A comparative analysis of critical issues facing Canadian information systems …directory.umm.ac.id/Data Elmu/jurnal/I/Information and... · 2010. 3. 29. · A comparative analysis

A comparative analysis of critical issues facing Canadianinformation systems personnel: a national and

global perspective$

Stephen C. Haynea,*, Carol E. Pollardb,1

aCollege of Business, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USAbSchool of Information Systems, University of Tasmania, GPO Box 252-87, Hobart, Tasmania 7001, Australia

Received 13 July 1998; accepted 24 March 1999

Abstract

A survey was conducted of 157 Canadian Information Systems (IS) personnel in organizations throughout Canada using a

modi®ed Delphi technique and follow-up interviews to identify the perceived critical issues in IS during the following 5 years.

The important issues included: (1) building a responsive IT infrastructure; (2) improving IS project management practices and

(3) planning and managing communication networks. Signi®cant differences in the rating of the importance of these issues

were reported between IS executives and non-management IS personnel. Qualitative data collected in 35 follow-up interviews

provided some interesting insights into the rationale behind the ratings. The top 10 issues were compared to rankings

previously reported in Canada and to data collected internationally in a comparable time period. The trend in Canada has been

towards technological issues. From a global perspective, Canada currently appears to lead in management issues and lag in

technological issues. # 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Critical issues; Key information systems issues; Information systems management; Information technology management;

Management priorities

1. Introduction

During the past 20 years, the business environment

and the technology embedded within it has seen

tremendous change. Information technology (IT)

has grown by many orders of magnitude in capacity

and speed and the importance of information as a

corporate resource has increased dramatically. Perso-

nal productivity and decision-making tools are now

accessible to enhance most business functions. New

technologies on the horizon promise to enhance the

richness of electronic communications and automate

the development of even more systems.

This increased capability of IT coincides with

changes in the business environment, including mer-

gers, leveraged buyouts, downsizing, strategic alli-

ances, globalization and commitment to total

quality management and empowerment. In the

1990s, aligning Information Systems (IS) with the

enterprise and managing processes appeared to by

the theme [3]. These environmental changes presented

Information & Management 38 (2000) 73±86

$ The authors contributed equally to the design and execution of

this research project and paper.* Corresponding author. Fax: �1-602-543-6256.

E-mail addresses: [email protected] (S.C. Hayne),

[email protected] (C.E. Pollard).1 Tel. �61-3-6226-1792.

0378-7206/00/$ ± see front matter # 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

PII: S 0 3 7 8 - 7 2 0 6 ( 0 0 ) 0 0 0 5 6 - 2

demands on personnel at all levels of IS departments;

these included the provision of timely, high-quality

information and support of innovative products, pro-

duction techniques and organizational designs. IS

executives are particularly challenged, because they

operate at the intersection of IT and the organization.

In the face of rapid change, IS executives must be

able to interpret trends in IT and assess the impacts

on their organization while managing day-to-day

operations.

Issues associated with IS management have regu-

larly been investigated in the United States. These

studies report a changing focus from largely techno-

logical issues in the earlier studies [1,7,9] to a greater

focus on management of technology [14] and tech-

nology infrastructure issues [2]. Similar investigations

have been conducted in other countries, e.g. Australia

[19], China [16,17], Hong Kong [12], Germany [11],

Slovenia [4] and Taiwan [20].

Global ®rms can no longer afford to view there is

function within the context of national and regional

boundaries. IS issues appear to depend on the political,

legal, economic, cultural and technological environ-

ments that exist in the foreign country under study

[5]. The scope of our study expands on that of prior

studies in two ways. First, we compare Canadian

issues to those previously reported. Canada has a

unique set of circumstances when compared to other

countries; a very large geographical size (with corre-

spondingly small population), different political struc-

ture, distinct regulation of telecommunications,

disparate trade agreements, and a distinct culture.

Second, very little work has been done to examine

whether a shared vision of critical IS issues exists at

different levels of the organization. Previous research-

ers admit that their survey results cannot be claimed as

representative of the IS population in general as their

data collection was usually limited to IS executives.

