The Impact of Information Technology on Middle Managers

Abstract

This article reviews studies that examine the impact of information technology (IT) on the number of middle managers in organizations. We find contradictory evidence suggesting, paradoxically, that IT both increases and decreases the number of the middle managers. We resolve this "empirical paradox", by looking at the effects of IT on middle managers as contingent upon the degree of centralization of computing decisions, and of organizational decisions more broadly. When both computing decisions and organizational decisions are centralized top managers tend to use IT to reduce the number of middle managers. When these decisions are decentralized, middle managers use IT to increase their numbers. A recent case study provides preliminary support for this perspective by showing an interesting case of reduction in middle managers.

An holistic approach to understanding the changing nature of organisational structure

“…Robey, 1977;Pinsonneault and Kraemer 1993;Hitt & Brynjolfsson, 1997]. Another reasonably common theme in the organisational literature has been the impact that new technologies might have on the standardisation and formalisation of working practices and procedures [e.g.…”

E-Government and Online Government-Citizen Interaction

“…" [O]rganisations are information processing units, and the central means of understanding and analysing organisations is by illuminating the structures and channels organizational actors develop to regularise information collection, storage, use, and flows (Fountain 2007, March and Simon 19581993. Are there any changes in the information flows analysed?…”

The whys and whats of an IT specialisation within a generalist management tertiary education

“…Most of these investments, however, also carried the opportunity for reduction in the middle management ranks. Many of the information and communication functions of middle managers were no longer required because of the extensive diffusion ofIT throughout organisations , (pinsonneault & Kraemer, 1993), Often these opportunities were not fully exploited with the result that some organisations began to be shaped more like a lemon than the traditional pyramid , (Korporaal, 1993).…”

“…Decentralised, line management, controlled IT tends to result in IT applications which support the unstructured and decision making aspects of the role, thus consolidating the power of middle managers . (pinsonneault & Kraemer, 1993).…”