taiwanese organizations are gradually realizing thatbuilding an infrastructure, which will support existing business applica-tions while remaining responsive to changes, is a key to long-termenterprise productivity

• Rank 8 System integration Integration of various system components into

a unified whole provides benefits of synergy, effectiveness, and addedvalue to the user Many IS managers in Taiwan are recognizing the need tointegrate the ‘islands of automation’ (e.g data processing, officeautomation, factory automation) into an integrated single entity In thepast, the execution of systems integration had encountered great difficultydue to lack of IS standards, insufficient technical ability, and inadequatecoordination among functional departments However, open systems,networks, client/server architecture, and standardization of IT products(promoted by the government) are expected to make systems integrationeasier in the future

• Rank 9 Software development productivity Productivity is measured

simply by the ratio of outputs to inputs On both outputs, e.g thequality and magnitude of software produced, and inputs, e.g total time

to complete a project and total person-hours, IS has had a dismalrecord In interviews conducted during the research process, both ISprofessionals and end users complained that it takes excessively long tobuild and modify applications The speed of development is not able tokeep pace with changing business needs Possible explanations andreasons that were stated include: insufficient technical skills, high ISstaff turnover, lack of use of software productivity tools, and inadequateuser participation However, new software technology seems to offerhope, e.g CASE tools, object oriented languages and visual program-ming languages

• Rank 10 System friendliness Ease of use and user-oriented features are

essential to the success and continued use of a software product, as thepopularity of graphical user interface (GUI) will testify Unfriendly anddifficult-to-use systems encounter strong resistance from end users at allmanagerial levels in Taiwan The development of a friendlier interface iscritical not only for the success of the software and hardware vendors, butalso for the ultimate acceptance by the end user Two reasons can be givenfor the significance of this issue in a non-advanced country First, the usersmay be comparatively unfamiliar and untrained in the use of informationtechnology Second, a lot of software is imported from the advancednations of the West and may not necessarily meet the human factorrequirements of the host nation

Key MIS issues in developing nations

Countries which can be loosely described as developing countries include:Argentina, Brazil, India, and Mexico These countries have been usinginformation technology for a number of years, yet their level of ITsophistication and types of applications may be wanting in several respects

For example, La Rovere et al (1996) report that Brazil faces several

difficulties in network diffusion Much of this is caused by lack of integratedpolicy towards informatics and telecommunication industries, and paucity ofquality training programs Similar obstacles are faced by many of the otherLatin American countries In Pakistan, Hassan (1994) describes environmen-tal and cultural constraints in utilizing information technologies With the

emergence of many eastern block countries out of closed and guardedenvironments, and the general trend towards globalization, information is nowavailable about the IT readiness of these countries Much of this information

is derived from individual experiences, general observations, and case studies(e.g Chepaitis, 1994; Goodman, 1991) Yet, many of them seem to facesimilar problems

Russia and other former Soviet Union countries defy a natural classificationinto any of our four classes In fact, the World Bank places the former socialistcountries in a distinctly separate category In their commentary, Goodman andMcHenry (1991) described two sectors of Soviet computing: the state sectorwhich included development and deployment of a full range of highlysophisticated computers, and the mixed sector of private, state, foreign andblack-market activities which were struggling in the sustained use ofinformation technology Roche (1992) and Roche et al (1992) made similarobservations While giant centrally planned enterprises were created thatemulated technological developments of the West, little computer equipmentwas either designed for or used by management and consumers Thus, whileRussia and former Soviet Union countries have made great strides in selectedtechnological areas (e.g the space program and aerospace industry) thegeneral consumer sector and management have lagged behind significantly in

IT utilization As many reports would indicate, Russian IT issues are thereforecharacteristic of issues in developing countries According to Chepaitis(1994), lack of adequate supply of quality information and poor informationculture are IS issues reflective of Russia

A prioritized list of ranked issues based on a systematic study is availablefor India We present these results as an example of issues from a developedcountry

Key issue ranks

The key IS issues in India were obtained by Palvia and Palvia (1992) andwere based on data collection from top-level and middle-level Indianmanagers These managers either worked directly with computers andinformation systems, or had been exposed to them by other means Theissues were first generated using the nominal grouping technique andbrainstorming, and were then ranked by participant managers in twoseminars in India A fully ranked list is provided in Table 6.9; the top issuesare discussed below The discussion draws primarily from Palvia and Palvia

(1992) and Palvia et al (1992).

