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IT Management: The Shift in Culture and Character

IT Management has been through a seismic shift from the 1970s to the new millenium.

IT Management has always involved tackling a number of complex issues. In the 1970s, IT Management had to manage a project life cycle (the length of time from feasibility study to implementation) of typically 3 years. This meant that IT Management had a strategic imperative: to produce a computer system you needed a strategy; to produce a computer strategy you needed a business strategy; if there wasn't a business strategy then you had to develop one, in order to decide how best to invest time money in your computer systems.

In the new millenium, computing power, spreadsheets and PC applications have changed the focus of IT Management. The ownership of application development has shifted to the business user. Project lifecycles have been shortened from years to months, weeks, hours or even minutes. Alongside data warehousing, infrastructure and network issues there is now a greater emphasis for IT Management on service, support and immediacy of response.

IT Management's 'Mother of Strategic Issues'

Although the computer industry has been very driven by technology and innovation, the major issue for has always been a hidden one: character.

If you are responsible for the computer systems in your organisation, you probably recognise the importance of character, but in another guise. The one issue that causes most problems is probably inter-personal relationships, both in your department and in the company as a whole.

Politics is defined by Collins as 'the aggregate of relationships of people, especially those involving...power'.

Relationships are ruled mainly by the characters of the people involved. Politics are created by attitudes towards power, inclusion and likeability. Problems can arise from struggles to gain power, or to be included in decision making, or to be accepted by peers and seniors. In some cases, these personality issues can be so important that they override common sense and rational decision making. Computer systems become the battle ground, and the company's time and money is wasted as the personalities seek to satisfy their own personal needs rather than those of the organisation.

Personalities of computer people

Research shows that in the 1970s the types of people who used to work in information technology were quite different from the general population - for a detailed analysis, refer to our page on IT Management: 1970s character styles. This profile of characters meant that, typically, computer staff preferred different behaviours from those working in the business units. These different preferences for behaviours can explain why conflict sometimes arose in Business/IT relationships, and even between sections within IT departments.

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In recent years, however, the types of people working in IT has shifted - with a greater emphasis on immediate response and a customer service culture. The newer character types are much closer to the typical business culture than in the 1970s, and the distinction between IT and business management is eroding.

Implications for modern IT Management

IT Management in the new millenium is radically different from the 1970s. It is less dependent on technical knowledge and strategic thinking, and more dependent on business knowledge and interpersonal skills.