John "Skip" Benamati
RESEARCH INTEREST
Information technology is critical to the success of most
organizations. However, IT today is changing rapidly. Thus,
organizations are grappling with the difficult challenge of
managing IT and struggling to remain focused and directed in
their application of it as it changes.
I have witnessed this struggle first hand in many different situations during my twelve years of professional IT experience. The need to understand this struggle is the key motivator of my current research. While the technologies themselves fascinate me, the organizational and management issues surrounding the provision and support of IT are my focus.
DISSERTATION DISCUSSION
Research has addressed the effects of rapidly changing IT on
organizations as a whole. However, few investigative efforts have
considered how such change in IT affects IT providers within the
organization.
As a first step in the study of the impact of rapid change in IT on its management, my dissertation investigated the problems encountered by IT providers attributable to these changes. It also examined the actions taken to address these problems. My study was rooted in the environmental impact theory (EIT) (Lederer and Mendelow, 1990). It tested, and found support for this theory.
I first conducted a qualitative prestudy using structured interviews with sixteen IT professionals. From this study, I developed a better understanding of the problems encountered and actions taken to address these problems. I also revised and extended the environmental impact theory. A paper (with two co-authors) based on the prestudy was published in Information and Management.
Using the prestudy data, I developed and implemented a survey. It was sent to 1000 organizations and 246 responses were received in two mailings. The response rate showed a strong practical interest in the issue and also indicated that many problems do exist and actions are taken to address them. Both confirmatory and confirmatory factor analysis were used in the data analysis. Support was found for the EIT. The dissertation began what should prove to be an interesting and fruitful stream of research.
Lederer, A. L. & Mendelow, A. L. "The Impact of the
Environment on the Management of Information Systems," Information
Systems Research, (1:2), June 1990, pp. 205-222.