“Less is More:” Information Systems Planning in an Uncertain Environment

Abstract

An unpredictable environment, having complex markets, rapid change, and threatening competitors, can impede IS planning. A survey of 131 Chief Information Officers and 103 senior non-IS managers of U.S. manufacturing firms found that more situation analysis, less strategy conception, and less strategy implementation planning predicted greater IS contribution to the organization. These findings suggest that planners consider conducting situational analysis with greater meticulousness, and strategy conception and strategy implementation planning with greater agility than they currently do.

Keywords:

• uncertain environment
• IS planning
• IS contribution

Notes

1. Although obtaining paired subjects in survey research is extremely difficult, the rationale for collecting data from the two sources was to avoid the problem of common method variance where a single subject may give more self-serving responses to a dependent variable. The rationale for asking the senior non-business manager in particular the dependent variable, the extent of IS contribution to the organization, was that the individual might have a more unbiased, independent, and objective view of the impact of information systems on the organization than would others. Although the top business manager would have participated in the IS planning process, the rationale for asking the CIO to evaluate the independent variable of IS planning activities, was that he or she would have participated more extensively and that the IS planning would have been a more significant component of his job, thus giving him more knowledge of the process. The other independent variable (albeit a moderating one) was allocated to the CIO whose high level in the organization would have left him qualified and knowledgeable enough to answer the questions.