A Contingent/Assimilation Framework for Public Interorganizational Systems Decisions: Should the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County Consolidate Information Technology Services?

Abstract

Many times, benefit-opportunity-cost-risk (BOCR) information system (IS)-related decisions are based mainly on short-term financial variables. We propose a broader decision-making framework, using contingency theory to identify environmental specific factors and assimilation theory to identify post-implementation factors to be considered in the decision. This approach is demonstrated within the context of a case study: the decision to merge the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County IS functions using an analytic network process (ANP)/BOCR analysis. ANP is a multi-criteria decision-making approach toward making decisions taking into account multiple criteria, alternatives and their interrelationships. The contingency/assimilation approach proposed here can be used in all sorts of IS decisions while the proposed IS merge decision model can be applied, with some contextual modifications, to similar public IS merge decisions. In addition, the ANP/BOCR approach is meticulously explained to serve as a useful reference for prospective users.