• Rank 1 Understanding and awareness of MIS contribution An

apprecia-tion of the benefits and potential applicaapprecia-tions of MIS is absolutelynecessary for successful IT deployment There is a general lack of

knowledge among Indian managers as to what management informationsystems can do for their business The need for computer-based systems isneither a high priority nor widely recognized Unless the potentialcontribution of MIS is clearly understood, advances in technologicalresources are not likely to be of much help The lack of understanding ispartly due to the traditional reliance on manual systems The readyavailability of a large number of semi-skilled and skilled personnel makesthe operation of manual systems satisfactory, and prevents managementfrom looking at superior alternatives.

• Rank 2 Human resources and personnel for MIS Higher national

priorities and lower priorities assigned to IS development have caused theneglect of IS human resource development India is somewhat of anenigma in this regard In the last several years, India has become a primarylocation for international outsourcing contracts; yet there is a great demandand shortage within the country for those trained in developing business

Table 6.9 Key issues in information systems management – India (1992)

Source: Palvia, P and Palvia, S MIS issues in India and a comparison with the United States:

Technical Note International Information Systems, Vol I, No 2, April 1992, pp 100–110.

information systems While many universities and educational institutesare attempting to meet the burgeoning demand, some of these efforts may

be misdirected from an IS point of view The current emphasis oneducation seems to be on technological aspects rather than on theapplication of IS concepts to business needs

• Rank 3 Quality of input data Information systems rely on accurate and

reliable data The age-old adage of GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out) iswell known in MIS, and directly impacts the quality of IS This issue hasalso been seen in Russia (Chepaitis, 1994) and other developing countries.While not reported as a key issue in US studies, it appears that developingcountries have inferior input data due to several reasons: lack ofinformation literacy and information culture among workers as well as aless-than-adequate infrastructure for collecting data Some managersreported experiences of excessive errors in data transcription as well asdeliberate corruption of data The underlying causes may be mistrust ofand intimidation caused by computer processing, resulting in carelessness,apathy and sabotage

• Rank 4 Educating senior managers about MIS This issue suggests a

possible response to the top-ranked issue dealing with the lack ofunderstanding and awareness of the role of MIS in organizations Itappears that senior managers do not truly understand the full potential ofinformation technology They need to be educated not so much about the

technology per se, but more so about its many applications in business For

example, besides transaction processing, IT can be used for buildingexecutive information systems and strategic systems Exposure to suchpossibilities by way of education and training can provide new andinnovative ideas to managers to utilize IT fruitfully In the authors’opinion, any education must be supplemented with business cases andsome hands-on training

• Rank 5 User friendliness of systems The appearance of this issue in a

developing nation may be attributed to several factors First, the users in adeveloping nation are generally novices and untrained in the use ofinformation technology; thus they may not be at ease with computerinterfaces Second, much of the software and systems are imported fromWestern and advanced nations This software is geared to the needs of theirpeople and may not be user-friendly in regard to the needs and culturalbackgrounds of users in the importing nation A hypothesis can be madethat the ergonomic characteristics of an information system are at leastpartially dependent on the cultural and educational background of thepeople using them

• Rank 6 Continuing training and education of the MIS staff The education

issue comes up once again, this time in the context of MIS personnel.Rapid advances in technology and a lower level of IT preparedness in

developing countries put further pressure on MIS personnel to keep pacewith the technology Another challenge here is to not only provide training

on the technology but to be able to do that from a business perspective.Specifically, two of the problems reported were: many current trainingplans attempt to train a large number of people simultaneously at theexpense of quality, and there is a lack of proper training available for MISprofessionals in business functions

• Rank 7 (tie) Maintenance of software, and standards in hardware and software These two related issues were tied in rank Maintenance refers to

fixing and updating production software when there are bugs or newrequirements Maintenance is a problem because of inadequate resourcesand competition for resources from new applications Compared todeveloped nations, developing nations suffer from an inadequate supply oftrained programmers The problem is compounded if the majority of thesoftware is purchased as packaged software The maintenance effort islikely to be high if the quality and applicability of the purchased system islow The quality of a system depends, in part, on the existence andenforcement of hardware and software standards, which brings us to thenext issue

