BOOKS FOR MANAGERS

although some might consider the latter fussy and too detailed.

Overall, the book will be of interest and value to those charged with the creation of a documented quality system, particularly if they work in manufacturing or software house environments. The limitations to which we have drawn attention should, however, be borne in mind.

John Oakland C.D. Blakeborough

Managers Divided: Organizational Politics and Information Technology Management by DAVID KNIGHTS and FERGUS MURRAY, Chichester: John Wiley & Sons, I994, 271pp

Managers Divided makes a contribution to management research in two areas, organizational theory and information management. The authors outline a 'political' approach to organizational behaviour, in which politics (with a small 'p') is the motor of organizational life. The objective of political activity is to achieve career success and 'the symbolic and material achievements of success' (p.30). The authors illustrate their approach through detailed research in two organizations in the financial services and insurance industries. In doing so, the authors shed considerable light on management behaviour in general, as well as on particular issues relating to the development of information technology. The study is written in a clear style, with the extensive use of metaphor now characteristic of postmodem organizational studies: 'organizations as pinball machines' (p.49) should enter the organizational behaviour literature.

The analytical framework is one of 'conditions of possibility', i.e. analysing conditions which 'make certain courses of action feasible while constraining or ruling out others' (p.39). These conditions include organizational, technological,

subjectivity (norms and values), socio-political and economic conditions. The concept of 'conditions of possibility' suggests that some outcomes are more likely than others, but no outcome is inevitable. It provides a means of linking structural conditions with management strategic choice.

The core of the study is the analysis of information technology. The authors' starting point is that information management is a political phenomenon, as other management activity, and the IS function is a political organization. The IS function is especially politicized because it deals with issues of high uncertainty and is pervasive throughout the organization: they might add that high cost and the difficulty of cost justifying many investments, especially infrastructural investments, increase the significance of political considerations. The authors are particularly interesting in IS-user inter-relations, arguing that user dominance is limited by the difficulties users have in specifying requirements, and the continued monopoly of detailed IS knowledge by the IS function. The ambiguities of the model of user domination are summed up in the comments of a DP manager quoted: 'Users should be giving us clear direction. I don't think they can control us. I mean, they don't have the skills to actually control a system [development]' (p.106).

The greater part of the book concerns the use of IT in the British insurance industry in the late 1980s. The British insurance industry was transformed in the late 1980s. In 1985 the Conservative government announced the reform of pension legislation, and the encouragement of contracting out of state schemes. This opened up a major phase of market expansion. An industry which had been dominated by cautious professionals, such as actuaries in the life insurance sector, became a market-oriented financial services industry - paralleling changes in retail banking. The emergence of strong Sales and Marketing functions had direct implications for Information Systems. In place of secure, largely administrative support systems -

centralized, routine, with architectures initially developed in the late I960s - insurance companies came to require market- facing, decentralized, product- oriented flexible systems. In 'Pensco' itself, the change was accompanied by the recruitment of a new Chief Executive and new senior management team, including a new Assistant General Manager in charge of IS. The new regulatory environment, transformed product market, revised senior management structures and personnel, as well as developments in computer technology (greater processing power, increased use of PCs, expansion in packages) created new 'conditions of possibility'. The greater part of the book, chapters 7- I1, is a fascinating case study of how Pensco managed the development of the information management systems required to support the launch of new pensions products designed to capitalize on the new market opportunities. The story is told 'warts and all', showing in detail how the systems developed represented, at best, a partial success.

Management Divided shows how a sociological approach to analysing behaviour in organizations can shed considerable light on major management issues, in this case the management of information systems. The book is not without its self- indulgences, for example the discussion of the masculine character of IT project team organization is a distraction. However, managers - and MBA students - will learn much about the realities of managing change, especially technological change, from the experience of Pensco.

Roderick Martin

Business Processes: Modelling & Analysis for Re-engineering and Improvement by MARTYN OULD, John Wiley, I995; ISBN 0-471- 95352-0

Process performance improvement is

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