The application of systems perspectives to organisational change in electronic commerce

The potential operational and strategic advantages from electronic commerce (EC) have been well documented in the literature, and managers are bombarded with various ideas as to how to manage EC. On the one hand, this offers alternatives and choices. On the other hand, this can be confusing since many of these recommendations tend to be competing with each other from various disciplinary angles. This paper, based on a systemic conceptual framework, understands EC as one of those cases where the way of doing business is revolutionised: resulting in significant changes in organisational processes, structures, cultures and power distributions. These changes are often seen to be interrelated, thus the management of the interaction is central. This suggests that EC should be understood in terms of multiple perspectives in a coherent way, and managed by using multiple methods rather than a single approach.