Behavioral IT® - A Multi-disciplinary Approach to Address the IT Woes of Businesses and Top Professionals in an IT-Driven World

Abstract

This paper introduces a unique multi-disciplinary approach called “Behavioral IT®” which addresses the IT-Disruptions related woes of both businesses and business professionals like CXOs, Top Managers and Management Students

Businesses experience problems of huge losses due to over 70% IT Projects Failures. There is efficiency-drop due to IT-disruption induced conflicts, blame-game and politics. Business Professionals/CXOs/Top Professionals experience problems like fear of obsolescence and a feeling of uneasiness (“I don’t know IT”)

This paper presents two simple solutions for both problems:
• Behavioral IT Model for IT Transformations- for Businesses, and
• Behavioral IT Soft-Skills- for CXOs/Managers/Management Students

Behavioral IT is a unique, multidisciplinary behavioural approach for both Business & Individual Success in an IT-Driven World which bridges what the author calls the “Corporate Digital Divide”. It is a study of evolution of human psychology from the industrial-age mindset to the information-age paradigms.

Though researchers identified the cause of IT failures over 30 years back as “Lack of Top-Management Participation”, the problem persists with 70-80% failures today - because researchers haven’t found answers to 2 basic behavioural questions, which are the root cause:
• Why does Top-Management not participate?
• How to ensure their participation?

This paper fills this long-standing gap in research on IT failures in Businesses (particularly lop-sided focus on Behavioral aspects), and ensures success by transforming:
• Management apathy into Active Management Participation
• Conflict/Politics into Teamwork/Collaboration

This paper is useful for all CXO’s, managers, heads of companies and heads of departments – in short, for all the change drivers or change catalysts in businesses. It is of course useful for students of management too.

CEO’s and Business owners can benefit by improving their business in an IT-Driven world by ensuring IT projects succeed.

CEO’s, Top Managers and management students can benefit by honing their skills to succeed in a dynamic IT-Driven world and grow professionally.

Keywords: Behavioral IT, IT Failures, IT Project Implementation, Why IT fails, Key Success Factors for ERP Implementation, IT-Driven Change Management, Psychology of Change, Socio-Technical Change, IT Soft-Skills, IT for Corporate Leaders

JEL Classification: L29, M10, M12, M14, M15, M19, M20, M29, M30, M39, M40