The issue of standards in hardware and software is an important one indeveloping countries as much software and hardware (especially hard-ware) is imported from other countries The problems of hardware/software standards are compounded significantly when buying hardwareand software produced by different vendors in different nations, each withits own proprietary systems While some international standards exist (e.g

in programming languages and telecommunications); the ultimate lenge will be to develop an exhaustive set of standards, and then to be able

chal-to enforce them

• Rank 9 Data security An organization’s data is a valuable corporate

resource, and needs to be protected else it may be abused to theorganization’s detriment Data contained in manual systems was not veryvulnerable to breach of security due to either unavailability of ready access

or inordinately long access times As a result, many information workershave developed poor practices and habits in data handling Withcomputerized systems, this attitude can cause severe data security andintegrity problems Newer controls and security provisions, which wereunheard of in manual systems, may need to be built which may themselvescause resistance in adoption

• Rank 10 (tie) Packaged Applications Software Availability, and Cultural Barriers These two issues were tied in rank Off-the-shelf packaged

application software provides an inexpensive alternative to in-housedevelopment All around the world, a lot of software is purchased off-the-shelf An inadequate supply of MIS personnel (an issue discussed earlier)

further necessitates an increased reliance on packaged software Whilemuch packaged software is now being made available, there is need todevelop more that meets the specific business requirements unique todeveloping nations.

Culture plays a role in the application of information technology

(Ein-Dor et al., 1993), albeit sometimes in subtle ways For example, in one

governmental office, secretaries and clerical people were mandated to useword-processing equipment But as soon as the mandate was removed,they went back to typewriters and manual procedures Apparently, theytrusted the familiar equipment more, and it gave them a greater sense ofcontrol Chepaitis (1994) provides the example of Russia, where peoplehave never gathered, shared, and managed bountiful information As aresult, information is often hoarded for personal gain rather than freelyshared or invested

Other issues

Issues ranked just after the ones discussed above included maintenance ofhardware and alignment of MIS with the organization Many organizations arebuying personal computers, and their maintenance sometimes becomes aproblem due to limited vendor presence and delays in procuring parts.Aligning of MIS with the organization is an issue of moderate importance.According to an Indian manager, beyond alignment, the organizational cultureand philosophy itself has to change to accept the role of MIS Applicationsportfolio is not a major issue as most businesses are in the initial stages ofinformation systems growth and are in the process of computerizing basicoperations For the same reasons, MIS strategic planning was not rated high,and telecommunications was considered not of immediate interest but more aconcern of the future

Key MIS issues in underdeveloped nations

Underdeveloped or basic countries are characterized by low or stagnanteconomic growth, low GNP, high levels of poverty, low literacy rates, highunemployment, agriculture as the dominant sector, and poor nationalinfrastructure While precise categorization is difficult, subjective andarguable, countries like Bangladesh, Cuba, Haiti, Jordan, Kenya, Nigeria,Iran, Iraq, and Zimbabwe may be included in this group Note that countriesmay move in and out of a particular class over time In this chapter, we usetwo African countries: Kenya and Zimbabwe as examples of underdevelopednations

Key issue ranks

The key MIS issues of Kenya and Zimbabwe were reported by Palvia et al.

(1992), and were based on a study completed by Zigli in 1990 Themethodology used in Zigli’s study was based on the India study by Palvia andPalvia (1992) The same questionnaire, with minor modifications, was used tocollect the data A number of in-depth personal interviews with seniorinformation systems executives were conducted utilizing the questionnaire fordata collection and as the basis for discussions Information was also gatheredfrom local trade publications and other secondary sources

The computing industry in both countries at the time appeared to becompeting in an environment that was strongly influenced by government and

a lack of ‘hard’ foreign currency The hard currency situation was exacerbated

by the virtual absence of indigenous hardware and software production,resulting in an inventory of outdated hardware and software In addition, ITwas accorded a very low priority by the government As a result, purchases ofequipment were being made from wherever possible, leading to mixed vendorshops and associated problems Given the basic nature of IT adoption in thesecountries, only seven issues emerged with any degree of consensus These areshown in Table 6.10 and are discussed in line with the 1990 study reported in

Palvia et al (1992).

