Behavioral IT: Managers' Success Key in an IT-Driven Corporate World

6 Pages Posted: 18 May 2015 Last revised: 20 Mar 2024

See all articles by Prem Kamble

Prem Kamble

IT & Management Consultant

Date Written: April 22, 2015

Abstract

Managing rapid change is an important skill for all Managers, particularly CEOs, CXOs and Department Heads, It is an irony that though IT is the biggest driver of change today, most change management seminars today do not teach how to manage IT-Driven change. Managers' success depends on how well they understand IT and how well they manage this change. Thankfully, managers don't need to learn the most dreaded technical nitty-gritties of IT, they only need to learn Behavioral IT skills, which are extremely simple to acquire.

After all what do managers manage? They manage people and they manage change. What they could not learn so far was how to handle IT-Driven change, which is a very specialized skill. Behavioral IT covers exactly that - how to manage people and processes under IT-Driven change and come out successful.

Behavioral IT® is a new term coined by Prem Kamble. It is important for all Managers, particularly CEOs, CXOs and Department Heads.

What is Behavioral IT? It is both a skill to manage IT-Driven-change as well as a strategy for change management, argues Prem Kamble. Behavioral IT® is a strategy based on the study of behavioral aspects of participants and stake holders in an IT Implementation that can make a difference between success and failure of the project in any company. Alternately, Behavioral IT® skills are the skills required by all managers to manage people and processes impacted by rapid IT-Driven Change. Managers can heave a sigh of relief as they really don't need to know IT. Managers need to know Behavioral IT. They need not harbor that inherent fear of IT, nor the painful thought “I do not know IT”.

“Behavioral Finance” and “Behavioral Economics” are relatively new topics of study in the areas of Finance and Economics respectively. They explore the impact of human behavior and psychology on decisions like investment and spending. Behavioral IT digs into how a study of people’s behavior under IT-Driven change can lead to success of major IT transformations. There is a scope for a whole new area of study and research in “Behavioral IT”.

Information Technology or IT is not all technology. People are an important part of this technology game. IT drives change, and people naturally and strongly resist change. It is very well understood that software development is a people intensive activity unlike a manufacturing activity where machines are involved. But what is not very well appreciated is the role that people at all levels of an organization play during the implementation of software, a step which is the last mile without which no IT activity can be complete. Implementation impacts much larger groups of people, from top to bottom, as software gets rolled out to reach all the users in the company. Attitudes, mindset, beliefs, misconceptions, fears and behavior of people at all levels play a significant role in the success and failure of this phase of an IT project.

Most of the papers written so far on people issues of IT deal with Human Computer Interface, Interface design, collaboration, people issues in software development, etc. (and of late, on the impact of social media on people's behavior). If at all behavioral aspects have been studied in IT, they are with respect to two main areas of IT – behavioral issues in software development phase or development project management, and behavioral aspects in man-machine interface. There is very little work done on behavioral issues during the Implementation phase. Whereas researchers have gone as far as neuro science to localize the functionality of the brain areas that impact Technology Adoption (a field of study called NeuroIT), not much research is done on the behavioral aspects that are at play during the most people-centric stage of IT project, that is, the stage of IT implementation.


Keywords: Behavioral Aspects of IT, ERP Implementation, IT Best Practices, Information Technology, ERP Success or Failure, People Issues in IT,Human aspects of IT,Psychology of Change, Software Projects,Psychology,Behavioural IT,Information Systems, IT-Driven Change management, Computer, Prem Kamble

Keywords: Behavioral Aspects of IT, ERP Implementation, IT Best Practices, Information Technology, ERP Success or Failure, People Issues in IT,Human aspects of IT,Psychology of Change, Software Projects,Psychology,Behavioural IT,Information Systems, IT-Driven Change management, Computer, Prem Kamble

JEL Classification: A00

Suggested Citation

Kamble, Prem, Behavioral IT: Managers' Success Key in an IT-Driven Corporate World (April 22, 2015). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2597877

Prem Kamble (Contact Author)

IT & Management Consultant ( email )

Bangalore
India

HOME PAGE: http://premkamble.com

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