Power, politics, and MIS implementation
Open accessAbstract
Theories of resistance to management information systems (MIS) are important because they guide the implementation strategies and tactics chosen by implementors. Three basic theories of the causes of resistance underlie many prescriptions and rules for MIS implementation. Simply stated, people resist MIS because of their own internal factors, because of poor system design, and because of the interaction of specific system design features with aspects of the organizational context of system use. These theories differ in their basic assumptions about systems, organizations, and resistance; they also differ in predictions that can be derived from them and in their implications for the implementation process. These differences are described and the task of evaluating the theories on the bases of the differences is begun. Data from a case study are used to illustrate the theories and to demonstrate the superiority, for implementors, of the interaction theory.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Social scientists have conceptualised the human agent differently and explained people's reluctance or inability to use technology in sociotechnical and system-level terms.
“Social scientists have conceptualised the human agent differently (emphasising, for example, their complex and changing relationship to the technology, to other users, to the organisation and to wider society), and explained people's reluctance or inability to use technology in 'sociotechnical' and system-level terms.”
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Braverman, H. (1974) · Monthly Review · doi:10.14452/mr-026-03-1974-07_1 · Cited by 5,505 · see citing works
The Structure of "Unstructured" Decision Processes
Mintzberg, H., Raisinghani, D., & Theoret, A. (1976) · Administrative Science Quarterly · doi:10.2307/2392045 · Cited by 3,806 · see citing works
(1981) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 3,559 · see citing works
Information systems and organizational change
Keen, P. G. W. (1981) · Communications of the ACM · doi:10.1145/358527.358543 · Cited by 909 · see citing works
Social Analyses of Computing: Theoretical Perspectives in Recent Empirical Research
Kling, R. (1980) · ACM Computing Surveys · doi:10.1145/356802.356806 · Cited by 775 · see citing works
Dalton, M. (1959) · Cited by 684 · see citing works
Sources of Power of Lower Participants in Complex Organizations
Mechanic, D. (1962) · Administrative Science Quarterly · doi:10.2307/2390947 · Cited by 655 · see citing works
Lucas, H. C. (1975) · Columbia University Press eBooks · doi:10.7312/luca94612 · Cited by 538 · see citing works
Information Control as a Power Resource
Pettigrew, A. (1972) · Sociology · doi:10.1177/003803857200600202 · Cited by 344 · see citing works
Power and the design and implementation of accounting and control systems
Markus, M. L., & Pfeffer, J. (1983) · Accounting Organizations and Society · doi:10.1016/0361-3682(83)90028-4 · Cited by 331 · see citing works
Self-citationTactics of Lateral Relationship: The Purchasing Agent
Strauss, G. (1962) · Administrative Science Quarterly · doi:10.2307/2390853 · Cited by 186 · see citing works
Computer information systems and organization structure
Robey, D. (1981) · Communications of the ACM · doi:10.1145/358769.358786 · Cited by 186 · see citing works
Information and Control in Organizations.
Atkin, R. S., Lawler, E. E., & Rhode, J. G. (1978) · Administrative Science Quarterly · doi:10.2307/2392444 · Cited by 170 · see citing works
Noble, D. F. (1978) · Politics & Society · doi:10.1177/003232927800800302 · Cited by 133 · see citing works
Implementation Politics: Top Management Support and User Involvement
Markus, M. L. (2011) · DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) · Cited by 121 · see citing works
Self-citationIntraorganizational power considerations for designing information systems
Bariff, M. L., & Galbraith, J. R. (1978) · Accounting Organizations and Society · doi:10.1016/0361-3682(78)90004-1 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
Measuring Managers' Minds: The Assessment Of Style in Human Information Processing,
Robey, D., & Taggart, W. M. (1981) · Academy of Management Review · doi:10.5465/amr.1981.4285773 · Cited by 113 · see citing works
Automated welfare client-tracking and service integration
Kling, R. (1978) · Communications of the ACM · doi:10.1145/359511.359528 · Cited by 94 · see citing works
Automated information systems as social resources in policy making
Kling, R. (1978) · ACM Annual Conference · doi:10.1145/800178.810109 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
A detailed look at implementation research
Ginzberg, M. J. (2011) · DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Implementation as a Process of Change: A Framework and Empirical Study
Ginzberg, M. J. (2011) · DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) · Cited by 21 · see citing works
The impact of computer technology on organizational power structures
Hedberg, B., Edstrøm, A. C., Müller, W., et al. (1975) · De Gruyter eBooks · doi:10.1515/9783110833485-010 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 5
- Alter, S.L A study of computer aided decision-making in organizations. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass., 1975,
- Crozier, M. The Bureauchratic Phenomenon. Univ. Chicago Press, Chicago, 1964.
- Laudon, K.C. Computers and Bureaucratic Reform. Wiley, New York, 1974.
- Lucas, H. Why Information Systems Fag. Columbia Univ. Press, New York, 1975.
