With the focus on information technology (IT) in higher education
escalating at a rapid pace, this qualitative study examines the importance of IT from
an organizational perspective at a particular point in time. The study gathered data
from three research institutions on eleven indicators of importance within three
indicator groupings. The indicators were constructed from organizational theory
literature on the power and centrality of subunits of larger organizations. The
groupings, each made up of multiple indicators included importance of IT to the
core activities of the institutions, importance based on IT’s resource mix at the
institutions, and finally IT’s reputation