Product details

By continuing to use our site you consent to the use of cookies as described in our privacy policy unless you have disabled them.
You can change your cookie settings at any time but parts of our site will not function correctly without them.
Management article
-
Reference no. SMR3414
Published by: MIT Sloan School of Management
Published in: "MIT Sloan Management Review", 1992
Length: 15 pages

Abstract

Information technology was supposed to stimulate information flow and eliminate hierarchy. It has had just the opposite effect, argue the authors. As information has become the key organizational ''currency'', it has become too valuable for most managers to just give away. In order to make information-based organizations successful, companies need to harness the power of politics - that is, allow people to negotiate the use and definition of information, just as we negotiate the exchange of other currencies. The authors describe five models of information politics and discuss how companies can move from less effective models, like feudalism and technocratic utopianism, and toward the more effective ones, like monarchy and federalism.

About

Abstract

Information technology was supposed to stimulate information flow and eliminate hierarchy. It has had just the opposite effect, argue the authors. As information has become the key organizational ''currency'', it has become too valuable for most managers to just give away. In order to make information-based organizations successful, companies need to harness the power of politics - that is, allow people to negotiate the use and definition of information, just as we negotiate the exchange of other currencies. The authors describe five models of information politics and discuss how companies can move from less effective models, like feudalism and technocratic utopianism, and toward the more effective ones, like monarchy and federalism.

Related