INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND THE NATURE OF MANAGERIAL WORK - FROM THE PRODUCTIVITY PARADOX TO THE ICARUS PARADOX

Modern organizations are investing heavily in information technology ( IT) with the objective of increasing overall profitability and the pro ductivity of their knowledge workers. Yet it is often claimed that the actual benefits of IT are disappointing at best and that IT spending has failed to yield significant productivity gains-hence the productiv ity paradox. Evidence is fragmented and somewhat mitigated. This paper argues that the current state of empirical research results from a fa ilure to understand the interplay between IT and managerial work. It a ddresses this issue by analyzing patterns of association between IT us age and the nature of managerial work in different organizational cont exts. Fifty-nine semi-structured interviews were conducted with middle line managers in three large companies: a Bank, a Telecommunications company, and a Utility. In addition, daily activities and IT usage wer e logged. The data indicate that the relationship between the level of IT usage and the nature of managerial work was stronger in the two or ganizations that were reorienting their strategies (Bank, Telecommunic ations) than in the one pursuing ifs existing strategy (Utility). It w as also found that the pattern of the relationship between IT usage an d the nature of managerial work depended on the kind of strategic reor ientation implemented by the firm. For instance, in the Bank, the leve l of IT usage was associated with the amount of time spent by managers on information-related activities (e.g., reading reports, gathering i nformation) and on disturbance handling activities (e.g., resolving co nflicts, managing crises). In the Telecommunications company, IT usage was associated with more time spent on information-related activities and less on negotiation-related activities (e.g., discussions with co lleagues on resource sharing, discussions with subordinates on perform ance standards). This finding suggests that heavy IT users paid greate r attention to and spent more time on the relies they performed best w ith the technology (information-related activities) and may in fact ha ve been embarking on an over-specialization trajectory.