When Stakeholders Perceive Threats and Risks Differently: the Use of Group Support Systems to Develop a Common Understanding and a Shared Response

We present a multi-phased action research project conducted at the department of Information Management - Customer Support and Operations in a large multi-national company. This department is in charge of IT service continuity and was asked to develop an IT response and recovery plan that had to be integrated within the organization’s overall business continuity plan. The department’s key challenge was to develop a response plan which incorporates the perspectives of the business managers whose perception of the threats and associated risks differed significantly from that of the IT managers. To develop such a shared response plan, we used group support systems and cognitive mapping techniques to identify both stakeholder groups’ perceptions of IT threats and risks. This allowed us to raise awareness in both groups for the other group’s different perspectives. We aggregated the responses into a shared response and recovery plan, representing the views of both groups. Our research has made clear to the stakeholder groups involved the necessity of sharing information and developing awareness to formulate a shared disaster recovery plan for ensuring business continuity and recovery.