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McDonaldizing IT Decision Making
To borrow a construct from social scientist George Ritzer in The McDonaldization of Society, some CIOs have "McDonaldized" the provision of basic computational functionality; they have used process to maximize efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. Efficiency creates the optimum method for getting from one point to another. Calculability tracks the time it takes to get products sold and services offered. Predictability ensures that products and services will be the same over time and in all locales.
A McDonaldized IT shop offers few surprises. Its employees behave in predictable ways. They follow rules and standards. What they do -- and to a certain extent what they say -- is predictable. McDonaldized IT organizations often have scripts for frequently occurring interactions with customers.
These IT shops are not democracies, although they can be quite collaborative, innovative and efficient. In McDonaldized IT departments, decision rights are managed. As the CIO at an engineering services firm explains, "There are many things that my staff wants to vote on. Everybody wants to have their opinion heard. At some point, you just have to say, 'Enough is enough.'"
"Get rid of the complexity, and stop arguing over it," he advises. "We need less input on decisions (about desktop service levels, for example) and more input on how can we use technology to grow the win rate on [our] proposals."
In these kinds of IT shops, control is exerted through fewer user options, leading customers where management wants them to be. Organizational structure reinforces this control; managers and inspectors make sure workers toe the line and adhere to certain IT standards.
Still, McDonaldization is by no means an all-or-nothing process; there is a spectrum. You choose what processes and activities you want standardized. Our data set shows that larger enterprises are further down the road toward McDonaldization than their midmarket brethren (see Figure 1). As Figures 2 and 3 indicate, however, midmarket firms are using some external sources to make decisions.
"IT is becoming -- over the past five years, anyhow -- more and more of a science [that now makes] repeatable, sustainable, cost-effective decisions," says the CIO at a pharmaceutical company. "IT has been an art during most of my 30 years in the business. Those in leadership positions made decisions -- some good, many bad -- depending on the individual's level of experience and expertise. Poor, expensive decisions are rarely tolerated for long anymore, regardless of the charisma and acceptance at the executive level of the senior IT person in charge."
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