We continue the move toward collecting data at

various levels of IS personnel to examine whether

the `vision' of top IS executives is correlated to the

perspectives of IS professionals at other organiza-

tional levels.

Speci®cally, we seek to address the following

research questions:

1. What are the 10 most critical managerial and

technical issues IS personnel in Canada perceive

they will face over the next 5 years? What is the

order of importance of these issues?

2. How much agreement is there among the different

levels of IS personnel on the key issues and their

importance?

3. How do the 10 top Canadian critical issues

compare with data collected in international

studies during a similar time period?

2. Previous research

A previous Canadian IS issues study reported some

interesting ®ndings and clearly demonstrated the need

to collect data in Canada, rather than consider that

collected in the US as representative of the IT industry

in Canada. Rivard et al. [15] surveyed 188 IS man-

agers across Canada. They reported a mix of opera-

tional and strategic issues that, when compared with

those of the 1989 US study, showed marked differ-

ences in both content and prioritization. The US and

Canadian lists agreed on the prioritization of only the

top two issues: IS planning and competitive use of IT.

Of the remaining issues, eight on the Canadian list (i.e.

training users, communication with users, managing

microcomputers, user participation in IS development,

control of IS budget, implementation of new technol-

ogies, user friendliness of communications software

and software costs too high) had not been previously

mentioned in any of the US studies. The prioritization

of the remaining issues differed considerably. This

data suggested that Canadian IS personnel face dif-

ferent challenges than their counterparts in the US.

Several key issues studies conducted during a simi-

lar time period in countries other than Canada, under-

lined these national differences. Since culture can play

a large role in the overall ranking of key issues [18], a

comparison of the data collected in several countries is

insightful. Similarities and differences between the

data currently collected and a number of international

studies conducted during a similar time frame will be

explored in the results section of this paper.

3. Methodology

We report on a survey to investigate information

systems issues that are currently facing business

74 S.C. Hayne, C.E. Pollard / Information & Management 38 (2000) 73±86

management in Canada. Our study began with the list

of 23 issues in IS management and their supporting

rational, as developed by Niederman et al. A two-

round, modi®ed Delphi method was employed in

order to move the respondents to a level of consensus

about the critical issues they were facing in IS man-

agement. Although previous studies have used three

rounds, negligible differences were shown between

second and third round questionnaires in the prior

Niederman et al. study. This is consistent with the

premise that the number of rounds is somewhat ¯ex-

ible and the Delphi process stops when a reasonable

level of consensus is achieved [6].

3.1. Round 1

In September 1995, our survey was mailed to a total

of 920 people listed in the National Membership

Directory of the Canadian Information Processing

Society (CIPS) and the Canadian membership

listing of the Urban and Regional Information Systems

Association (URISA). Respondents were randomly

selected from the directories by Province and

wherever possible by `job Category'. In keeping with

the policy of Canadian ®rms to use English as

its language of business, all questionnaires were in

English.

Prior to its mailing, the survey was pre-tested for

clarity and ease of understanding by 10 IS personnel,

at various levels, in the IS department at a Western

Canadian university. No changes were necessary.

3.2. Round 2

Four issues with low ratings (Round 1) were

dropped. Five new ones were added, resulting in a

total of 24 issues. The new issues were developed from

suggestions of Round 1 respondents; all new issues

proposed by three or more respondents were included.

Round 1 issues were listed in rank order of importance

from highest to lowest. A copy of the Round 2

questionnaire is attached as Appendix A.

In late February 1996, all Round 1 respondents were

sent feedback of Round 1 results, including their

individual responses to use as a baseline comparison.

In addition, to increase the response rate, a Round 2

survey was also mailed to a random selection of 536

non-respondents. In total, 712 Round 2 surveys were

mailed. Respondents were once again asked to rate all

issues on a 10-point scale. Despite the `clean-up' of

the original mailing list, based on the returned surveys

from Round 1, 59 Round 2 questionnaires were

returned as ùndeliverable'. The Round 2 mailing

initially resulted in the receipt of 130 useable

responses.

