IT Management Practices in Organisations - Essay Example

? IT management Practices in Organizations School IT management Practices in Organizations Q Answer I agree that SMEs do not follow sound IT management practices for a variety of reasons. Sound IT management practices come into existence when all the four functions of management namely planning, organizing, leading, and controlling of IT are executed properly in an organization. In SMEs there are deficiencies in each of the four functions of IT management. “[S]mall ?rms do not perform adequate planning of the use and operation of IT” (Cragg, 2002, p. 269). A vast majority of the SMEs have not set foot in the market for long and are in the developing phase. The underdeveloped system saps the managers’ ability to make informed decisions while planning for the IT, and the plans most turn out to be impracticable. “Deficiency in executing the plan formulated has led to a disjoint mode of implementation of technology” (Misra, 2006, p. 49). The system and organizational culture in SMEs is in the nascent stage and is not strong enough to address the loopholes in the organization and integration of IT in the work setup. Organizations take time to develop. In the start, one individual may represent one whole department because of human resource constraints imposed to minimize the expenditures and make the business profitable. Strategies entrepreneurs commonly adopt to limit the expenditure include but are not limited to increased manual work to save the expenditure of purchasing machines, overloading of work on the employees, more working hours, and reduced benefits for the organizational personnel. SMEs that do invest in machines do not have an efficient repair and maintenance system in place to ensure that the machines are fully functional all the time. A small dysfunction may take days to be fixed, which not only distorts the process of communication and drawing of information using technology, but also serves as a disincentive for the organizational personnel to rely on the use of technology to accomplish their daily tasks. As a result, there occurs a shift from machine work to the manual work, that in effect lowers the efficiency of the system as well as increases the work-load upon the employees further. Like all employees down the line, leaders are no less affected by the lack of planning and organization. Although leaders are primarily responsible for decision making as well as the planning and organization of IT, yet they are not able to achieve their optimal potential in leadership because of the resource constraints imposed by the owners of SMEs. Involvement of the CEO and the external IT expertise has a major influence on the success of IT management in SMEs (Thong et al., 1997). Unfortunately, most of the entrepreneurs/owners of SMEs are just rich enough to establish a new firm, and may not necessarily be qualified enough to lead the companies themselves. Like all other areas of IT management, controlling of IT is no less complicated in SMEs because of the aforementioned reasons. However, it is not appropriate to conclude that IT management in SMEs is absolutely inexistent. Although management of IT in SMEs is not comparable to that in large enterprises, yet various studies have concluded that there has occurred immense improvement in management of human resources as well as IT over the years (Suraweera, Cragg, & Mills, 2010, p. 1). Q. 2: Answer Before identifying the important practices in each of the four areas of IT management, it is customary to briefly discuss the concept of IT management as it helps in understanding the role of different departments in addition to the IT department in the IT management. IT management is a very broad topic that covers activities that include but are not limited to the management of IT resource as a weapon of attaining competitive advantage, management of the resources of IT like the technical infrastructure and the organizational personnel, and establishment and accurate functioning of the information systems (Luftman, 2004). In the conventional practice, not all of these responsibilities are assigned to the IT department. Many of them like the management of organizational personnel and accurate functioning of IT are the responsibilities of the human resource department and the administration department. Many a times, it becomes hard to distinguish between the responsibilities of the IT department and other departments in IT management, and subjectivity about the demarcation of these responsibilities is often one of the causes of poor IT management in organizations. Many SMEs have no IT department and yet have some level of IT management performed by other departments. There is a whole range of important practices related to the four functions of IT management while many of them are not commonly accepted by all professionals and/or educationalists. “[R]esearchers have adopted a range of different dimensions to characterise IT management, indicating that there is no commonly accepted characterisation of the term IT management” (Cragg, Mills, & Suraweera, 2005, p. 28). Some of the important practices are shown in Table 1: Table 1: Practices of IT Management Functions Practices IT Management IT Planning IT Organizing IT Leading IT Controlling Practice 1 Decision making (Surawera et al., 2005) Top management involvement (Surawera et al., 2005) Conflict management (Misra, 2006) Monitoring (Schermerhorn, 1989) Practice 2 Establishment of goals (Schermerhorn, 1989) Assigning responsibilities (Schermerhorn, 1989) Education and training (Cragg et al., 2010) Repair and maintenance Practice 3 Checking suitability (Cragg et al., 2010) Supporting with resources (Schermerhorn, 1989) Rewards and penalties (Major et al., 2007) Balancing (Schermerhorn, 1989) Planning “Planning – determining what is to be achieved, setting goals, and identifying appropriate action steps. Planning centres on determining goals and the means to achieve them” (Schermerhorn, 1989, p. 20). 