Title

Review: Power And Information Technology Research: A Metatriangulation Review

Keywords

IT management; IT use; Metatriangulation; Politics; Power

Abstract

This study uses a metatriangulation approach to explore the relationships between power and information technology impacts, development or deployment, and management or use in a sample of 82 articles from 12 management and MIS journals published between 1980 and 1999. We explore the multiple paradigms underlying this research by applying two sets of lenses to examine the major findings from our sample. The technological imperative, organizational imperative, and emergent perspectives (Markus and Robey 1988) are used as one set of lenses to better understand researchers' views regarding the causal structure between IT and organizational power. A second set of lenses, which includes the rational, pluralist, interpretive, and radical perspectives (Bradshaw-Camball and Murray 1991), is used to focus on researchers' views of the role of power and different IT outcomes. We apply each lens separately to describe patterns emerging from the previous power and IT studies. In addition, we discuss the similarities and differences that occur when the two sets of lenses are simultaneously applied. We draw from this discussion to develop metaconjectures, (i.e., propositions that can be interpreted from multiple perspectives), and to suggest guidelines for studying power in future research.

Publication Date

1-1-2002

Publication Title

MIS Quarterly: Management Information Systems

Volume

26

Issue

4

Number of Pages

397-434

Document Type

Review

Personal Identifier

scopus

DOI Link

https://doi.org/10.2307/4132315

Socpus ID

1242318217 (Scopus)

Source API URL

https://api.elsevier.com/content/abstract/scopus_id/1242318217

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