INFORMATION SYSTEMS AS ENABLERS OF A MANAGERIAL REVOLUTION? A CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF THEIR POTENTIAL AS AGENTS IN THIS PROCESS

摘要

At intervals over the past four decades computers and information technology (IT) havernbeen heralded as the standard bearers of revolutionary changes in the methods andrntechniques that we use to achieve our goals both organisationally and, increasingly,rnsocially. There is considerable evidence to support the assertion that we have livedrnthrough momentous technological changes in this field but it is much more hazardous tornargue that equivalent changes have occurred over that period in the ways that we havernapplied these exciting developments. In fact, there are some observers who would arguernthat we have demonstrated a lack of imagination, sympathy and creativity in ourrnorganisational and social implementations of IT.rnThis paper takes these contrasting (and in some cases, complementary) schools ofrnthought as its starting point, reviews the evidence for and against them and drawsrnconclusions which aim to provide a grounded, substantiated base from which tornimplement a programme of education, development and implementation with regard tornIT which truly and realistically aspires to the goals implied in the title of the paper.