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Power, politics, and MIS implementation

Author:

M. Lynne MarkusAuthors Info & Claims

Communications of the ACM, Volume 26, Issue 6

Pages 430 - 444

https://doi.org/10.1145/358141.358148

Published: 01 June 1983 Publication History

Abstract

Theories of resistance to management information systems (MIS) are important because they guide the implementation strategies and tactics chosen by implementors. Three basic theories of the causes of resistance underlie many prescriptions and rules for MIS implementation. Simply stated, people resist MIS because of their own internal factors, because of poor system design, and because of the interaction of specific system design features with aspects of the organizational context of system use. These theories differ in their basic assumptions about systems, organizations, and resistance; they also differ in predictions that can be derived from them and in their implications for the implementation process. These differences are described and the task of evaluating the theories on the bases of the differences is begun. Data from a case study are used to illustrate the theories and to demonstrate the superiority, for implementors, of the interaction theory.

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Cited By

Sahin ZVance A(2025)What do we need to know about the Chief Information Security Officer? A literature review and research agendaComputers & Security10.1016/j.cose.2024.104063148(104063)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2024.104063
Myers J(2024)When Big Brother Is Benevolent: How Technology Developers Navigate Power Dynamics among Users to Elevate Worker InterestsAcademy of Management Discoveries10.5465/amd.2022.011110:3(438-462)Online publication date: Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.5465/amd.2022.0111
Pech GDelgado C(2024)Interferência dos periódicos da área de gestão na determinação das publicações historicamente mais influentes da Ciência da Informação e BiblioteconomiaInterference of the management area journals in determining the historically most influential publications in Information Science and Library ScienceInterferencia de las revistas del área de gestión en la determinación de las publicaciones históricamente más influyentes en Ciencias de la Información y BiblioteconomíaInformação & Informação10.5433/1981-8920.2023v28n4p45328:4(453-487)Online publication date: 28-Sep-2024
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Index Terms

Power, politics, and MIS implementation
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing and business

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cover image Communications of the ACM

Communications of the ACM Volume 26, Issue 6

June 1983

54 pages

ISSN:0001-0782

EISSN:1557-7317

DOI:10.1145/358141

Editor:
Peter J. Denning
NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA

Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 1983 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Association for Computing Machinery

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Publication History

Published: 01 June 1983

Published in CACM Volume 26, Issue 6

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Sahin ZVance A(2025)What do we need to know about the Chief Information Security Officer? A literature review and research agendaComputers & Security10.1016/j.cose.2024.104063148(104063)Online publication date: Jan-2025
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cose.2024.104063
Myers J(2024)When Big Brother Is Benevolent: How Technology Developers Navigate Power Dynamics among Users to Elevate Worker InterestsAcademy of Management Discoveries10.5465/amd.2022.011110:3(438-462)Online publication date: Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.5465/amd.2022.0111
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