Organizational Impact of Information Technology (IT) in the Context of E-Business: Development of a General Framework for Balancing the Tensions between Opportunities and Risks

This paper contributes to theory development concerning the organizational design of information technology (IT). It critically discusses the question of “organizational impact of information technology (IT)” from a design perspective. In this paper, the research question is debated against the background of current dealings with the organizational impacts of e-business or the internet, respectively. The inconsistent findings of an own corresponding empirical study with regard to e-business again support the need for a deeper theoretical investigation of the relationship between organization and (e-business) IT. Explicitly following a design perspective we turn away from the traditional subjective-objective-distinction in favor of a theoretical approach which distinguishes between the respective opportunities and risks of an “open position” and a “closed position” or design pattern, respectively. The theoretical need for a (trialectic) balance of the tensions between both positions becomes obvious. A “tension-balancing management”perspective for (e-business) IT and organizations is the result in terms of the new theoretical design approach.