• Rank 1 Obsolescence of computing equipment Of greatest concern was

the state of obsolescence of most computer equipment The need for state

Table 6.10 Key issues in information systems management – underdeveloped nations of Africa (1992)

Rank Description of the issue

#1 Obsolescence of computing equipment (hardware)

Tie Obsolescence of operating and applications computer programs (software)

(tie)

#3 Proliferation of mixed vendor shops (hardware and software)

#4 Availability of skilled MIS personnel and opportunities for professional

development for MIS managers and non-managers

#5 Possible government intervention/influence in computer market

#6 Establishment of professional standards

#7 Improvement of IS productivity

Source: Palvia, P., Palvia, S and Zigli, R M Global information technology environment: key

MIS issues in advanced and less developed nations In The Global Issues of Information

Technology Management, edited by S Palvia, P Palvia and R M Zigli, Idea Group

Publishing, 1992.

of the art equipment is urgent and was a critical concern for the ISexecutives The current inventory is aging fast and simply does not meetthe requirements of most businesses A major contributing factor is thebalance of trade and more specifically, the shortage of ‘hard’ foreigncurrency These computers were state of the art twenty years ago but nolonger Not much progress has been made in twenty years In fact, someregression may have occurred These computers have now gone throughtwo or three iterations of emulations, and both efficiency and effectivenesshave suffered The short-fall of computer equipment not only affects theprivate sector but the public sector as well Overall, national infrastructures

of both countries appear ill-prepared to advance information technology tobring them on a par with the rest of the world

• Rank 2 Obsolescence of software The inventory of software (including

operating systems and application programs) is also quite dated Most ofthe packages are of the word processor and spreadsheet variety, or theiremulations Only recently have relational databases been introduced intoboth countries The acute shortage of ‘hard’ foreign currency precludesfirms from purchasing software from overseas vendors, and further leads

to exceptionally high rates of software piracy (especially for computers) Major systems development is a rare occurrence There seems

micro-to be simply no concept of integrated business systems, e.g inmanufacturing or accounting However, some contemporary software isbeing introduced on a limited scale For example, the relational databasepackage Oracle is now being distributed in both countries by localsoftware firms

• Rank 3 Proliferation of mixed vendor shops There are many vendors to

choose from within one country, let alone the number of vendors in the entireworld While competition among vendors should raise the quality andreduce the cost of technology acquisition, it may also cause severe problems

if vendor selection is not done carefully Due to lack of coherent policies

on the part of government and firms, many purchases of hardware and

software are made on an opportunistic and ad hoc basis from whatever

source and vendor that happens to be available at the time This has led tothe proliferation of mixed vendor shops Of course, mixed vendor shopshave added to the problems of IS management, operation, and maintenance.Mixed vendor shops were seen as a major detriment to efficiency andproductivity by a number of firms in the interview sample

• Rank 4 Availability of skilled MIS personnel and professional ment There is a shortage of people with computing and systems skills.

develop-Finding trained personnel and keeping existing information systemspeople current with the latest advances in IT are vital concerns ofinformation systems managers in these less developed nations There aretoo few qualified people and they are being spread too thin This issue has

implications for the educational system of underdeveloped nations: theymust incorporate education and training in high technology areas, do itfast, and keep their programs constantly updated lest they become obsoleteagain.

• Rank 5 Possible government intervention in the computer industry In

economies dominated by government control, there is always the risk ofgovernment intervention in the computer industry, thereby threatening toreduce competition and increasing the probability of a monopoly While aselected few may benefit from government actions, the larger businesscommunity tends to suffer Such intervention may occur in the form ofissuance of import licenses to new, local businesses in an effort toencourage their growth Unfortunately, these new firms sell their licenses

to existing, larger vendors Both the sellers and the buyers realizesubstantial profits Another example of government action is the mandatedmarkups on imported parts and equipment As a result of these markups(equaling or exceeding 100%), virtual cartels have emerged, and the cost

of computers, computer peripherals and computer software has becomeone of the highest in the world

• Rank 6 Establishment of professional standards The lack of professional

standards threatens the entry of non-professionals and untrained peopleinto the MIS field, thereby further aggravating the IS quality issue.Therefore, the professional data processing societies in these two countriesare very anxious to gain ‘official’ approval authorizing them to establish orparticipate in the establishment of standards of behavior and expertise forMIS professionals The establishment of such standards will go a long waytowards the development of better quality IS products It should alsoimprove productivity, the subject of the next issue

• Rank 7 Improvement of IS productivity Productivity is a concern in these

two nations as a result of lack of professionalism, lack of access to state ofthe art productivity tools, and deteriorating hardware and software Ingeneral, the productivity concern seems to extend to all aspects and areas

of information systems Over the last decade, there has been considerableemphasis on productivity in the advanced nations, and serious efforts havebeen made to enhance productivity (e.g in the use of fourth generationlanguages, and CASE tools) However, in the less-developed countries,while being recognized as a problem, productivity appears to take a backseat to often more pressing problems

