How organisational politics explain IS implementation outcomes in hospitals

In the healthcare sector, the use of computer-based information systems (IS) offers a lot of new challenges. However, despite the compelling potential of the new technology, implementing IS in practice often turns out to be a pitfall. Concretely, the introduction of information systems, especially in hospitals, does not often come on time and on budget, nor does it always accomplish the initial organisational goals. We postulate that implementation failures occur to a great extent because organisations do not adequately manage the politics of information; especially healthcare organisations as they are par excellence political in nature. In our study, we elaborate in depth on the concept of organisational politics to understand the outcomes of IS implementation projects in hospitals. We propose a conceptual model that guides the empirical study of political processes in and around IS projects. Overall, our study seems to suggest that outcomes can be explained by the fact that stakeholders situated in a particular arena do tend to accept the standing power structures, even if these structures are built on bases that do not hold for the particular project environment.