A methodology for resistance to change management in information systems projects

Simon Vrhovec (2015) A methodology for resistance to change management in information systems projects. PhD thesis.

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Abstract

The rate of failed information systems development projects remains high despite increasing investments into information systems and their major importance for contemporary organizations. Resistance to change is one of the critical reasons for such high failure rates. Organizations faced resistance to change long before the emergence of first computers as it is a natural reaction to change. With the emergence of computers and introduction of information technology to organizations, resistance to change became more problematic and visible as changes became much more frequent due to the fast development of technology. Today, after several decades since first introduction of information systems to organizations and related research resistance to change still stays a hard nut to crack and is present in most information systems development projects. User resistance has been studied from different perspectives in information systems research and several theoretical explanations and checklists were proposed. Despite this, resistance management stays relatively immature and poorly researched. The sheer understanding of resistance should be enough for successful management, while resistance is typically managed together with other technical and organizational information systems development project risks. In this dissertation we addressed this problem in several ways. First, we defined the concept of stakeholder resistance. The term user resistance which is broadly used in information systems research is misleading. Users of the information system are not the only ones who can resist the change. All project stakeholders can resist it. Next, we developed a theoretical model of organizational risks which posits that organizational risks are by far more complex than technical risks. It is necessary to identify non-trivial root causes of organizational risks in order to manage them effectively otherwise risk measures could address only the symptoms instead of root causes. In accordance with the theoretical model of organizational risks, we developed a two-phased focus groups resistance management model. We consolidated diverse theoretical explanations and resistance checklists in the area of information systems research into a novel resistance checklist. We also consolidated research on information systems and project success and developed a novel information systems development project success model. Both, the proposed resistance checklist and the information systems development project success model, are used in the first phase of the proposed focus groups resistance management model. A case study was conducted in a loan process information system development project in Bank BB (fictional name due to anonymity) in order to evaluate the proposed theoretical model of organizational risks and focus groups resistance management model. In the case study, we confirmed that organizational risks can have non-trivial root causes by applying the theoretical model of organizational risks to the context of stakeholder resistance. These results indicate that existing risk management approaches are based on inadequate organizational risk theory. We also showed that the proposed focus groups resistance management model upgrades existing organizational risks management approaches and provides in-depth information that enables managers to develop appropriate resistance handling measures. The crossing from traditional to agile methods means bigger flexibility and involvement of end users in the development of information systems and research shows better information systems development project success rates. Agile methods were primarily intended for small software development projects but there is an increase of interest for their use in large information systems development projects. However, this area remains relatively immature and the success rates of large projects remain low. Existing traditional method evaluation models address mainly their technical aspects with few models also considering certain social aspects. Nevertheless, the evaluation of traditional methods stays limited to the development organization. Agile methods lower the importance of formal definition of development methodologies which means greater flexibility of agile methods. This flexibility also means typically implicit evaluation of the development methodology as only few agile methods define this activity formally (e.g., sprint retrospective in Scrum). The evaluation of agile methods is thus left to coincidences and the abilities of the project team. The evaluation of agile methods can exceed the boundaries of development organizations due to emphasized collaboration with customer organizations therefore evaluating them according to factors stemming from customer organizations. The purpose of both traditional and agile method evaluation is the optimization of the information systems development process. To approach the customer organizations even more broaden the purpose of development methodology evaluation to encompass resistance management, we first develop a meta-model of cooperation between development and customer organizations in information systems development. Next, we defined the concept of interaction elements as agile method elements and information system characteristics that stakeholders in customer organization interact with. Finally, we applied the change agent and opinion leader theory in order to develop a meta-model of information systems development methodology influence on stakeholder resistance. Based on this, we developed a novel interaction elements evaluation model. The proposed model enables improvement of those development methodology parts that can influence stakeholder resistance in customer organizations. A case study was conducted in Think!Med medical information system development project in Marand (development organization) and Division of Paediatrics of University Medical Center Ljubljana (customer organization) in order to evaluate the proposed interaction elements evaluation model. The case study showed that the proposed model provides in-depth information that enable development organizations to develop measures to improve those parts of information systems development methodology that can influence stakeholder resistance in customer organizations. Both the proposed focus groups resistance management model and the proposed interaction elements evaluation model are intended to be used in single information systems development projects. However, in contemporary organizations it is almost impossible to find isolated information systems development projects because they are practically constantly present. In this dissertation we addressed this need for continuous resistance management by developing a resistance management process. The proposed process can be integrated into existing processes of both customer and development organizations. The proposed focus groups resistance management model and the proposed interaction elements evaluation model can be both included in the proposed resistance management process. The first model is more appropriate for customer organizations and the latter for development organizations.

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