| Much research has examined the use of information technology and its role, if any, in contributing to changes in the middle management structures of business organizations. In the last fifty years, studies have continued to support the idea that the implementation of information technology impacts the number of middle managers in business organizations. This study explored the impact of information technology and the ways business strategy, external environment and organizational structure interacted with information technology to change management structures, middle management in particular. The following hypotheses were proposed; Hypothesis 1. In business organizations, information technology implementation will reduce the number of middle managers.; Hypothesis 2. Greater emphasis on fiscal responsibility, responsiveness to the customers, and work performance will increase the negative impact of IT implementation on the number of middle managers.; Hypothesis 3. Higher levels of autonomy in business organizations will increase the negative impact of IT implementation on the number of middle managers.; Hypothesis 4. Favorable external environment in business organizations will increase the negative impact of IT implementation on the number of middle managers.; The overall design was correlational, using survey method to collect quantitative data and semi-structured interviews to collect quantitative data. Information technology was the independent variable. The change in number of middle managers was the dependent variable. Business strategy, organizational structure, and external environment were the moderating variables. Results of the study were to contribute to the current understandings in the field of organizational structure and information technology in regards to changes in the number of middle managers.; Based on quantitative and qualitative data analyses, results confirmed there was no established relationship between IT implementation and change in the number of middle managers - hypothesis 1 was not supported. When moderating variables were added to the model to study the remaining hypotheses (2, 3 and 4), quantitative analyses also provided no evidence to establish relationship between the independent and dependent variables - hypotheses 2, 3 and 4 were not supported. The study concluded that widely existence and highly usefulness of information technology in an organization did not lead to negative changes in its number of middle managers. |
