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Critical Issues in Information Systems

BUSS 951

Lecture 1Overview

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Agenda

Overview of the Subject Issues Selected Motivations Subject Outline

Aim and Objectives Content and Method of Presentation Assessment Texts and Resources Schedules

Safety Procedures

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Overview of the Subject

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Overview of the SubjectConflict in IS Curricula

a conflict exists within most Information Systems curricula at tertiary levels in North America, Australia, and New Zealand. between preparing students for the demands of

their professional careers while simultaneously empowering them with the skills to think critically

about the basis of their discipline, and with a sufficiently broad training, to be able to draw from other literatures and traditions to form new theory, new method and new insights.

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Overview of the SubjectIS Discipline is not what you think!

need to demonstrate to students that the bases of their discipline are not the only ways of thinking about these issues

that unorthodox knowledge may be productively applied to the fundamental interests of information systems: the analysis, design and implementation of systems in organisations

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Overview of the SubjectConflict found in other Disciplines

this conflict is faced by many new disciplines in Universities which have until recently only had a professional status most areas of Commerce, Law, Health

Services and the Caregiving Professions most noticable in those disciplines which have

strong professional certification criteria to meet, such as Accountancy, where there has been continuous pressure to extend undergraduate courses from three to four years

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Overview of the SubjectStudent need exposure to other ideas

students need exposure to ideas from other disciplines which might be relevant to systems development, but- the IS discipline has not had the kind of

disciplinary mix which characterises other social sciences

while exceptions exist, for the most part students enrolled in most North American, Australian, and New Zealand information systems curricula are fed an unrelenting diet of hard systems thinking

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Overview of the SubjectNeed to look at new IS Research

even significant developments in theory and practice from within the information systems discipline are rarely discussed in class an extreme example of this occurred when

visiting a North American University, where I needed to explain to a Systems Analysis class the existence of a distinctly 'human centred' tradition in Scandinavia and of the existence of ‘soft systems’ thinking in the United Kingdom

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Overview of the SubjectMove beyond ‘hard systems’

Most information systems curricula leave students with an overwhelming view that the design of systems is only possible by deploying a small range of techniques… data oriented, process oriented, object oriented

…all within the same theoretical framework- ‘hard’ systems thinking

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Overview of the SubjectHistory of IS Discipline

Most students are not even be aware that the IS discipline arose out of a particular set of historical, economic and social circumstances

Most students don't even view ‘theory’ as having a place within their future professional lives. Many students incorrectly think that information systems is theory-neutral, after all "... where just trying to provide solutions to organisational problems"!

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Overview of the Subject‘Theory Neutral’ View in Methods

this ‘theory neutral’ view is often implicitly reinforced when students are exposed to a range of systems development methodologies, as for the most part, the same techniques re-occur across a broad range of different methodologies, eg: Entity-Relationship-Attribute (ERA) analysis is found in

database methodologies, process methodologies, and prototyping methodologies.

the same with the large variety of Data Flow Diagramming (DFD) techniques, where the differences between them seem largely cosmetic

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Overview of the SubjectNeed a Critical Reflective Practice

Most IS students cannot understand that: the particular type of systems thinking found in the

information systems discipline is only one type of systems thinking, or

that it is possible to develop systems directly from the language users employ in the workplace, or that there exists a discipline called semiotics which directly addresses meaning

students are neither prepared for these ideas or empowered with a critical reflective practice to use them

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Issues Selected

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Issues SelectedMust satisfy the following Criteria

Only issues which satisfied the following criteria were considered for inclusion in this subject: the issue had to have a considerable ‘folk wisdom’, a

‘currency’ amongst practitioners and academics, and therefore a wide circulation or high profile within the information systems discipline

the ‘issue’ must have theoretical, methodological, and substantive significance for the information systems discipline

the ‘issue’ must be addressed by other ‘unorthodox’ literatures

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Issues SelectedDefining Unorthodox Literatures & Interests

By ‘unorthodox literatures’ I mean those disciplines and their literatures which would not normally be associated with the interests of the information systems discipline

I define the ‘interests’ of the information systems discipline to mean the analysis, design and implementation and use of systems in organisations

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Issues SelectedCriteria for Inclusion and Exclusion

Of particular interest are those ‘unorthodox’ literatures which are only rarely used in research and teaching eg. cultural studies, critical theory, science and technological studies, history and philosophy of science, semiotics, linguistics, anthropology and ethnography

Excluded are those disciplines which on the whole share related theoretical and methodological frameworks, and so management, accountancy, economics, and industrial relations figure rarely if at all as an ‘unorthodox’

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Motivations

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Motivations (1)

there is an enormous alternative literature which has a direct bearing on the IS discipline but which is only occasionally used in research and rarely used in teaching to alert students to the fact that there are

‘traditions’ within the discipline which utilise these literatures productively in the analysis and re/design of organisations, and also in the development of systems

the application of unorthodox ideas should also transform methodology and practice

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Motivations (2)

these alternative literatures have the potential for developing penetrating critiques of the information systems discipline and its practice the need for developing these critiques is becoming

more obvious as the ground swell of discontent about systems in organisations increases

there are also a large number of studies which indicate a lacklustre performance and a growing indifference to claims made by information systems professionals and academics

new ways of thinking about information systems in organisations are urgently needed

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Subject Outline

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Safety Procedures