Other issues

The existence of archaic hardware and software and the inability to acquiremodern resources have caused an ever-widening technological gap andthereby a loss of competitiveness of the domestic businesses that depend upon

such equipment Erosion of the competitive position of firms was an issueexpressed by several local executives Another issue cited by some executives

is the question of the local manufacture of hardware and software Thisappears to be a polarizing issue The foreign based vendors, as one wouldexpect, oppose local manufacture, while users and the government favor it.However, software development may be a prime determinant in the evolution

of information technology in less-developed nations, as in the case of Indiaand the Philippines

What was perhaps surprising were the issues not mentioned by theparticipants For example, understanding of MIS by senior executives did notemerge as an issue of significant concern Using IS for competitive advantage

is another issue that did not surface in the interview process In general, thestrategic dimensions of information technology do not seem to be as important

as the operational issues

A model of global information technology environment

In summary, we have presented key IS management issues for representativecountries in each of the four classes, and made comments about several othercountries Space considerations prevent us from discussing results from othercountries that might be available For example, key issues not discussed in thischapter, but investigated and available in the literature, include the following

countries: United Kingdom (Galliers et al., 1994), Gulf countries (Badri, 1992), Estonia (Dexter et al., 1993), and Slovenia (Dekeleva and Zupancic,

1993)

In any case, our discussion shows that there can be major differencesbetween issues of different countries, and few commonalties There are morecommon issues between USA and Taiwan, and fewer between other countries

As an overall impression, it seems that advanced countries are driven bystrategic needs, developing countries by operational needs, and under-developed countries by infrastructural needs Based on this observation,

Palvia et al (1992) posited an initial model of country specific MIS issues

based on economic development of the country This model classifiedcountries into three categories based on the level of economic growth Thesecategories are: advanced countries (e.g United States, Canada, Japan),developing/operational countries (e.g India, Russia, Argentina, Brazil), andunderdeveloped/basic countries (e.g Kenya, Chile, Iran, Nigeria) Theyacknowledged that the placement of a country into a particular category issubject to some debate, and that countries may change categories over time.Nevertheless, they were able to make some broad generalizations on thenature of IS issues based on economic growth of a nation According to themodel, the level of information technology adoption increases from one stage

to the next, i.e from underdeveloped to developing to advanced nations Quite

control issues

Strategic issues

Underdeveloped

countries Developingcountries

Level of economic growth

Newly industralized countries

Advanced countries

striking are the types of MIS issues at each stage of economic development

In the underdeveloped countries, the infrastructural issues dominate (e.g thevery availability of computer hardware, operating and applications software,and human resources for MIS) In the developing countries, operational issuesare paramount (e.g management’s awareness of MIS capabilities, humanresource development for MIS, quality of data, standards) Advanced countryissues are characterized by strategic needs (e.g information architecture, dataresource management, strategic planning for MIS, organizational learning)

While the Palvia et al (1992) model appears to be generally sound, the

Taiwan study included in this chapter and experience from other countries hasled us to refine the model (Figure 6.1) Another class of countries has beenadded to the original three-way classification Several countries have emerged

as the newly industrialized countries (NICs) in the last decade and are nowprospering Examples of such countries include Taiwan, South Korea, HongKong and Singapore If we extrapolate the Taiwan issues to NICs in general,then the majority of NIC issues are somewhat unique and different from otherclasses To reiterate, representative NIC issues include: communicationbetween IS department and end users, top management support, softwaredevelopment productivity, goal alignment, and security and control Clearly,most of these issues are above the routine operational and infrastructuralissues faced by organizations in underdeveloped and developing nations Yet,they are lower in their strategic orientation as compared to the advanced

Figure 6.1 A model of the global information technology environment

nations These issues then can most appropriately labeled as ‘management andcontrol’ issues reflective of growing technology adoption In a sense, therefined ‘global information technology environment’ model is similar to theNolan stage model (1979), which posited the need for a control stage tocontain and manage the proliferation of IS activities in an organization Themain difference is that our model explains the nature of IT conditions andpractices based on economic conditions in different countries.

