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INFORMATION 105 TECHNOLOGY Press FOR DEVELOPMENT ,.c-;~··· ·-~ ··-:-;-~~·'~- .~ ·--=-.--:-:::~ .. ::~,.1 'ARCSER lnfomldon tedh"lOlogy Md the Internet lhe Singapore experience Lr. Chia. as. L• lllJd c.1<. *° Foetering civil mocillliOi1s In Africa through GOVERNET: an administratiw retonn network s. Qureshi 1998 Volume 8, No. 2 ISSN 0268-1102 Editor-in-Chief S. Ramani National Centre for Software Technology INFORMATION Gulmohar Cross Road No. g Juhu, Bombay, 400 049 India Tel.: +91 22 620 0590/620 1606 TECHNOLOGY Fax: +91 22 621 0139 E-mail: [email protected] Associate Editors FOR Odedra-Straub, M., Koramangala, Bangalore, India Heeks, R., University of Manchester, Manchester, UK DEVELOPMENT Editorial Associate Sasikumar, M., NCST, Bombay, India Korpela, M., University of Kuopio, Kuopio, Finland E-mail: [email protected] Kraemer, K.L., University of California, Irvine, USA La Rovere, R.L., Universitat Rostock, Rostock, Germany Editorial Board Aiyepeku, W.O., University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria Lee, C.-J., Research, Development, and Evaluation Avgerou, C., London School of Economics, London, UK Commission, Taiwan, Republic of China Baeza-Yates, R., Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile Lind, P., INMADE, Satsjo-Duvnas, Sweden Balson, D., Intern. Development Centre, Ottawa, Canada Menezes, C., UNESCO, Paris, France Correa, C.M., Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Molino, E., FAMI, Mexico Argentina Okot-Uma, R. W'O, Commonwealth Secretariat, London, UK El-Sherif, H., IDSC, Cairo, Egypt Raman, K.S., National University of Singapore, Singapore Faye, M., United Nations Economic Commission for Sage, A.P., George Mason University, Fairfax, USA America, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Forster, D., Wellcome Trust, Nairobi, Kenya Schware, R., The World Bank, Washington, USA Gudza, L.D., Speciss Computers, Harare, Zimbabwe Sosa, M., European Commission, Brussels, Belgium Hafkin, N., United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, Valantin, R., IDRC, Ottawa, Canada Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Waema, T., University of Nairobi, Nairobi, Kenya Kamoun, F., Ecole Nationale des Sciences de l'lnformatique, Werner, M., TFA, Nairobi, Kenya Tunisia Yap, C.S., National University of Singapore, Singapore Aims and Scope . The main aim of the journal is to encourage a critical debate on the role of information technology (IT) in the development process and to contribute to more informed decision making concerning IT development, adaptation, transfer and utilization. The journal will be used as a vehicle for information exchange and sensitization on the growing gap between the developed and the developing world, the role of IT in this process, and its impact on the excluded and included sectors of society, especially with reference to current globalization trends. One issue which will be addressed, among others, is the question of whether IT can be used to bridge this gap, and if so, what are the conditions which may be required for such technology to help narrow the gap between the haves and have-nots. The journal will contain material of a practical, applied nature, more than a theoretical one, and will contribute to an exchange of lessons learned. The journal will provide a forum in which writers from developing nations can publish their material in a globally available medium; an opportunity not always available in other international journals. In doing so, writers will be able to sensitize readers, especially senior management, not only in their own countries, but also of donors, governments, universities, private sector, and NGOs in the developed world, who often influence the use of IT in these countries, either directly or indirectly. The distribution of the journal will be in both the developed and the developing world. The content of the journal will be such that it is accessible to non-technical people, in both the public and private sector. © 1998 /OS Press. All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, !OS Press, Van Diemenstraat 94, 1013 CN Amsterdam, the Netherlands. No responsibility is assumed by the Publisher for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or from any use or operation of any methods, instructions or ideas contained in the material herein. Although all advertising material is expected to conform to ethical standards, inclusion in this publication does not constitute a guarantee or endorsement of the quality or value of such product or of the claims made of it by its manufacturer. Special regulations for readers in the USA. This journal has been registered with the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. Consent is given for copying of articles for personal or internal use, or for the personal use of specific clients. This consent is given on the condition that the copier pays through the Center the per-copy fee stated in the code on the first page of each article for copying beyond that permitted