Technology Issues Facing Corporate Management in the 1990s1

This article discusses major issues raised by the authors and several senior information technology executives in large corporations that affect the way technology is introduced and used in major corporations. These issues and “drivers” (primary causes of change) are likely to have the most significant impact on the management of information technology within corporations now and in the future. If these drivers are acknowledged as real (or validated by research as real), then the understanding of their impacts on both corporate organization and technology management would very much benefit by research. This article suggests some of the directions such research could take. This article is essentially a preview from the top of the intertwining of business, industrial operations, and technology management for the next five to ten years. Most of the issues, and their consequences, are subject to continuing research by the President's Council of the Society for Information Management.