There is a gap in the literature concerning personal perceptions of one's own
power in organizations. Information Technology (IT) personnel are positioned to be an
excellent target group for researching this subject. Status Construction Theory (SCT),
Mintzberg's model of organizational structures, and Network Exchange Theory (NET)
provide a useful lens for considering the results of this exploratory study. Because power
is a widely contested term, a dimensional view of power was used in this study. Twelve
indicators of power were identified in the literature and used to create a quantitative
survey instrument. Survey participation was solicited online from 350 employees of a
small private university in the southwest with a 33% response rate (N=116). In addition,
qualitative interviews were conducted with 17 IT professionals and compared with the
survey results in a mixed methods approach.
The survey did not work as expected. A factorial analysis was used to examine
the survey results. However, the factors did not match the twelve power indicators as
expected. Also, because of the small sampling size of the survey site, differences between groups were not significant enough for comparison. However, two significant
factors did emerge which were interpreted as representing "respect" and "control",
indicating that IT personnel at the survey site may be respected for what they do and
recognized as having legitimate control of information systems. Even so, these factors of
respect and legitimate control do not translate into a perception of significant power
advantage for IT. The interview responses supported this conclusion.
It was found that for these participants, while IT personnel are in positions to be
more powerful members of their organizations, they typically do not seek out or take
advantage of such power. The predominant concern for IT, however, was not the
exercise of power per se, but rather having the influence to make the organization better.
This was evidenced by IT members feeling left out of key decision-making processes.
SCT, NET, and Mintzberg's organizational model offer several possibilities for
enhancing IT's power and influence by improving their professional status among
organizational members.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:tamu.edu/oai:repository.tamu.edu:1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2009-08-3254 |
| Date | 2009 August 1900 |
| Creators | Stogsdill, Steven P. |
| Contributors | Miller, Katherine I. |
| Source Sets | Texas A and M University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Book, Thesis, Electronic Dissertation, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
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