A Framework for Improving Effectiveness of MIS Steering Committees

MIS steering committees have been a mainstay of many organizations for several years now. Steering committees have been found to be invaluable in long-range planning for information systems (IS), getting user involvement in IS development efforts, and in allocation of scarce computing resources to different projects. However, because of a number of pitfalls associated with steering committees some organizations have found them to be more of a problem than a solution to both the IS staffs and organizations they serve. This paper integrates research on group decision making, reported in the organizational behavior literature, with empirical research on MIS steering committees, reported in the MIS literature, and presents a framework for improving effectiveness of MIS steering committees. The proposed framework consists of guidelines for managing three stages of an MIS steering committee function: its inception, design, and day-today operational aspects. It is argued that attention to these guidelines at the three stages will help organizations steer clear of common pitfalls associated with these committees.