The Management and Governance of Information Technology

   CONTENTS  

The management and governance of IT in companies

The aim of the Management and Governance of Information Technology Research Group is to study the mechanisms, processes, and structures involved in the management and governance of IT. This focus is justified by the strategic importance of information and IT for organizations and their relationship with the economic and social environment.

According to the chairs, Edimara Mezzomo Luciano and Maurício Gregianin Testa, four lines of research are pursued: the effect of IT on organizations, business intelligence, models for management of information technology, and electronic business. Cultural problems permeate a large section of the studies: How do cultural problems influence project management? What is the influence of the national and organizational culture on the adoption and use of IT by organizations? What are the cultural problems involved in information security and adoption of IT by governments, i.e., the so-called electronic government? These are the traits that distinguish our group’s studies from the ones performed, for example, in the fields of Engineering and Informatics.

One of the main projects of the group concerns the governance of IT, including how its process of adoption unfolds, the power problems between the involved actors, decision-making, and encompassed cultural features, and considers the actual market conditions in which teams from different countries may work within a same organization.

The Adoption of Systems subject comprises a series of studies currently undertaken worldwide. The peculiarity of this group is to approach the angle of the culture, policies, and practices of governance and security. For this purpose, data are currently being collected in Brazil and the USA, but the group aims to widen the project focus to include companies from every continent.

The group’s main partners are UFRGS (Brazil), University of Texas at El Paso (USA), HEC Montréal (Canada), New York University (USA), and companies located at the Science and Technology Park of PUCRS, Tecnopuc.