Approximately 3 weeks after the second mailing, in

an effort to boost the response rate, follow-up phone

calls were made to a random selection of 100 non-

respondents. When necessary, a copy of the question-

naire was faxed to those respondents who had `mis-

placed' the survey and respondents faxed completed

questionnaires back to the researchers. The follow-up

phone calls resulted in the receipt of 26 additional

surveys. In total, 157 useable Round 2 questionnaires

were received by March 1996, giving an effective

response rate of �22%.

The distribution of the survey respondents by geo-

graphic location and industry type is shown in Table 1.

All regions of Canada were represented, 77 respon-

dents represented the Western provinces of Alberta

and British Columbia (48%), 21 were from the Central

provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba (13%) and

62 represented the Eastern provinces of Newfound-

land, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario and

Quebec (39%). It should be noted, that, given the

higher population base of the Eastern provinces, the

Western and Central provinces might be somewhat

over represented (the authors were based in Western

Canada and therefore found it easier to gather inter-

view data).

3.3. Follow-up interviews

Thirty-®ve of the respondents agreed to participate

in follow-up telephone interviews. These interviews

answered the question `why' respondents rated the

issues as they did, reported on individual, managerial

and organizational characteristics that may have

in¯uenced their ratings, and determined sources of

information in¯uencing their perceptions. A semi-

structured interview guide was developed and re®ned

for completeness and understandability by means

of a pilot test of three IS executives and managers.

Actual interviews lasted from 45 to 90 min and were

conducted by each of the authors over an 8-week

period. With the permission of each respondent, all

S.C. Hayne, C.E. Pollard / Information & Management 38 (2000) 73±86 75

interviews were tape recorded and transcribed in their

entirety. After transcription and analysis, interviewees

were contacted to check and con®rm their transcript

contents.

Respondents interviewed were similarly distributed

across geographic region and industry. Twenty-®ve of

those interviewed worked in private companies and 10

for public entities. They represented multiple organi-

zational levels: 10 IS executives; eight IS managers;

seven programmer/analysts and 10 IS consultants.

4. Findings

4.1. Top 10 critical issues Ð trends in Canadian IS

issues

Table 2 lists the 10 most critical issues that Cana-

dian IS personnel indicated they expect to face in the

next 5 years and compares them with previous Cana-

dian ®ndings. The comparison suggests that the con-

cerns of Canadian IS personnel have changed during

the past 10 years. Six new issues have emerged. In

addition, prioritization of the issues is signi®cantly

different.

Looking beyond the quantitative data, the interview

data provide some interesting insights into each of the

current top 10 critical issues.

4.1.1. Building a responsive IT infrastructure

This is made more dif®cult by the continuous

change of IT and the increasing breadth and depth

of applications that need to be supported. The majority

of those interviewed were quick to emphasize the

importance of expanding the de®nition of ÌT infra-

structure' to include the `people component', rather

than focusing on processor power, connectivity, and

applications software. This perspective is explained

by a CIO who said, `̀ the people side of IT is, by far,

the biggest component of this issue''. This indicates

a shift from the traditional technical view of IT

infrastructure.

One IS executive suggested that responsiveness

should be measured by the ùsability of the end

product rather than on its technical capabilities'. To

others, this issue also included a `data component' and

embodied àn ever increasing trend towards outsour-

cing'. We were told that the main dif®culty is in

dealing with this issue was the need `to do more

and more with less and less'. A director of MIS of

a large Western Canada municipality stressed the need

to involve top management, `̀ we have to come

together so that we . . . realize the capabilities of IT

Table 1

Sample by industry type, geographic location and data source

Data source

Survey Interview

Industry type

Manufacturing

Production 8 2

Chemical 2 0

Construction 6 1

Computer/data process. 10 2

Trade: wholesale/retail 3 0

Petroleum 7 4

Service

Medical/legal services 2 2

Transportation services 6 2

Utilities 14 2

Consulting 30 11

Finance 12 2

Non-profit

Government 42 5

Educational 4 1

Unclassified 11 1

Total 157 35

Province/territory

Alberta 51 13

British Columbia 25 8

Manitoba 9 1

New Brunswick 2 0

Newfoundland 1 1

Nova Scotia 3 1

Ontario 42 8

Saskatchewan 12 2

Quebec 12 1

Total 157 35

Business sector

Public 68 10

Private 89 25

Total 157 35

Organizational level

Senior IS executive 33 10

IS department manager 55 8

Analyst/programmer 35 7

Consultants 34 10

Total 157 35


and how it can be deployed. It is important to insure

that people know what kinds of applications can be

built and how they can be of value to the company''.

