Information Systems Research: Relevant Theory and Informed Practice

Bonnie Kaplan, Duane P. Truex, David Wastell, A.Trevor Wood-Harper, Janice I. DeGross1402080948, 9781402080944, 9781402080951

In 1984, Working Group 8.2 of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) threw down the gauntlet at its Manchester conference, challenging the traditionalist orthodoxy with its uncommon research approaches and topics. Manchester 1984, followed by research methods conferences in Copenhagen (1990) and Philadelphia (1997), marked the growing legitimacy of the linguistic and qualitative turns in Information Systems research and played a key role in making qualitative methods a respected part of IS research. As evidenced by the papers in this volume, Working Group 8.2 conferences showcase fresh thinking, provocative sessions, and intellectual stimulation. The spirited, at times boisterous, and always enlivening debate has turned WG8.2 conferences into life-changing and discipline-changing inspirational events.Information Systems Research: Relevant Theory and Informed Practice comprises the edited proceedings of the WG8.2 conference, “Relevant Theory and Informed Practice: Looking Forward from a 20-Year Perspective on IS Research,” which was sponsored by IFIP and held in Manchester, England, in July 2004. The conference attracted a record number of high-quality manuscripts, all of which were subjected to a rigorous reviewing process in which four to eight track chairs, associate editors, and reviewers thoughtfully scrutinized papers by the highly regarded as well as the newcomers. No person or idea was considered sacrosanct and no paper made it through this process unscathed. All authors were asked to revise the accepted papers, some more than once; thus, good papers got better. With only 29 percent of the papers accepted, these proceedingsare significantly more selective than is typical of many conference proceedings.This volume is organized in 7 sections, with 33 full research papers providing panoramic views and reflections on the Information Systems (IS) discipline followed by papers featuring critical interpretive studies, action research, theoretical perspectives on IS research, and the methods and politics of IS development. Also included are 6 panel descriptions and a new category of “bright idea” position papers, 11 in all, wherein main points are summarized in a pithy and provocative fashion.

---

Table of contents :
Team DDU……Page 1
CONTENTS……Page 6
Foreword……Page 12
Preface……Page 16
Conference Chairs……Page 20
Associate Editors……Page 21
Reviewers……Page 22
1 Young Turks, Old Guardsmen, and the Conundrum of the Broken Mold:A Progress Report on Twenty Years of Information Systems Research……Page 26
2 Doctor of Philosophy, Heal Thyself……Page 46
3 Information Systems in Organizations and Society: Speculating on the Next 25 Years of Research……Page 60
4 Information Systems Research as Design: Identity, Process, and Narrative……Page 78
5 Information Systems-A Cyborg Discipline?……Page 96
6 Cores and Definitions: Building the Cognitive Legitimacy of the Information Systems Discipline Across the Atlantic……Page 108
7 Truth, Journals, and Politics: The Case of the MIS Quarterly……Page 128
8 Debatable Advice and Inconsistent Evidence: Methodology in Information Systems Research……Page 146
9 The Crisis of Relevance and the Relevance of Crisis: Renegotiating Critique in Information Systems Scholarship……Page 168
10 Whatever Happened to Information Systems Ethics? Caught between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea……Page 184
11 Supporting Engineering of Information Systems in Emergent Organizations……Page 200
12 The Choice of Critical Information Systems Research……Page 220
13 The Research Approach and Methodology Used in an Interpretive Study of a Web Information System: Contextualizing Practice……Page 238
14 Applying Habermas’ Validity Claims as a Standard for Critical Discourse Analysis……Page 258
15 Conducting Critical Research in Information Systems: Can Actor-Network Theory Help?……Page 284
16 Conducting and Evaluating Critical Interpretive Research: Examining Criteria as a Key Component in Building a Research Tradition……Page 300
17 Making Contributions from Interpretive Case Studies: Examining Processes of Construction and Use……Page 318
18 Action Research: Time to Take a Turn?……Page 340
19 The Role of Conventional Research Methods in Information Systems Action Research……Page 360
20 Themes, Iteration, and Recoverability in Action Research……Page 378
21 The Use of Social Theories in 20 Years of WG 8.2 Empirical Research……Page 390
22 StructurANTion in Research and Practice: Representing Actor Networks, Their Structurated Orders and Translations……Page 414
23 Socio-Technical Structure: An Experiment in Integrative Theory Building……Page 436
24 Exposing Best Practices Through Narrative: The ERP Example……Page 458
25 Information Systems Research and Development by Activity Analysis and Development: Dead Horse or the Next Wave?……Page 478
26 Making Sense of Technological Frames: Promise, Progress, and Potential……Page 498
27 Reflection on Development Techniques Using the Psychology Literature: Over Two Decades of Bias and Conceptual Blocks……Page 518
28 Enterprise System as an Orchestrator of Dynamic Capability Development: A Case Study of the IRAS and TechCo……Page 540
29 On Transferring a Method into a Usage Situation……Page 560
30 From Critical Theory into Information Systems Practice: A Case Study of a Payroll-Personnel System……Page 580
31 Resistance or Deviance: A High-Tech Workplace During the Bursting of the Dot-Com Bubble……Page 602
32 The Politics of Knowledge in Using GIS for Land Management in India……Page 622
33 Systems Development in the Wild: User-Led Exploration and Transformation of Organizing Visions……Page 640
34 Improvisation in Information Systems Development……Page 656
35 Twenty Years of Applying Grounded Theory in Information Systems: A Coding Method, Useful Theory Generation Method, or an Orthodox Positivist Method of Data Analysis?……Page 674
36 Building Capacity for E-Government: Contradictions and Synergies in the Dialectics of Action Research……Page 676
37 New Insights into Studying Agency and Information Technology……Page 678
38 Researching and Developing Work Activities in Information Systems: Experiences and the Way Forward……Page 680
39 Crossing Disciplinary Boundaries: Reflections on Information Systems Research in Health Care and the State of Information Systems……Page 682
40 The Great Quantitative/Qualitative Debate: The Past, Present, and Future of Positivism and Post-Positivism in Information Systems……Page 684
41 Challenges for Participatory Action Research in Industry-Funded Information Systems Projects……Page 686
42 Theory and Action for Emancipation: Elements of a Critical Realist Approach……Page 692
43 Non-Dualism and Information Systems Research……Page 700
44 Contextual Dependencies and Gender Strategy……Page 706
45 Information Technology and the Good Life……Page 712
46 Embracing Information as Concept and Practice……Page 718
47 Truth to Tell? Some Observations on the Application of Truth Tests in Published Information Systems Research……Page 724
48 How Stakeholder Analysis can be Mobilized with Actor-Network Theory to Identify Actors……Page 730
49 Symbolic Processes in ERP Versus Legacy System Usage……Page 738
50 Dynamics of Use and Supply: An Analytic Lens for Information Systems Research……Page 748
51 Applying Adaptive Structuration Theory to the Study of Context-Aware Applications……Page 760
Index of Contributors……Page 768