A multiple case study on the nature and management of shadow information technology
- In several organizations, business workgroups autonomously implement information technology (IT) outside the purview of the IT department. Shadow IT, evolving as a type of workaround from nontransparent and unapproved end-user computing (EUC), is a term used to refer to this phenomenon, which challenges norms relative to IT controllability. This report describes shadow IT based on case studies of three companies and investigates its management. In 62% of cases, companies decided to reengineer detected instances or reallocate related subtasks to their IT department. Considerations of risks and transaction cost economics with regard to specificity, uncertainty, and scope explain these actions and the resulting coordination of IT responsibilities between the business workgroups and IT departments. This turns shadow IT into controlled business-managed IT activities and enhances EUC management. The results contribute to the governance of IT task responsibilities and provide a way to formalize the role of workarounds in business workgroups.
Author: | Stephan ZimmermannORCiDGND, Christopher RentropORCiD, Carsten FeldenORCiDGND |
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ISSN: | 0888-7985 |
Parent Title (English): | Journal of Information Systems |
Volume: | 31 |
Document Type: | Article |
Language: | English |
Year of Publication: | 2017 |
Release Date: | 2019/05/17 |
Tag: | Shadow IT; End-user computing; Workarounds; IT governance; Transaction cost economics; IT task responsibility |
Issue: | 1 |
First Page: | 79 |
Last Page: | 101 |
Note: | Volltextzugriff für Angehörige der Hochschule Konstanz möglich |
DDC functional group: | 000 Allgemeines, Informatik, Informationswissenschaft |
Relevance: | Wiss. Zeitschriftenartikel reviewed: Listung in Positivlisten |
Open Access?: | Nein |