4.1.2. Improving IS project management practices

IT is an increasingly important resource that must

be managed well. Respondents agreed that project

management is more critical than the software itself.

A senior business planner in a large government

agency saw this issue as a `̀ point of failure . . . it's very

close to customer satisfaction''. He stressed the need

for `̀ tight management of projects and good commu-

nication with the client''. Although business has been

dealing with this issue for a number of years, the

growing scale and complexity of IT projects is of

increasing concern. The general consensus for those

interviewed was that well-trained, highly specialized,

multi-disciplinary teams must be used to deliver sys-

tems on time and within budget.

Based on our interviews, we believe that ®rms are

beginning to realize that competitive advantage can

only be realized by custom software; strategic soft-

ware creation must be well managed.

4.1.3. Planning and managing communications

networks

Stand-alone workstations are no longer feasible in

today's team-oriented workplace, the network PC, and

fast-changing network stands in¯uence this issue. For

many of those interviewed, this issue is expected to

continue to gain in importance. Respondents speak of

wide geographic dispersion, increasing intra-organi-

zational communication (departments/division) and

expanding inter-organizational communication (sup-

pliers/customers/vendors). A database administrator

in a medium-sized manufacturing company sees a

`̀ very sharp shift towards client-server applications

. . . the backbone of your network is the most funda-

mentally important thing to consider in setting up

these types of systems''.

We concur with Moschella [13]. We have truly

entered the `network' era. Supporting and encoura-

ging interconnection between entities through social

and data network is becoming a strategic necessity.

4.1.4. Improving the effectiveness of software

development

Companies have long wrestled with the application

development backlog. In comparing current ®ndings

with Rivard et al., it would appear that Canadian IS

personnel are improving in that respect, since this

factor has dropped from second place.

Respondents speak of the dif®culty in changing the

status quo. A senior consultant in a large software

consulting ®rm explained that he shows other com-

panies `̀ new techniques and better ways to do it and

have code walk-throughs, but they are still reluctant to

change any of it''. A CIO of a large international

Table 2

Top 10 critical IS issues and trends in Canadian IS issuesa

Mean

rating

S.D. Issue Issue classificationa Current

study

Canada

(1988)

8-year

changeM/T P/C I/E Group

8.14 1.45 Building a responsive IT infrastructure T C I TI 1 NEW

7.78 1.69 Improving IS project management practices M C I IE 2 NEW

7.63 1.55 Planning and managing communication networks T C E TI 3 15 �12

7.51 1.77 Improving effectiveness of software development T C I IE 4 2 ÿ2

7.34 1.94 Aligning the IS organization within the enterprise M C E BR 5 NEW

7.31 1.84 Coping with degree and rate of technology change T C E TI 6 13 �7

7.28 1.76 Developing and implementing information architecture T P I TI 7 NEW

7.26 2.00 Using IS for competitive advantage M P E BR 8 4 ÿ4

7.17 1.66 Facilitating and managing business process redesign M P E BR 9 NEW

7.07 1.71 Developing and managing distributed systems T C E TI 10 NEW

a Issue classification (Niederman et al. [17]); M: management; T: technology; P: planning; C: control; I: internal to IS organization; E:

external; group: business relationship (BR); technology infrastructure (TI); internal effectiveness (IE); or technology application (TA); NEW:

new issue, not mentioned in previous study; Canada (1988): Rivard, Boisvert and Talbot Ð IS managers.


service company speaks of ®nding the `people side' to

be most troublesome, as caused by the `̀ big paradigm

shift for developers . . . object technology is a whole

different way of thinking about the problem and

analyzing the problem in terms of objects''. A systems

analyst at a large public transit company summarized

as follows:

`̀ We have a really mixed bag of development

tools at the moment. We go everywhere from

COBOL and FORTRAN all the way up to 4GL's

such as PowerHouse and FoxPro. So we are

trying to support too many different types of

applications and too many different languages.''

