SENIOR MANAGEMENT, THE LOCUS OF DECISION MAKING AND THE MANAGEMENT SERVICES DEPARTMENT

Abstract

An earlier study (Lucas, 1984), while finding support for the Hickson (1971) framework for organizational power, found that department managers in three major industrial firms rated their information services department as the least critical of five departments, for success in their industry. This study polled 37 plant managers from the same firms. Plant managers, like their department manager counterparts, considered the information services department least critical for success. Centralization of decision making was found to be positively related to information services department power. Finally, implications of the study on distributed versus centralized information processing are discussed.