Decision Sciences Journal
Volume 27, Number 4
Fall 1996
An Empirical Test of the Strategic-Grid Model of Information
Systems Planning
Semi Tukana
Management Information Systems, Fiji Development Bank, Suva, Fiji
Ron Weber
Department of Commerce, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Qld
4072, Australia
ABSTRACT
Contingency models of information systems planning predict that no
single planning approach will suit all organizations' needs. Little
empirical research has been undertaken, however, to evaluate this
prediction. Accordingly, we used McFarlan, McKenney, and Pyburn's
(1983) strategic-grid model to study the information systems
planning problems encountered by 49 governmental agencies.
Twenty-seven agencies were required to follow a planning approach
best suited to organizations that had a high level of dependence on
both their existing and proposed systems. We predicted that
agencies not having these characteristics would encounter the most
problems with the approach. The remaining 22 agencies could choose
their own planning approach. We studied this latter group to
determine whether the problems encountered by the first group could
be attributed to the mandated approach. Overall, the empirical
results obtained were equivocal. Some results indicated that more
planning problems were encountered by agencies in which the
mandated approach was not appropriate to their position in the
strategic grid. Other results were not supportive of this
proposition. More work needs to be undertaken, therefore, to
evaluate the predictive and explanatory power of contingency models
of information systems planning. In addition, our research
indicates a need to develop more rigorous theories of information
systems planning behaviors, to improve the instruments needed to
measure these behaviors, to explore the relationship between
information systems planning behaviours and organizational
effectiveness, to investigate how organizational learning impacts
planning behaviors, and to determine the types of information
systems planning problems that diffuse through organizations and
those that remain localized.
Subject Areas: Information Management, Management
Information Systems, Planning/ Strategy, and Public Enterprise.
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