Breaking the Ice: Organizational Culture and the Implementation of a Student Management System

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This case explores the challenges of implementing an enterprise system (ES) across a university with a diverse organizational culture. This teaching case describes the process through which Southern University sought to implement the Delta student management system (SMS) and the challenges encountered due to the university's organizational culture. The project team ran into a change resistant culture with organizational units that enjoyed autonomy in their business processes. Rather than attend to various needs by customizing the system, the project team implemented a plain version of the system. Although this approach ensured the project team was able to complete the implementation on time and within budget, it left behind many dissatisfied users and organizational members, and created resistance within the organization toward the system. Therefore, this case provides opportunities for students to discuss the impact of organizational culture and user resistance on IS implementations as well as the merits and limitations of the strategies employed by the project team to ensure the new system was implemented on time and within budget.