Beyond the Globalization of Information Technology: The Life of an Organization and the Role of Information Technology

Extended Abstract The globalization of an information system in a major international bank is analyzed in order to explore the role of information technology in terms of organizational effectiveness. Our study shows that the globalization process revealed and intensified preexisting organizational issues such as the balance between local autonomy and global control in the international bank. A potential role is identified for information technology as a facilitator in formulating and revealing collectively-held organizational theory-in-use-a theory of action constructed from an organization's actual behavior. This collectively-held organizational theory-in-use can then be used by members of the organization to compare with their privately-held organizational theory-in-use in order to identify issues, which, in turn, can lead to discussions for a solution. This process sets the stage for organizational learning centered on error-detection and error-correction. Most of the conventional theories in Information Systems advocate efficient management based on two primary perspectives: The first is a top-down process moving from strategy-setting to management planning to operational control in an organization. The second is a static and closed change-process with four stages: initiating a change, creating a climate conducive to change, executing the change, and finalizing the change. Contrary to these perspectives, we found that the global information system was developed initially as a software product aimed at processing a particular local branch's banking operation instead of serving as a tool for globalization. The decision for installing the system globally was an adaptive process to find the best fit between the software available in the local branches around the world and the top-down globalization strategy formulated at the corporate headquarters. The implementation process did not rigidly proceed through the static and closed change-process. Instead, the implementation process acted as the beginning of an iterative development and redevelopment process, where local modifications occurred based on error-detection and error-correction activities in the software to fit the local needs. Our study suggests that an adaptive and flexible Composite Information Systems approach for the globalization of information technology which is conducive to organizational learning can create a medium not only for increased connectivity among information systems but also for an improved organizational dialectic among the members of an organization, which in turn can increase organizational effectiveness as well as efficiency.