Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy

The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol. 1, Reason and the Rationalization of Society

Justification and Application: Remarks on Discourse Ethics

Information systems strategic alignment---the fit between business strategic orientation and information systems (IS) strategic orientation---is an important concept. This study measured business strategic orientation, IS strategic orientation, and IS strategic alignment, and investigated their implications for perceived IS effectiveness and business performance. Analyses of data gathered in a mail survey of North American financial services and manufacturing firms indicated that 1) business strategic orientation, IS strategic orientation, and IS strategic alignment are modeled best by utilizing holistic, ‘systems’ approaches instead of dimension-specific, ‘bivariate’ approaches, 2) three generic IS strategic orientations can be detected, 3) user information satisfaction does not capture important strategic aspects of IS effectiveness, 4) IS strategic alignment is a better predictor of IS effectiveness than is strategic orientation, and 5) business strategic orientation, IS strategic alignment, and IS effectiveness have positive impacts on business performance.

Business strategic orientation, information systems strategic orientation, and strategic alignment : working paper

Social media in Saudi Arabia: Exploring its use during two natural disasters

https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/45840/1/10.pdf

Habermas and information systems research: New directions

Growth in IS outsourcing spurred research in the area that spans many perspectives but contains contradictory findings. Inconsistent findings raise confusion and doubt, leaving managers uncertain about IS sourcing directions and researchers unclear about theoretical perspectives relevant to IS sourcing.We argue that the concept of equifinality accounts for much of this confusion. Equifinality suggests that, in the struggle to match conflicting functional demands with structural options, many equally viable alternatives may exist. For IS sourcing, this means that different sourcing choices can be leveraged producing similar IS capabilities. Thus, embracing equifinality requires that we understand more fully the complexities in the IS function and in the range of sourcing options available. We argue, as well, that the existence of multiple paths raises the importance of implementation and execution issues.Illustrating the complexities of the IS function, we outline several IS function elements, including IT resources, IS activities and IS strategy. An IS-Business Partnering framework is then presented demonstrating the multiplicity of partnering options, situating sourcing as one aspect. We conclude with several company illustrations showing these multiplicities for successful company outcomes.For IS sourcing researchers, equifinality holds important implications. No longer can we afford to view the IS function as a homogeneous entity nor can we limit our scope to a narrow range of sourcing and partnering options. More than one path exists to achieve a particular outcome. Hence, the pursuit in IS sourcing research can no longer be for one good answer but for a few good answers.

Complexities in IS sourcing: equifinality and relationship management

http://www.brown.uk.com/teaching/qualitativepostgrad/ross.pdf

A call to (Dis)order: An ethnomethodological study of information technology Disruptions in the courtroom

Today’s information systems are often large and complex, affecting many people within and beyond the organization Participation in this context is increasingly challenging because of the complexity of involving all who might be affected by a new information system As a result, systems of representation, in which individuals are chosen to represent others, are often put in place to manage the participation process Research has considered particular challenges of “representative participation” (Mumford, 1983); however, there is little empirical research comprehensively examining these systems of representation Who participates in these systems, how are they structured and how is this representative work undertaken? Most importantly, what are the impacts of these decisions on the representation systems that are built and on the participation that flows from them? The purpose of our research is to explore the structuring of systems of representation in IS development and implementation Building on the work of Land and Hirschheim (1983) and Mumford (1983), and drawing on Habermas’ deliberative democracy (1998), this research explores the system of representation employed in a large Electronic Health Record implementation as empirical evidence Healthcare is a critical context for studying information systems implementation because of its uniqueness and complexity (Chiasson and Davidson, 2004; LeRouge et al, 2007), and therefore serves as an important environment for this research Our contributions, drawn from this Electronic Health Record project, include an understanding of three fundamental tasks for developing systems of representation: defining the constituency, selecting representatives, and determining how the representation relationship will be carried out We demonstrate that systems of representation can be classified by different meanings of “represent” These types – “represent as spokesperson,” “represent as example” and “represent as symbol” – differ in the purpose of representation, in who is involved and in how representation is undertaken Most importantly, these types of systems differ in their participatory potential The findings highlight the opportunities and challenges inherent in the construction and implementation of systems of representation The paper concludes by exploring the implications of these findings for practitioners and researchers, suggesting that representation should be more than simply appointing representatives, and offering mechanisms for participation and influence We call on researchers to view these systems of representation in more fine-grained ways to better understand what their complexities mean for contemporary system development and implementation

/pdf/representation-in-systems-development-and-implementation-a-3sj3yrmp80.pdf

Alain Ross

Papers

Habermas and information systems research: New directions

Complexities in IS sourcing: equifinality and relationship management

A call to (Dis)order: An ethnomethodological study of information technology Disruptions in the courtroom

Representation in Systems Development and Implementation: A Healthcare Enterprise System Implementation