Clearly, the need for diverse talents, a steep learning

curve and business requirements to move quickly

compound the dif®culties. Software quality is well

recognized by most as being important.

4.1.5. Aligning the IS organization within the

enterprise

The IS organization's effectiveness in supporting

the business needs is dependent on its location within

the business. Too often, the IS division is not appro-

priately located. The relative important of this issue

suggests that IS personnel recognize the need to

view IT as an integral part of the business strategy,

but that it is still not appropriately addressed by upper

management.

The CEO of a medium-sized consulting ®rm

observes, `̀ the traditional, centralized IS bureaucracy

is still fairly common in larger organizations and it

creates a great deal of political in®ghting and power

struggles''. A Director of IT services for a large private

oil and gas company felt that his company has dealt

with this issue. However, he perceived its importance

when he attended a recent conference and was

`̀ astounded by level of struggling that is going to

align oneself with the business unit''. The general

consensus was that there is a growing trend toward

educating user representatives but a lack of senior

technical people who understand business. This

becomes even more dif®cult in large companies that

are often a conglomerate.

4.1.6. Coping with the degree and rate of technology

change

This issue has grown signi®cantly in importance

from 13th. Given the continued high degree of tech-

nology change in the next few years, major purchases

of hardware and operating systems that do not ®t into

the plan could be particularly disastrous to ®rms that

are heavily contained by limited resources.

The majority of those interviewed indicate that their

companies are on the `leading edge' of technology.

Given the vendor-driven, rapid change in technology,

sometimes the best organizational choice is NOT to

change rapidly. A business planner in a large private

organization suggested, `̀ you do have to (change) to a

certain extent, but you can lessen it a great deal being a

little slower and focus more on what the customer

wants, while not always getting them the latest sys-

tem''. A manager of IS in a large private transportation

company still acquiring technology, thus unencum-

bered by legacy systems, feels that his `̀ ability to cope

with technology change is not as acute as some

organizations who have a large number of legacy

systems''. It appears that many of the barriers to IT-

enabled productivity enhancements involve the man-

agement of people response to technological change.

We must develop strategies to handle the continuing

onset of technological change.

4.1.7. Developing and implementing an information

architecture

Some of those interviewed put an emphasis on the

technology while others emphasized the information

component of the architecture. For example, a man-

ager of IS who is currently acquiring technology saw

this issue as the `foundation for moving forward' that

will alleviate other problems with closely-related

issues [1,5,6]. Another IS manager saw it as `part

of the overall technology infrastructure'. Others

focused on the need to develop an information archi-

tecture that has standards for classifying and naming

data elements. An analyst at a large public hospital

expressed concern with an `̀ information architecture

that is so fragmented that I can ask ®ve people how

many admissions we had last month and get ®ve

different answers because they all de®ne àdmissions'

in different ways''.

4.1.8. Using information systems for competitive

advantage

Apparently, Canadian ®rms are still wrestling with

the use of IT as a competitive factor but less now than

earlier. It also may re¯ect increasing Canadian com-


petency with a realization that applying IT does not

guarantee success. A corporate strategy that leverages

IT must also exist. For example, an external consultant

said:

`̀ I don't think it is as important . . . To be as

much at the leading edge as the business is at the

leading edge of the business. . . . take insurance

for example, it's probably more effective for

insurance to be better at detecting fraud than at

leveraging IS . . . the IS department . . . may

contribute in terms of being able to provide

information they need. . . . It might be an enabler

in the organization or we might be able to

provide some enabling technology like analysis

of satellite imagery to look at hail damage . . . to

make sure that people are not over-claiming for

damages''.

Interview data revealed mixed feelings; the differ-

ences appeared to be attributable to type of industry

and sector. For example, respondents from private

®rms recognized that failures can occur when needed

information is unavailable, while those from the pub-

lic sector said that they are in an information rich

environment where much of their effort could be

automated and thus pass information more rapidly.

