Memoranda Developing information systems in a turbulent environment : the case of the Dutch social security system

Turbulence within an organization ‘s environment often creates changes in the need for information and consequently in existing information systems. Coping with these changes can be extremely complicated. Part of our research which is addressed in this paper is to describe and analyze these coping strategies. The research focusses on the Dutch Social Security systems and how 572 moreor-less independent municipalities cope with situations of rapidly changing environments such as changes in legislation and governmental policies. By studying the social dynamics in depth, our aim is to uncover new findings about information systems development (LSD). 1. INTRODUCING RESEARCH IN PROGRESS The preliminary findings presented in this paper are based on current research conducted by the two authors of this paper. The aim of the empirical research is to study how Local Social Securities (LSSs) in the Netherlands deal with translating changing legislation into software that impacts the provision of social security services. Since there does not exist sufficient theoretical knowledge on this issue from which to derive hypotheses, the research is exploratory and mainly inductive. By studying the social dynamics in depth, our aim is to uncover new findings about information systems development (ISD). Such insight is conceptually relevant as it might add to the existing middle range theories of ISD. It also has practical value since the framework presented in the paper can be used by actors in the field of information system (IS) management as a tool to analyze and evaluate coping strategies employed by IS departments facing turbulent environments. To our knowledge, there has not been an attempt to gain a comprehensive understanding of how IS departments cope with or might cope with situations of rapidly changing environments. Such a research is worthwhile because managing change is relevant to every organization dealing with information systems, and is crucial to those which experience rapidly changing environments. Turbulence within the environment often creates a change in the need for information and consequently in existing information systems. Coping with these sources of uncertainty can be extremely complicated. Part of our task is to describe and analyze these coping strategies. The case of the Dutch Social Security System is highly relevant because it represents a perfect example of an organization in a constant state of flux. Because of changes in governmental legislation, policy, technological changes, etc. LSSs are confronted with continual exogenous changes. At the moment 572 municipalities exist in the Netherlands each having its own LSS. As a result of a long established decentralization policy, each LSS is empowered to chose its own ISD approach. Because the strategies employed by the various LSS do indeed vary significantly while the same informational needs apply accross the LSS’s, we have an ideal form of a naturally occuring social experiment. As part of studying the different approaches and results, we will look at the successes and failures of ISD in turbulent environments. We want to study four major cities, a sample of medium sized cities and a further sample of small towns. Research evidence will