The addition of NICs into the model is also supported by the ‘managementand control’ oriented policies being exercised in these countries For example,Taiwan, Singapore, and South Korea have one or two government agencieswhich have coordinated and implemented explicit national IT plans since the1980s These three country governments explicitly promote and manage theproduction and use of IT products Computerization is a national goal andessential to maintaining the competitiveness of the national economy in theglobal environment

The model depicted in Figure 6.1 provides a first attempt in understandingthe complex global IT environment We recognize that there are limitationsand other elements may be necessary for a deeper understanding of the global

IT environment, or the environment of any particular country For example,the inclusion of Russia and socialist countries under the ‘developingoperational’ country class may be an object of concern for some Singaporemight also be a special case, as it is not really a country, but a city-state, andhas a benevolent ruler form of government Nevertheless, the above modelmay be a starting point for an organization considering expansion into otherworld markets, and attempting to evaluate the role and use of informationtechnology in its pursuit

Basic elements of a more complete model for global IT environment areoffered in Figure 6.2 Some summary comments are made about this modelhere; more elaboration and expansion are subjects of further investigation.Besides level of economic growth, other factors critical to informationtechnology adoption by firms in a country include its culture and politicalsystem National culture comprises the values, beliefs, and behavior patternsdominant in a country, and has a strong influence on institutional and

organizational patterns of behavior Ein-Dor et al (1993) presented a

framework for the role of culture in IS, and presented some culturallysensitive findings Shore and Venkatachalam (1995) explored the impact ofculture on systems analysis and design issues Based on the emergingliterature on international and cross-cultural IS, it is a reasonable argument tomake that national culture would have an impact on IS priorities

The political system and government policies also have an impact on the ITreadiness of a nation, as can be seen in the startling differences found amongwestern countries, Russia, Eastern European countries, and Pacific Rimcountries Government, inspired by its political beliefs, may take a hands-off

Multinational business and

IT strategy

(yet supportive) approach towards IT developments (as in the USA and otherfree economies) At the other extreme, in spite of all good intentions, thegovernment may impose a wide array of overly restrictive policies (as in somecommunist countries) As another alternative, government may pursue anaggressive policy of rapid technology growth, and provide necessaryincentives and infrastructure to firms (as in Taiwan, Singapore, and SouthKorea) The dotted line shown in Figure 6.2 indicates that the political system

of a nation also has an influence on its economic growth Finally, as shown inthe model, a good understanding of the global IT environment will be a keyfactor in the development of a suitable business and IT strategy of themultinational firm

Conclusions

Reports of information systems management issues in different parts of theworld are useful to organizations as they begin to plan and implement ITapplications across the world In this chapter, we have presented IS issues formany countries, and have examined the issues in USA, Taiwan, India, andKenya and Zimbabwe in greater depth The world is a large place, andattempting to understand the critical issues in every single country, or evenselected countries, would be an arduous, perhaps an imprudent task Instead,

we have divided countries into four classes, and have provided an example ineach class An elementary model for the global IT environment has beenpostulated based on this categorization While generalizations are fraught with

Figure 6.2 A proposed comprehensive model for the global IT environment

risks, the provision of such a model will help practitioners and researchersalike in a preliminary assessment of the criticality of the various IT issues indifferent regions of the world In closing, we would like to exhort others topursue the following lines of investigation:

1 Develop and validate sound models that seek to explain the country issues

A simple model was presented in Figure 6.1 Elements of a morecomprehensive model may include economic growth, national culture, andpolitical system as causal factors, among others (as in Figure 6.2)

2 Evaluate the predictive capability of such models as well as report on theuse of the models for prediction While descriptive studies are helpful inidentifying the key issues of individual countries at a point in time, thiscan be an enormous and time-consuming proposition given the number ofcountries in the world and the temporal nature of the issues However, ifthe determinants of the key issues are known, then a preliminaryestimation of the issues will be easier to make

3 Use the model for focused research For example, if culture is identified

as one of the factors influencing IT needs, then it can be explored in moredetail both in terms of culture components and IT components that areinfluenced by it

4 Develop a comprehensive universal instrument and methodology that can

be applied globally to identify the key IS issues This instrument shouldthen be administered simultaneously (or approximately in the same timeframe) by a group of researchers in different countries One of thelimitations of previous ‘key issue’ studies is that they have used differentquestionnaires, different time frames, and different methods to assess theissues While difficult, this undertaking will be very helpful in obtainingreliable results

5 Develop specific practical implications and uses of the ‘key issues’ results.How can they be incorporated into the formulation of national policy,corporate policy or IS policies within an organization?

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