4.1.9. Facilitating and managing business process

reengineering

It plays an increasingly important role in the process

of business change by enabling the innovative rede-

sign of core business processes [8]. An interview with

a senior IS manager indicated that this is an emerging

issue that may be important in the future:

`̀ I think (this issue) will be (rated) higher over

the next 2 years . . . The next generation that will

have an impact will be some of the electronic

work flow tools that allow people to work

differently . . . I believe, but the users need to

go through some maturing. (then) we will need

to . . . rethink how we do business.''

Further support for this view was provided by the

CIO of a publicly held Western Canadian oil and gas

company: `̀ I think (BPR) will be (rated) higher . . .(with) the further maturity of . . . structured electronic

work¯ow tools''.

There was also evidence that IS personnel are

resisting the change process. A project manager in

a small systems integration ®rm revealed that,

`̀ as far as the BPR goes . . . we are not very

successful . . . because we are not managing the

change process within the organization . . . it is

the politically correct thing to do . . . It is a tough

area and I still don't think we do it very well and

I don't think we will.''

4.1.10. Developing and managing distributed

systems

The challenges associated with the promise of

client-server applications as a cost-effective alterna-

tive are a cause for concern that has not been ade-

quately addressed. The owner-operator of a small

systems development R & D ®rm emphasized the

importance of developing systems to `mirror the form

and function of the organization'. He further elabo-

rated his concerns as follows:

`̀ Businesses of the 21st century are the ones that

are going to recognize that they are mediators of

information, whether they encode it in products,

services or some hybrid combination. What's

really the issue is `how do I run a business

effectively by trading on information'. . . . I have

to organize my organization-gathering feedback

processes to match the topology of my business.

So, if I'm geographically or product line disperse,

. . . I have to build an organization of distributed

information processing systems that parallel the

physical flow of goods and services.''

A senior business planner in a large government

organization expressed similar thoughts: `̀ I think

(developing and managing distributed systems) is

the future (of IT). It is an enabler and allows faster

delivery of information''.

The CEO of an IS-related service provided con-

curred:

`̀ The time has come where information is being

distributed more to the end user and more to

middle management locally. They are not all

bound to the big central mainframe anymore and

they have their own local resources so that, in

the case of a network failure, they are able to

keep working.''

4.2. Analysis by organizational level

Table 3 compares the top 10 critical issues by four

organizational levels: IS executive, IS department


manager, systems analyst/programmer and consultant.

Of these, one might expect IS managers and systems

analysts/programmers to have an internal orientation,

whereas IS executives might have an external orienta-

tion. We had no a priori expectations of the focus of

consultants. There appears to be agreement among

corporate IS personnel that `building a responsive IS

infrastructure' is most important. In contrast, consul-

tants view ùsing IS for competitive advantage' as the

single-most critical issue; interview data showed that

most consultants are engaged in convincing manage-

ment to apply technology strategically and push the

envelope on strategy.

Internally, signi®cant differences (p<0.05) were

reported between IS executive and lower level IS

personnel on four issues. IS executives placed more

importance on `building a responsive IT infrastruc-

ture', and `facilitating and managing business process

reengineering'. Systems analysts and programmers

felt that dealing with `developing and implementing

information architecture' and ìmproving IS strategic

planning' was more critical than did IS executives. For

example, interview data showed that IS executives

were more focused on cost control, while lower level

IS personnel focused on the interaction of technology

components with business tasks.

It is interesting to note that `developing and

implementing information architecture' was of the

highest importance to US IS executives but was

rated 12th in the current study and was not mentioned

by Canadian IS personnel in earlier studies. Similarly,

ìmproving IS project management practice' and

àligning the IS organization within the enterprise'

is signi®cantly more important (p<0.05) to IS execu-

tives than IS managers, who had dif®culty in dealing

with planning and managing communication net-

works.

Signi®cant differences (p<0.01) were evident on the

issue of `measuring IS effectiveness and productivity'.

Of course, IS executives are more concerned with

business, while IS managers and analysts/program-

mers felt that they had this issue under control. This

issue was previously ranked 11th by US respondents,

16th some 7 years ago and 9th in an even earlier study.