by Sections 107 or 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law. The appropriate fee should be forwarded with a copy of the first page of the article to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. If no code appears in an article, the author has not given broad consent to copy and permission to copy must be obtained directly from the author. This consent does not extend to other kinds of copying, such as for general distribution, resale, advertising and promotion purposes, or for creating new collective works. Special written permission must be obtained from the publisher for such copying. Published quarterly 0268-1102/98/$8.00 Printed in the Netherlands Information Technology for Development 8 (1998) 69 69 IOS Press Editorial In this issue Analytical studies on the various issues of introducing IT into organisations are essential to improve the effectiveness of this process. Mere introduction of Information Technology does not yield an increase in efficiency or productivity of an organisation. Stories of failures and bad investments are not difficult to find. In "IT planning in India: implications for IT effectiveness", S. Kanungo and M. Chouthoy report on a study among Indian organisations, to analyse how Indian IT organisations are responding to the challenge of IT. Analysis of responses to questionnaires from a number of Indian organisations was carried out to understand how effectively IT is being used, the factors affecting IT use, and the relation between IT planning and attributes of an organisation such as its size, turnover, and mission. Among the many factors affecting the ease of adoption of technology in an environment, perhaps the factor studied least is the impact of cultural factors. Impact of cultural factors, specifically the mismatch between the culture assumed by the system and the culture of the recipient users, is a significant aspect in the field of software localisation. R.D. Galliers, S. Madon and R. Rashid report a case study of IT introduction into the Karachi Development Authority in Pakistan from the perspective of understanding the effect of cultural factors. The paper reviews the Stages of Growth model for evaluation of IT develop ment in organisations and pinpoints some of its weaknesses. The authors conclude that factors such as the presence of only one individual interested and accountable for the task, the rampant corruption in· areas such as land management, and the organisational changes that use of IT would bring about, invalidated the use of the stages of growth model in this case. Initiatives and strategic plans by National Governments to facilitate growth of Information and Com munication Technologies have been the topic of many papers we have carried before. Chia, Lee and Yeo from the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, describe the Singapore Goverment initiatives in this direction. The National IT Plan of 1986 has been succeeded by a broader, more ambitious plan named IT2000, meant to transform Singapore into an intelligent island by the coming century. Articles of this nature concerning other countries would be welcome. Sajda Qureshi, in her paper on GOVERNET, discusses the impact of electronic communications on civil administration in Africa. The issues fostering and hindering the development of electronic network among civil administration staff are discussed. Providing a communication network, in which the key officials involved in administrative reforms in the country can exchange views and experiences, would allow them to consider more options in a greater depth, and thereby improve the governance in general. The Editorial Team 0268-1102/98/$8.00 © 1998 - IOS Press. All rights reserved Information Technology for Development 8 (1998) 71-87 71 IOS Press IT planning in India: implications for IT effectiveness Shivraj Kanungo* Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology, Hauz Khas, New Delhi 1 JO 016, India Tel.: +91 11 656389; Fax: +91 11 6862 37 Madan Chouthoy Woodward Governor (India) Limited, NO/DA, UP, India Abstract. Organizational context plays an important role in how organizations develop and implement IT strategies and plans. Since, in developing nations like India where, in the presence of highly skilled based of technical manpower, embedded organizational and cultural issues exert a strong impact on strategies adopted by organizations, it becomes important to identify organizational attributes that determine IT effectiveness. In. this paper we investigate the critical nexus between IT planning and IT effectiveness in the Indian corporate milieu l,Vith the aim of identifying strategies and practices that could result in effective IT usage in spite of organizational and cultural constraints. Empirical support was provided for this study by in-depth interviews conducted with systems managers and, in some instances, CEOs. Results indicate that the majority of the organizations do not use IT effectively. Moreover, some of these deficiencies can be linked to planning and strategic aspects of IT management.