- Markus, M.L. Understanding information systems use in organizations: A theoretical explanation. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve Univ., Cleveland, Ohio, 1979.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Technology Acceptance Model 3 and a Research Agenda on Interventions
Venkatesh, V., & Bala, H. (2008) · Decision Sciences · doi:10.1111/j.1540-5915.2008.00192.x · Cited by 8,159 · see citing works
Strategies for Theorizing from Process Data
Langley, A. (1999) · The Academy of Management Review · doi:10.5465/amr.1999.2553248 · Cited by 7,008 · see citing works
The Duality of Technology: Rethinking the Concept of Technology in Organizations
Orlikowski, W. J. (1992) · Organization Science · doi:10.1287/orsc.3.3.398 · Cited by 4,957 · see citing works
Steps toward an ecology of infrastructure: Design and access for large information spaces
Star, S. L., & Ruhleder, K. (1996) · Information Systems Research · doi:10.1287/isre.7.1.111 · Cited by 3,238 · see citing works
The Technology Acceptance Model: Its past and its future in health care
Holden, R. J., & Karsh, B.-T. (2010) · Journal of Biomedical Informatics · doi:10.1016/j.jbi.2009.07.002 · Cited by 2,669 · see citing works
The Challenge of Innovation Implementation
Klein, K. J., & Sorra, J. S. (1996) · The Academy of Management Review · doi:10.2307/259164 · Cited by 2,113 · see citing works
Technological frames: making sense of information technology in organizations
Orlikowski, W. J., & Gash, D. C. (1994) · ACM Transactions on Information Systems · doi:10.1145/196734.196745 · Cited by 1,736 · see citing works
Investigating User Resistance to Information Systems Implementation: A Status Quo Bias Perspective1
Kim, H.-W., & Kankanhalli, A. (2009) · MIS Quarterly · doi:10.2307/20650309 · Cited by 1,135 · see citing works
An extension of the technology acceptance model in an ERP implementation environment
Amoako-Gyampah, K., & Salam, A. F. (2004) · Information & Management · doi:10.1016/j.im.2003.08.010 · Cited by 922 · see citing works
Smailhodzic, E., Hooijsma, W., Boonstra, A., & Langley, D. J. (2016) · BMC Health Services Research · doi:10.1186/s12913-016-1691-0 · Cited by 827 · see citing works
“According to the political variant of the interaction theory [49], “a product of the interaction of system”
BackgroundOrganizational culture and performance measurement systems
Henri, J.-F. (2006) · Accounting, Organizations and Society · doi:10.1016/j.aos.2004.10.003 · Cited by 700 · see citing works
Information System Success: Individual and Organizational Determinants
Sabherwal, R., Jeyaraj, A., & Chowa, C. (2006) · Management Science · doi:10.1287/mnsc.1060.0583 · Cited by 685 · see citing works
Polites, G. L., & Karahanna, E. (2012) · MIS Quarterly · doi:10.2307/41410404 · Cited by 679 · see citing works
Technology acceptance: a meta‐analysis of the TAM: Part 1
Yousafzai, S. Y., Foxall, G. R., & Pallister, J. G. (2007) · Journal of Modelling in Management · doi:10.1108/17465660710834453 · Cited by 624 · see citing works
Change management strategies for successful ERP implementation
Aladwani, A. M. (2001) · Business Process Management Journal · doi:10.1108/14637150110392764 · Cited by 619 · see citing works
Sykes, T. A., Venkatesh, V., & Gosain, S. (2009) · MIS Quarterly · doi:10.2307/20650296 · Cited by 522 · see citing works
Research on information systems failures and successes: Status update and future directions
Dwivedi, Y. K., Wastell, D., Laumer, S., Henriksen, H. Z., Myers, M. D., Bunker, D., Elbanna, A., Ravishankar, M. N., & Srivastava, S. C. (2015) · Information Systems Frontiers · doi:10.1007/s10796-014-9500-y · Cited by 448 · see citing works
User resistance and strategies for promoting acceptance across system types
Jiang, J. J., Muhanna, W. A., & Klein, G. (2000) · Information & Management · doi:10.1016/s0378-7206(99)00032-4 · Cited by 265 · see citing works
Dashboards as a Service: Why, What, How, and What Research Is Needed?