Table 3

Comparison of top 10 issues by level

Issue IS executives

(n�33)

IS department

managers (n�55)

System analyst/

programmers (n�35)

Consultants

(n�34)

Rank Mean

rating

Rank Mean

rating

Rank Mean

rating

Rank Mean

rating

Building responsive IT infrastructure 1 8.33* 1 8.42* 1 7.80* 3 7.85

Improving IS project management practice 2 7.91* 3 7.56* 2 7.71 2 8.09

Aligning IS organization w/n enterprise 3 7.70* 8 7.02* 5b 7.49 8b 7.38

Coping w/degree and rate of change 4a 7.61 7 7.05 7 7.37 7 7.41

Using IS for competitive advantage 4b 7.61** 10 6.91** N/R 6.66** 1 8.12*-

*

Improving effectiveness of S/W development 4c 7.61 4 7.39 3 7.57 6 7.53

Planning/managing communication networks 7 7.55 2 7.82 5a 7.49 5 7.56

Facilitating/managing BPR 8 7.36* 9 7.00 N/R 6.83* 4 7.59

Measuring IS effectiveness and productivity 9 7.21** N/Ra 6.89** N/R 6.60** N/R 6.38*-

*

Recruiting/developing IS human resources 10 7.15 N/R 6.63 N/R 6.80 10 7.03

Developing/implementing information architecture N/R 6.94* 5 7.27 4 7.51* 8a 7.38

Developing/managing distributed systems N/R 7.09 6 7.22 9 7.23 N/R 6.65

Improving IS strategic planning N/R 6.82* N/R 6.87 8 7.36* N/R 6.85

Facilitating Organization learning N/R 6.60 N/R 6.42 10 6.97 N/R 6.76

a N/R: rating does not rank issue in top 10.* Significant at p<0.05.** Significant at p<0.01.


Since previous studies reported no qualitative data, it

is impossible to discern whether this changes shows

that IS executives had decided that it was not easily

solved and were therefore concentrating on issues that

were easier to implement.

Interview data also suggested that signi®cant dif-

ferences (p<0.01) were reported across all categories

of respondents on the issue of ùsing IS for compe-

titive advantage'. Other than consultants, respondents

that that this issue had either abated or delegated to

external sources.

4.3. Comparison with previous international findings

Table 4 compares the current results with those of

several international studies conducted in a similar

time period. Àligning the IS organization within the

Enterprise' was the only issue that appears in the 10

top issues of the current study and all other countries

reported. Conversely, `Coping with Degree and Rate

of Technology Change' appears only on Canada's top

10 list.

Comparing countries across the top 10 critical

issues, Canada is most similar to the US (seven

common issues), somewhat similar to Hong Kong

(®ve common issues) and least similar to Slovenia

and Taiwan (three common issues).

Applying Niederman's issue classi®cation to

Table 3, it shows that Canadian and US IT personnel

place a greater emphasis on issues relating to technol-

ogy versus management, while Hong Kong, Slovenia

and Taiwan listed twice as many management issues

than technology. Taiwan stood alone in reporting more

planning issues than control; and, Taiwan and Slove-

nia listed more issues that were external to the IS

organization, rather than internal to IS. On the group

dimension, Taiwan's list was heavily focused on

business relationships, whereas the US, Canada and

Slovenia focused more or less equally on business

relationships and technology infrastructure and Hong

Kong was equally focused on business relationships

and international effectiveness.

Except for the alignment of Slovenia with the US

and Canada on the latter dimension, these ®ndings

are consistent with the national differences in vari-

ables that represent diversity, i.e. power distance,

uncertainty avoidance, individualism and masculinity

[10].

Table 4 also shows some disagreement on

prioritization of the issues. For instance, different

Table 4

Comparison of top 10 current Canadian issues with previous international findingsa

Issue name Current

studyb

(n�157)

USc (1996)

(n�108)

Hong Kongd

(1996) (n�108)

Sloveniae

(1996) (n�105)

Taiwanf (1996)

(n�332)

