Management Information Systems, Communications, and Departmental Power: An Integrative Model

After a review of related theoretical and empirical research, I develop a theoretical framework that positively relates the use of management information systems to determinants of departmental power, including interdepartmental communications. The determinants of power are adapted from the theory of strategic contingencies [Hickson, Hinings, Lee, Schneck, & Pennings, 1971] and this theory is modified by the introduction of the importance of departmental tasks as a mediating variable in the relationship between power and its determinants.