Information Politics and Information Culture: A Case Study

This article introduces the concepts of information politics and information culture and presents a case study that explores these concepts. The literature from the areas of IS theory and organization theory that provides a backdrop to these concepts is discussed. A case of an organization that has characteristics of both small business and voluntary organization is presented as initial validation of the concepts of information politics and information culture. The case draws on a longitudinal interpretivist study and tracks a trajectory of organizational design, information politics, information culture, management and organizational performance over 25 months. The primary finding is that the organization studied exhibited two distinct information politics and information cultures, each related to different development phases—the era of clan and the era of teams. The article also discusses particular aspects of information politics and information culture and how these relate to organizational performance. Derived are implications for further research on information politics and information culture as well as for a broader parent framework called Information View of Organization.