Selasa, 18 Oktober 2011

When Cost-Efficient Technologies Meet Politics: A Case Study of Radical Wireless Network Implementation



When Cost-Efficient Technologies Meet Politics: A Case Study of Radical Wireless Network Implementation

Wenshin Chen1 and David Bennett2

1Abu Dhabi University, Abu Dhabi, UAE
2Aston University, Birmingham, UK

Copyright © 2010 Wenshin Chen and David Bennett.This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License unported 3.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided that original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Cost efficiency has been a dominant perspective in the traditional IT literature. However, in complex technology and business environment, the widely recognized cost efficient assumption of information technology has been increasingly challenged. Drawing from a case study of wireless network implementation situated in a politically sensitive workplace, this paper provided practice insights for IT managers in today’s networked economy. More specifically, stories experienced in the case study illustrated that despite well-calculated cost efficiency of wireless network infrastructure, the radical implementation process in the case organization encountered enormous challenges and opposition due to the fact that administrators failed to consider various stakeholders’ positions and interests. Eventually, the implementation objectives and outcome were considerably undermined. Implications from this empirical case research reemphasized the significance of understanding political forces situated in any business environment where different stakeholders hold conflicting interests. Lessons learned from the case story further encouraged IT managers and policy makers to better strategize emerging information technology in general and wireless networks in particular as the whole global society and business environment are increasingly facing an emerging wireless world. 

Keywords: Politics, wireless network, information technology (IT), case study



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