Chapter 1 Global Information Technology Management Environment: Representative World Issues

Basic Question of This Course What is there about other countries, cultures, and business communities that makes the management of IT and IT- enabled and –driven businesses different from the US? Subsidiary question: What differences do these differences engender and what is to be done about these differences?

Basic Question of This Chapter What are general forces distinguishing the environments within which IT managers operate across countries? Subsidiary question: Do these forces operate in any regular or predictable way based on any measurable, tangible, effective distinctions?

The Distinguishing Question What are IS managers concerned with? Is this list of concerns sensitive to country characteristics?

Sets of Issues from the 1 st World US-1995 Aligning IS and corporate goals Instituting cross-functional systems Organizing and using data Reengineering business processes Improving HR in IS Europe-1995 Instituting cross-functional systems Improving HR in IS Reengineering business processes Cutting IS costs Creating an info. architecture Aligning IS and corporate goals General Gist IT Infrastructure Business Process Redesign Distributed Systems Information Architecture Networking

Sets of Issues in the NICs Singapore 1987 Improving IS effectiveness Facilitating end-user computing Staying current with technology Integrating OA, DP, Tcoms Training DP personnel Taiwan 1994 IS/end-user communication Top management support IS strategic planning Competitive Advantage Goal alignment General Gist Communication between IS and end users Top management support IS strategic planning Competitive advantage Goal alignment

Issues in the Developing Nations India 1992 IS awareness Human resource availability Quality of Input Data Educating Senior Managers about IT User Friendliness Training and education of IT staff Maintaining software and HW and SW standards Data security Package availability and Cultural barriers

Issues in Undeveloped Nations Africa 1992 Equipment obsolescence Software Obsolescence Proliferation of vendors Availability of skilled IS personnel Government Intervention Lack of Professional Standards Improvement of IS productivity

What do we make of this? Is there a phenomenon? Is it consistent? What does it mean? How do we understand it? What do we do about it?

Types of “Countries” ADVANCED US, Canada, Western Europe, ANZ NEWLY INDUSTRIALIZED Taiwan, Hong Kong, Ireland, South Korea, Singapore DEVELOPING Argentina, Brazil, India, Mexico UNDERDEVELOPED Bangladesh, Cuba, Haiti, Jordan, Iraq, Zimbabwe

Relationship between adoption and level of Development Underdeveloped Developing Newly Indust. Advanced Palvia, Palvia and Roche Molla and Licker Level of Adoption

Comprehensive Model for Global IT Environment Level of Economic Growth Political System Culture Key MIS Management Issues Multinational Business and IT Strategy How to Read This Diagram At the left are defining characteristics of countries. These create conditions under which the key MIS Management Issues arise From these business and IT strategy should be based.

Supplemental Points (after the lecture) PPR’s characterization of countries in the world by “economic growth” (or actual wealth) is weakly defined and appeals to prejudices The “scale” corresponds to a kind of “hierarchy of needs” that presents a conceptual problem: do countries actually have needs?

Supplemental Points 2 (after the lecture) Can IS managers accurately voice “concerns” that reflect reality? “Penetration” or “use” of IT is likely to be very variable in most countries, especially in third- world countries where the capital city seems to garner most of the resources The problem might be access (see supplemental lecture on IT and income distribution)

Supplemental Points 3 (after the lecture) Much of the content of this chapter appeals to our prejudices about IT, economic development, the nature of the third world, etc. That doesn’t make it wrong, just suspect. There is clearly a relationship between IS use and wealth, since the technology costs money. But is the relationship strong?

Supplemental Points 4 (after the lecture) The hierarchy seems to be this: –Level 1: Just obtaining the technology –Level 2: Making the technology work –Level 3: Employing the technology usefully –Level 4: Developing a corporate IT strategy that is effective across the firm Can this hierarchy respond to various social, economic, and cultural variables of interest to business?