Themes of Coordination in IS Reference Theories

Due to ever-growing investments in information systems (IS) in organizations, IS literature promotes an enterprise-wide perspective to keep local, short-term investments in line with global, long-term in-tentions. One of the central discourses in realizing an enterprise-wide perspective is the necessity of coordinating IS change and development efforts across organizational units. Notwithstanding its criti-cality, there is a lack of coherent body of theory about coordination. This study hence seeks to spot-light coordination as a lens by investigating prominently used reference theories in IS that implicitly consider coordination. Through conducting thematic analysis and synthesizing the reflection of coor-dination in IS reference theories, this study identifies four theory-grounded themes of coordination namely, informing, controlling, legitimating, and socializing. The identified themes guide prospective research in investigating IS phenomena through the lens of coordination.