Strategic IT in financial services: the social construction of strategic knowledge

Abstract

Our analysis of the management of expertise has begun to highlight the problems and contradictions of the managerial process around expert groups. Clearly, expertise is not simply available ‘on tap’ to be inserted into decisionmaking processes at management’s discretion. Nor do its implications boil down to the carrot and stick issues of motivation and control. In contrast, we have developed a framework that highlights the role of expertise in the social construction of knowledge. This chapter applies that framework to managerial attempts to apply information technology (IT) to strategic organisational goals. It focuses on the financial services sector and in that context deals with questions such as the role of information systems (IS) in shaping corporate strategy, and more broadly with the possibility of organising expert knowledge to support the strategic agendas defined by top management.