Ever since the arrival of general purpose computers into the business environment, tension has existed between the departments who implement and manage the technology and those responsible for the business functions and processes. This struggle to integrate business and IT functions becomes increasingly important as technology becomes so entrenched in every facet of business operations and a key source of competitive advantage. Considerable research has examined the causes of this tension and offered a variety of solutions from changes in organizational structure to dramatically different approaches in technology systems development. However, too many of these solutions ignore the complex and holistic nature of organizational social systems.