Pauwels, K., Ambler, T., Clark, B. H., LaPointe, P., Reibstein, D., Skiera, B., Wierenga, B., & Wiesel, T. (2009) · Journal of Service Research · doi:10.1177/1094670509344213 · Cited by 257 · see citing works
Sharing Knowledge and Expertise: The CSCW View of Knowledge Management
Ackerman, M. S., Dachtera, J., Pipek, V., & Wulf, V. (2013) · Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) · doi:10.1007/s10606-013-9192-8 · Cited by 229 · see citing works
Sykes, T. A., Venkatesh, V., & Johnson, J. L. (2014) · MIS Quarterly · doi:10.25300/misq/2014/38.1.03 · Cited by 210 · see citing works
“This line of reasoning is consistent with the core of socio-technical systems theory (Bostrom and Heinen 1977), which has had a rich tradition of being applied in the study of IS implementations (e.g., Carrillo and Gaimon 2002; Kling 1980; Lapointe and Rivard 2005; Markus 1983), that identifies different components of…”
ResultGeorge Washington University, U., Park, Y., El Sawy, O. A., University of Southern California, U., Fiss, P. C., & University of Southern California, U. (2017) · Journal of the Association for Information Systems · doi:10.17705/1jais.00467 · Cited by 189 · see citing works
Beyond the organizational ‘container’: Conceptualizing 21st century sociotechnical work
Winter, S., Berente, N., Howison, J., & Butler, B. (2014) · Information and Organization · doi:10.1016/j.infoandorg.2014.10.003 · Cited by 178 · see citing works
Addressing organizational issues into the evaluation of medical systems
Kaplan, B. (1997) · Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association · doi:10.1136/jamia.1997.0040094 · Cited by 175 · see citing works
Gagnon, M.-P., Légaré, F., Labrecque, M., Frémont, P., Pluye, P., Gagnon, J., Car, J., Pagliari, C., Desmartis, M., Turcot, L., et al. (2009) · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews · doi:10.1002/14651858.cd006093.pub2 · Cited by 157 · see citing works
Mani, V., Delgado, C., Hazen, B., & Patel, P. (2017) · Sustainability · doi:10.3390/su9040608 · Cited by 160 · see citing works
Mahmud, I., Ramayah, T., & Kurnia, S. (2017) · Information Systems · doi:10.1016/j.is.2017.05.005 · Cited by 131 · see citing works
Holden, R. J., & Karsh, B.-T. (2009) · Behaviour & Information Technology · doi:10.1080/01449290601138245 · Cited by 128 · see citing works
E. Koh, C., R. Prybutok, V., D. Ryan, S., & Andy" Wu, Y. (2010) · Informing Science: The International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline · doi:10.28945/1326 · Cited by 120 · see citing works
Productivity enhancement from computer-mediated communication: a systems contingency approach
Hiltz, S. R. (1988) · Communications of the ACM · doi:10.1145/53580.53583 · Cited by 91 · see citing works
Greenhalgh, T., Swinglehurst, D., & Stones, R. (2014) · Health Services and Delivery Research · doi:10.3310/hsdr02390 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Le Dantec, C. A., & Edwards, W. K. (2010) · Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems · doi:10.1145/1753326.1753345 · Cited by 58 · see citing works
Investigating the resistance to telemedicine in Ethiopia
Xue, Y., Liang, H., Mbarika, V., Hauser, R., Schwager, P., & Kassa Getahun, M. (2015) · International Journal of Medical Informatics · doi:10.1016/j.ijmedinf.2015.04.005 · Cited by 59 · see citing works
Heidenreich, S., & Talke, K. (2020) · AMS Review · doi:10.1007/s13162-020-00164-x · Cited by 46 · see citing works
Jacob, C., Sanchez-Vazquez, A., & Ivory, C. (2019) · JMIR mHealth and uHealth · doi:10.2196/13555 · Cited by 46 · see citing works
One Step Forward and Two Steps Back: E-government Policies in Practice
Henriksen, H. Z. (2018) · Public Administration and Information Technology · doi:10.1007/978-3-319-61762-6_4 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
A multi-perspective framework for research on (sustainable) autonomous systems
Beck, R., Dibbern, J., & Wiener, M. (2022) · Business & Information Systems Engineering · doi:10.1007/s12599-022-00752-0 · Cited by 23 · see citing works
Interrelationships of identity and technology in IT assimilation
Leclercq-Vandelannoitte, A. (2014) · European Journal of Information Systems · doi:10.1057/ejis.2013.16 · Cited by 22 · see citing works
- Authors
- Markus, M. L.
- Affiliations
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US)
- Corresponding author
- Markus, M. Lynne
- Venue
- Communications of the ACM
- Published
- 1983-06
- Volume
- 26
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 430-444
- ISSN
- 0001-0782 (ISSN-L)
- 1557-7317
- OpenAlex
- W1963608591
- Cited by
- 2,224
- References
- 22
- Citations by year
- 2026: 21 · 2025: 24 · 2024: 27 · 2023: 27 · 2022: 28 · 2021: 48 · 2020: 54 · 2019: 48 · 2018: 46 · 2017: 53 · 2016: 61 · 2015: 81 · 2014: 96 · 2013: 85 · 2012: 109
- FWCI
- 73.94
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Communications of the ACM (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Information Systems Theories and Implementation
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management Information Systems › ERP Systems Implementation and Impact
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Technology Adoption and User Behaviour
- Keywords
- management information systems, MIS implementation, resistance to change, implementation strategies, power, politics, interaction theory, system design, organizational context
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