1. Decision-making Planning of organizational resources particularly the planning of human resources is the first and the most fundamental step in the planning phase of IT management. Proper planning needs clear demarcation of responsibilities among the organizational personnel so that the organizational personnel exactly know who is and who is not involved in the decision-making process. Top management needs to be very clear about whether only the leader is the sole decision maker or subordinates also need to be included in the decision-making process. 2. Establishment of Goals To establish realistic goals related to IT in the organization, the management needs to be aware of the latest and most advanced technology available in the market. This is achieved by conducting research. Large enterprises have a separate research and development (R&D) department to generate this knowledge whereas SMEs generally rely on the knowledge of the top management. The best practice to establish the goals is to conduct some literature review as well as some primary research to know what latest technologies are available in the market. Availability is just one aspect, the organization must assess whether the organizational setup is strong enough to let the management introduce the new kind of technology. 3. Checking Suitability Suitability of IT to the organizational culture, nature of work, and the scope of work are very important during the planning phase of IT management. An organization may under-invest or over-invest in the IT depending upon the nature and demand of the work it is involved in, neither of which is good for the organization. If the organization under-invests in IT, its management becomes poor because of lack of sufficient technology. On the other hand, if an organization over-invests in IT, it incurs unnecessary additional expenses of its repair and maintenance. The decision-maker must ensure that the type of IT selected is just appropriate for what it has been acquired for. Organizing “Organising turns plans into action potential by defining tasks, assigning personnel, and supporting them with resources” (Schermerhorn, 1989, p. 20). 1. Top Management Involvement One of the most important and delicate issues in IT management is sequencing the purchase of IT in a way that fulfils the organization’s needs without incurring it undue costs. It requires considerable amount of money to purchase the IT, and indirect costs incurred in the process of keeping it functional and adjusting it in the organization further enlarge the costs. After the suitable IT has been identified in the planning stage, schedule of IT purchase is made which depicts what type of IT is required at what stage. Top management involvement in the scheduling of IT purchase is fundamental to the preparation of realistic schedule (Surawera et al., 2005, p. 2). Purchasing all IT upfront without its need is not recommendable. 2. Assigning Responsibilities Assignment of responsibilities is a very important and technical task that forms part of the organization function of IT management. Assignment of responsibilities to the wrong individuals or departments may result in a decline in the workers’ efficiency as well as their motivation for work. Top management assigns different departments different tasks related to IT so that there is no ambiguity about the responsibilities of individual departments towards IT management. Responsibilities are assigned to different departments considering their individualistic capabilities so that no department is over-burdened. 3. Support Top management makes sure that the departments and individuals responsible for different kinds of tasks related to IT are fully equipped to perform their duties efficiently. Large enterprises usually have a well-developed support system for 24/7 assistance of the workers. Responsibilities may be exchanged with the passage of time considering the dynamics of organizational culture and the performance of departments and individuals. Leading “Leading – guiding the work efforts of other people in directions appropriate to action plans. Leading involves building commitments and encouraging work efforts that support goal attainment” (Schermerhorn, 1989, p. 20). 1. Conflict Management Conflicts are common to occur in all matters of an organization including IT. Reasons of conflict include but are not limited to subjectivity of the knowledge of boundaries of job responsibilities among different departments and individuals, workers’ reluctance and retaliation to change caused by the introduction of new IT in the work setup, and behavioral problems of the workers. It is the leader’s responsibility to make sure that all individuals and departments know where they have to work individually or collectively in order to work in mutual harmony. “Research shows that, similar to other professions, stress in IT results from intensive work demands, complex relationships with others, career concerns, systems maintenance, role ambiguity, and tedious administrative tasks” (Major et al., 2007, p. 411). The leader needs to create such an environment in the workplace that minimizes these issues because “[a] conducive climate in the organization is needed for the HR to adapt to change, display an attitude to use IT” (Misra, 2006, p. 43). 2. Education and Training Education and training of the employees assigned the task of handling and operating the IT is crucial to their efficiency in using it. It is the leader’s responsibility to make sure that the employees are properly trained and educated when IT is incorporated in the work setup. Owing to the rapid advancement in the IT and the requirement of new skills to operate it, it is imperative that the leader arranges training and development sessions. In certain organizations, in-house talent is utilized to train and educated the workers, by making the more skilled and experienced workers educate the rest, whereas in other organizations, trainers are outsourced. The leader chooses between the two options considering which of the two is more profitable and cost-effective for the organization. 