Abstracts Political Science

Power and politics in information systems : a new model of conflict and a challenge for project managers

by Leoni Warne

The purpose of this research study is to investigate and identify the impact of conflict on the success of information systems development. While specific hypotheses and research propositions are tested and investigated, the broader objectives of the study are to: explore the nature of conflict in an information system development and the extent to which conflict may be perceived to impact on the successful progress of a project; to determine which type of conflict may pose the most risk to an information systems development; and to determine to what extent conflict can be said to be contributing factor to information systems failure. This study is structured into two different stages: a major case study conducted to explore the nature of conflict in a prematurely terminated information systems development and to probe the extent to which conflict is perceived to pose a risk to information systems projects; and a second stage surveying IT managers to test the wider applicability of the case findings. Findings include a predictive model of conflict showing that the independent variables: Extent of the Conflict; Degree of Perceived Impediment caused by conflict; Assessment and Management of Conflict; and finally, the Type of Conflict, impact on the probability of project success. Some of the primary theories on conflict derived from the study include the finding that conflict involving users has the greatest negative impact on the probability of success of an information systems development. This includes User/User conflict which is at least equal to, and may even exceed the negative impact of Developer/User conflict in an information systems development environment. User/User conflict is the most potentially damaging type of conflict in an information systems development environment as this type of conflict is less frequently detected and resolved than conflict involving developers.