Myths and the art of deception in information systems

Examines two myths in relation to information systems development and management. Explores them from the political perspective of securing identities. Uses two recent case studies of Australian organisations to illustrate this. Argues that myths often serve to secure the identities of groups of employees. The use of the myths provides a way of exploring the political nature of IS development and management. IS departments often portray the image of being technical departments which rely on technical tools and techniques. In reality, it can be seen from the two case studies that the organisations have a number of informal approaches in the development and management of IT which in some cases can be described as being politically staged.