3. Rewards and Penalties Leader plays a central role in the effectiveness of work and productivity of the organizational personnel. IT workers “must be flexible and capable of adapting to organizational needs” (Major et al., 2007, p. 413). The leader develops and implements a system of rewards and penalties to motivate the workers to give their best in work and avoid the mistakes. It depends upon the leader whether he just establishes rewards to encourage everybody to achieve them or establishes both rewards and penalties to make a dual effort to keep the workers on the right track. Controlling “Controlling – monitoring performance, comparing results to goals, and taking corrective action. Controlling is a process of gathering and interpreting performance feedback as a basis for constructive action and change” (Schermerhorn, 1989, p. 20). 1. Monitoring Introduction of IT in the work setup is not everything. There needs to be a proper system of supervision and monitoring to actually integrate the IT into the work setup as well as the organizational culture. This can be achieved in different ways. Some organizations assign the task of monitoring the IT to specific individuals or departments whereas in other organizations, particularly in the SMEs, the leader assumes this responsibility. Monitoring of IT goes beyond just making sure that every unit is functioning correctly. It goes on to include numerous factors that include but are not limited to the perceptions of organizational personnel about the organization’s dependence on IT for everyday tasks, their level of comfort with its use, loopholes in the system in general and particularly the areas where individuals are required to work jointly to achieve particular goals. 2. Repair and Maintenance Proper management of the IT requires its regular repair and maintenance. To keep the system going smooth, it is imperative that dysfunctional units in the system are reported to the concerned department or authority as soon as it is identified, and the units are repaired without wasting any time. This is a very critical activity as the whole system depends upon the operation of the IT. In large enterprises, there is usually a well-equipped and developed repair and maintenance department to ensure timely repair of the IT. On the other hand, SMEs usually have a very informal system of repair and maintenance wherein one individual is responsible to take the defected units to the technicians and/or mechanics, that take considerable time to do the required job. 3. Balancing There is no mathematical formula to implement the right IT and adopt correct strategies to keep the system going smooth. Top management experiments with different strategies like assignment of different responsibilities to different departments or individuals, and evaluates the results thus obtained. Things need manipulation in order to establish the optimal system that yields maximum benefits and minimum inconveniences, which makes balancing an integral part of the controlling function of IT management. Balancing is related to the controlling function of management because it is done on the basis of results obtained from past experiments so as to improve them. Q. 3: Answer Yes, I believe that successful IT management is influenced by the differing roles of general, functional, and IT managers dealing with different departments. In an organizational setup, roles of managers interrelate and affect one another depending upon various factors that include but are not limited to the organizational structure that can be functional, and matrix etc., the scope of work in the organization that varies between large enterprises and SMEs, and the resourcefulness of the organization. “Independence [is also] an important criteria as the IT management practices of subsidiaries (or branch units) of larger organisations are often influenced by the parent organisations” (Cragg, Mills, & Surawera, 2010, p. 28). Different managers contribute to the management of IT differently. For instance, the HR managers “participate in transformative activities to uphold the transformation…such as redesigning the work processes and HRM system, restructuring service delivery process, and managing cultural change” (Long, 2009, p. 2). Functional managers’ responsibility is to ensure that their respective departments in the functional organization are fulfilling the responsibilities assigned to them by the top management. IT managers play a key role in the IT management since they perform the functions of management in the IT department. Successful IT management requires all the managers to make a mutual effort to obtain the organizational goals in general and those related to the IT in particular. Managers in organizations with IT best function when they know the vision, values, and mission of the organization, have their individualistic and collective roles clearly defined, and know the role of technology in the achievement of organizational goals (Glen, 2003). References: Cragg, P. B. (2002). Benchmarking information technology practices in small ?rms. European Journal of Information Systems. 11: 267-282. Cragg, P., Mills, A., & Suraweera, T. (2010). Understanding IT Management in SMEs. The Electronic Journal Information Systems Evaluation. 13(1): 27 – 34. Glen, P. (2003). Leading geeks: How to manage and lead people who deliver technology. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Long, Y. (2009, March). The impact of information technology on the HR function transformation. University of Twente. pp. 1-74. Retrieved from http://essay.utwente.nl/59968/1/MSc_Yu_Long.pdf. Luftman, J. (2004). Managing the Information Technology Resource. Pearson. Major, D. A, Davis, D. D., Germano, L. M., Fletcher, T. D., Sanchez-Hucles, J., & Mann, J. (2007). Managing Human Resources In Information Technology: Best Practices Of High-Performing Supervisors. Human Resource Management. 46(3): 411-427. Misra, H. (2006). Role of Human Resource in Information Technology Alignment in Organizations: A Metric Based Strategic Assessment Framework. Journal of Information Technology Management. 17(3): 38-50. Schermerhorn, J. R. (1989). Management for Productivity. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Suraweera, T., Cragg, P., & Mills, A. (2005). Measurement of IT Management Sophistication in Small Firms. 16th Australasian Conference on Information Systems. pp. 1-10. Thong J. Y. L., Yap, C. S., & Raman, K. S. (1997). Environments for information systems implementation in small businesses. Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce. 7(4): 253–278. Read More