IT and Organizational Operations

Paper Summary:

To contribute to the growing knowledge base on IT and its effect in organizations, this paper proposes to research the Atlanta Credit Union (ACU), a fictitious banking organization serving the Atlanta employees. It develops a research design that targets the organizational impact of IT within the ACU and provides mechanisms to overcome potential research obstacles. The first section provides a review of research on IT in organizations and the second section develops appropriate variables and measurement techniques for research at ACU. The third and final sections anticipate potential measurement problems and propose solutions to overcome these obstacles.

Outline
Review of IT in Organizations
Variables and Measurement Techniques
Potential Difficulties and Conclusions

From the Paper:

"As previous studies have indicated, obtaining meaningful measures of IT in organizational settings can be difficult, especially as the U.S. transitions from a primarily industrial economy to a service economy (Brynjolfsson, Erik & Hitt, Lorin M, 1998; Brynjolfsson, Erik, 1993; National Research Council, 1998; National Science Foundation, 2000). However, research shows that the primary problem associated with measuring the effects of IT in organizations is use of inappropriate use of transitional methods in a new setting. For example, to measure productivity at the Atlanta Credit Union, one must find appropriate input and output measures. Yet the types of benefits that are attributed to IT in this setting (e.g., increased quality, variety, customer service, speed, responsiveness) do not lend themselves to traditional productivity statistics. For the purposes of this study, we are using a variety of indicators to understand IT impacts that include inputs such as worker skill requirements and outputs such as changes in customer service and employee job satisfaction. These measures will provide a richer base from which to understand the impacts of IT in ACU."

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