Towards a Framework of Enterprise Information System Conflicts

Conflicts are an inherent part of organizational life and managers deal with confrontations and conflicts on an almost daily basis. EIS implementations are a type of change that often leads to open or hidden conflicts. Managers and others involved can only deal with such conflicts effectively if they understand the nature and causes of enterprise information system conflicts (EIS conflicts). To contribute to such an understanding, this study focuses on the analysis of EIS conflicts. In so doing, it aims to identify various types of IS conflicts and to develop a framework that can be helpful in assessing these conflicts. To this end, we have conducted a meta-ethnographic study – that is, we synthesized earlier case studies in which EIS conflicts are described. We purposefully selected eleven qualitative descriptions of EIS conflicts and we analyzed the topics, contexts, and processes of these conflicts. Based on this analysis, we propose a two-dimensional framework of EIS conflicts that leads to a categorization involving four EIS conflict types: task, implementation process, structure, and value conflicts. Based on the conflicts that were studied, this paper also reveals that, in reality, many EIS conflicts have a hybrid form and develop from one type to another over time.