ABSTRACT:
Developments in computer technology, such as integrated information systems that cross organisational boundaries, are frequently predicted to have implications for both the role of managers and the structure of organisations. Despite the relative wealth of predictions of potential effects, empirical research on the effects that such systems actually have in these areas has been somewhat neglected. The authors have recently completed a piece of empirical research that may go some way towards addressing this deficiency. The research is based on eight case study companies in the North East of England all of which, in their own way, are at the leading edge of the development of integrated information systems. Throughout this work integrated information systems are taken to mean single computer based information systems that transfer information across both horizontal (functional) and vertical (hierarchical) boundaries in an organisation.
