Changing information technology and information technology management

Information technology is changing at a rapid rate. A theory has hypothesized that change in IT causes problems for IT managers and that they respond with coping mechanisms to handle these problems. Structured interviews with 16 IT professionals at different organizations identified 31 unique projects that used 86 new ITs which caused 142 problems. Eleven categories summarized the problems. The most common were training demands, vendor oversell, acquisition dilemmas, new integration, support burden, vendor neglect, and resistance. The eleven categories also summarized the coping mechanisms applied to these problems. The most common of these were education and training, inaction, internal support, vendor support, new procedures, and persuasion. This research provides practicing IT managers with alternative perspectives on the problems and a variety of coping mechanisms from which to choose. It also provides suggestions for future researchers. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.