Knowledge gatekeepers and the groupthink phenomena : some reflections on workthink and the politics of information systems implementations

Considering social and political aspects of organizations, this paper emphasizes the importance of politics and relations of power in the interrelationship of group members in steering committees for the implementation of information systems (IS). This particular implementation entailed the creation of a steering committee, with the committee made up of employees from differing departments affected by the change and acting as representatives of their respective departments. Some committee members felt that there was a “forced” voluntary flavor to management's request for participants for the committee. In other words, they felt that they should volunteer before being volunteered for the committee. We analyze the case exploring the organizational politics and power dynamics involved including the role of Knowledge Gatekeepers and team group dynamics. Among those strategies, we consider the emergence of workthink, groupthink and cognitive dissonance and their impacts on the success or failure of the system implemented.