Diff. Rank Diff. Rank Diff. Rank Diff. Rank

Building a responsive IT infrastructure 1 0 1 �14 15 NR �3 4

Improving IS project management practices 2 NR NR �16� �18 �20� �22

Planning and managing communication networks 3 �2 5 �4 7 �5 8 �16 19

Improving effectiveness of software development 4 �2 6 ÿ2 2 �8� (12, 13) �8 12

Aligning the IS organization within the enterprise 5 �4 9 �4 9 NR ÿ2 3

Coping with degree and rate of technology change 6 NR NR NR NR

Developing and implementing information architecture 7 ÿ3 4 ÿ3 4 0 �7 �4 11

Using IS for competitive advantage 8 �9 17 ÿ5 3 ÿ5� �3 ÿ4 4

Facilitating and managing business process redesign 9 ÿ7 2 NR NR �12 21

Developing and managing distributed systems 10 ÿ7 3 �4 14 NR NR

a Diff.: difference between previous ranking and current study; NR: issue not ranked in previous studies.b Current study (four levels).c US (1996): Brancheau, Janz and Wetherbe (three levels).d Hong Kong (1996): Moores (IS managers).e Slovenia (1996): Dekleva and Zupancic (four levels).f Taiwan (1996): Yang (IS managers and executives).


perceptions of importance of planning and manag-

ing communications networks are evident. Since

the Canadian interviews indicate this is an emerg-

ing issue, it would appear that the US, Hong Kong

and Slovenia join Canada in struggling with

planning and managing communication networks.

Interestingly, Taiwan does not yet ®nd this issue

critical.

These ®ndings are particularly worth noting

for companies operating in a global market and rein-

force the need to consider different priorities when

developing IT strategies when trading in (and with)

different countries. These ®ndings also indicate the

need to continue to report international ®ndings sepa-

rately and caution against regarding US data as the

indicator of the status of information technology

internationally.

5. Conclusions

Our results suggest that the concerns of Canadian

IS personnel are different from those of 10 years

ago. In addition, the prioritization of issues is signi®-

cantly different. It is also apparent that there are

interesting differences between IS executives and

lower level IS management. External consultants

appear to play a strategic role, rather than a basic

outsourcing role.

Interesting similarities and differences between the

current results and those reported in other countries

are also evident. The fact that a responsive IT infra-

structure is important to many countries is consistent

with the need to be ¯exible in today's global business

environment. Data would suggest that IS managers the

world over, need to pay more attention to software

development and technology application. Further-

more, developing countries would be well advised

to plan for increased telecommunications' infrastruc-

tures. Not only are ®rms faced with increasing

advances in personal computing technology, but great

improvements in networking capability is near. For

example, diverse, high bandwidth telecommunica-

tions projects will amplify the move to electronic

commerce. IS personnel must be ¯exible enough to

embrace this. As we more deeply enter the network

age, distributed systems and process management will

be mission critical.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the chief editor, Dr. E.H. Sibley,

for his insightful comments.

Appendix A. Key information systems management issues Ð Round 2 survey





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Stephen C. Hayne is Associate Profes-

sor of IS at Colorado State University.

His research interests are in distributed

database design, knowledge-based tech-

nology and group support systems. Dr.

Hayne holds a PhD in MIS from

University of Arizona. He has imple-

mented tools in graphical environments

to assist groups in communication and

decision-making and received National

Science Foundation funding (US$ 300,000) for examining group

decision processes. His articles have appeared in `Journal of

Management Information Systems', `Database', `Journal of

Systems and Software', `Journal of Computer Supported Colla-

borative Work' and `Journal of Information and Technology

Management'. Dr. Hayne currently serves as the Chair of

SIGGROUP and was General Chair for GROUP'99 conference.

Carol E. Pollard is a Research Fellow at

the University of Tasmania. She has

published her research on the discon-

tinuance of innovations, impact of emer-

ging technologies and an international

comparison of critical IS issues. Dr.

Pollard holds an MBA and PhD in

Business Administration and MIS from

the University of Pittsburgh. She has

published in academic journals including

`MIS Quarterly', `Journal of Systems

Management', `Group Decision and Negotiation' and Ìnterna-

tional Small Business Journal'. Dr. Pollard consults internationally

in the areas of critical IS issues, electronic meeting support and

acceptance/discontinuance of innovations. She served as Executive

Secretary of ICIS for the past 4 years and currently serves as

Advisor±Director of SIGGROUP.


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