Einar Iveroth

Inside Ericsson: A framework for the practice of leading global it-enabled change

This article explores what it is that managers actually do to successfully lead IT-enabled change. It is based on a three-year case study of the practice of leading IT-enabled change inside the global telecommunications company Ericsson. This organization managed to successfully change their finance and accounting department from an independent structure of numerous local finance and accounting organizations with their own information systems and their own way of doing things into one interdependent global network of shared service centers enabled by a single information system. Based on this and other studies, this article develops a commonality framework for IT-enabled change, which offers important guidelines to improve managerial practice.

Information technology strategy and alignment issues in health care organizations

Background: Information technology (IT) plays a key role in public health care management because it could improve quality, efficiency, and patient care. Researchers and practitioners repeatedly contend that a health care organization’s information systems strategy should be aligned with its objectives and strategies, a notion commonly known as IT alignment. Purpose: Actor-related IT alignment issues in health care institutions were explored in this study. More specifically, it explores the possibility of moving beyond the current IT alignment perspective and, in so doing, explores whether IT alignment—as currently conceptualized in the dominant body of research—is sufficient for attaining improved quality, efficiency, and patient care in health care organizations. Methods: The findings are based on a qualitative and longitudinal study of six health care organizations in the Stockholm metropolitan area. The empirical data were gathered over the 2005–2011 period from interviews, a focus group, observations, and archival material. Findings: The data suggest recurrent misalignments between IT strategy and organizational strategy and operations due to the failure to deconstruct the IT artifact and to the existence of various levels of IT maturity. Conclusions: A more complex picture of IT alignment in health care that goes beyond the current perspective is being offered by this study. It argues that the previously common way of handling IT as a single artifact and applying one IT strategy to the entire organizational system is obsolete. Managerial Implications: The article suggests that considerable benefits can be gained by assessing IT maturity and its impact on IT alignment. The article also shows that there are different kinds of IT in medical care that requires diverse decisions, investments, prioritizations, and implementation approaches.

Strategies for leading IT-enabled change: lessons from a global transformation case

Purpose – The aim of this article is to provide strategic insights of how multinational organizations lead IT-enabled change on a global scale. The article summarizes the findings from a three-year case study of the international telecom company Ericsson. This company managed to successfully transform their finance and accounting (F & A) unit from a highly decentralized structure into a so-called shared service center (SSC) structure and the whole change was enabled by enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Design/methodology/approach – The case study data consists of in-depth interviews, archival data, and observations collected during three years. Findings – The article provides rich description of how the transformation was executed together with three key strategic lessons. Originality/value – The article offers unique and novel insights of how strategist drives IT-enabled change on a global scale.

Bibliometric Study of Academic Interaction: IT, Organization, and Change

This paper explores the degree and nature of the research interaction between the academic fields of Information Technology, Organization, and Organizational Change. This is done so as to see if, a ...

The Emergent View of it and Organizational Change

In the modern business world, it is impossible to distinguish between technology and organization. All activities are somehow supported by technology and the nature and structure of organizations influence the technological development. For that reason, it is crucial to recognize the reciprocal relationship between technology and organization, and acknowledge the phenomena as highly intertwined. This is the case in practice but it should also be reflected in associated research. In this paper, a bibliometric approach serves as the foundation for a study of whether a dynamic view of technology and organization is represented in affiliated scientific writings the last decade. More specifically, research in connection to information technology and organizational change is considered. The results from the investigation paint a scattered picture lacking clear indications of a tendency suggesting a move from a deterministic, and towards an emergent scientific view of these concepts.