Information Systems in the MBA Curriculum: An International Perspective

There is continual pressure to re-examine the MBA curriculum and, in particular, to reduce the core compulsory part. One of the courses taken out may be information systems. By quoting from the emails of 48 respondents from 11 countries of over 100 respondents in total to an ISWorld listserv request, we look at situations in many institutions and the varied opinions of colleagues. We learn about some success and failure stories, of colleagues who argue that IS should not be in the core curriculum (as well as the more common contrary view), and of attitudes of colleagues in other groups. Finally, we use these responses to develop a case for including IS in the MBA core. This article should be of use by colleagues who need to defend IS at their institutions

The UK Information Systems Perspective: A Personal View

This brief paper provides an overview of the information systems discipline in the UK. It does not pretend to be objective\u27. It is my interpretation of the UK IS scene\u27 which I hope will be of interest to French readers

Reminiscences and Reflections on my Retirement: Ten Takeaways that Worked for Me

In this paper, I reflect on a 45-year career in higher education. I hope that PhD students and assistant professors looking ahead to such a career along with some mid-career academics will find my experiences and the lessons I discuss useful and relevant

The Introduction of ERP systems by Foreign Firms in China: Impact of Cultural Differences

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are central to the Information Systems (IS) strategy of most international companies. With globalization, general managers put pressure on IS departments to implement such applications at a global level, in order to control and manage all the company processes at the different branches. Rolling out a global template in each of the different countries is risky as it does not take the local environment into account. Each country has its own specificities - organizational, cultural, political and economic - and these can have a real and important influence on the success of any new IS. This research aims to identify, through in-depth case studies, the cultural factors that influence the success of global ERP projects in China

DISCOVERING NEW ICT-ENABLED MODELS: THE CASE OF GRASSROOTS DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNET ACCESS IN BELARUS

Previous research on information and communication technologies (ICT) in developing countries has documented multiple variations in technology acceptance, use and work practices. While these variations are mainly seen as culturally, historically and contextually based, recent research suggests that these can also occur because because new actors, different from the state, market and international organizations traditionally providing access to the technology, appear. Richard Heeks introduced the notion of grassroots development. Here organizations spring up from within poor communities as a result of ICT-enabled empowerment and appropriation of technology. These grassroots organizations can transform the processes and structures of the digital economy by transforming (frequently through improvisation) those not previously having access to technologies from victims through to consumers innovators. However, there is a lack of solid research in this area. This study aims to answer this challenge through the 15-year history of grassroots development in Minsk, Belarus. Based on interviews and other sources, we focus on work practices underlining how grassroots models were created and developed by people lacking significant financial and organizational resources and in conditions apparently unfavorable for innovation creation

Causal-Loop Diagrams in Information Systems Research into Strategic Alignment

Causal-loop diagrams, a method of documenting non-linear cause/effect relationships, have been used in systems thinking and, in particular, system dynamics for some time. However, their use is still controversial though they have been found to be useful in developing an understanding of complex, non-linear systems. These systems encompass many organizational and social problem areas. Although causal-loop diagrams have been used by both consultants and practitioners to understand problem areas within organizations, they appear to have been little used in information systems research (or any other discipline of research). This paper provides a critical reflection of the use of causal-loop diagrams within information systems research. It finds that, although they have many limitations and their validity is highly questionable, they are useful during the exploratory stages of a research project in developing research questions, forming initial hypotheses, and gaining an understanding of the dynamics of a problem situation. The paper describes an exercise to develop a model of IS/business alignment, conducted over three sessions, and highlights some research questions not previously considered in the literature that arose as a result of the exercise

ERP INTRODUCTION IN CHINA: ANALYSING CULTURAL PROBLEMS USING STRUCTURATION THEORY

In this paper we present potential insights provided by Giddens\u27 structuration theory to study the effects of cultural differences experienced by western companies establishing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software in their Chinese subsidiaries. We use the data from a case study of a French firm\u27s ERP project in its Chinese subsidiary to demonstrate the appropriateness of structuration theory to study such social systems. We find that five of Giddens\u27 ten guidelines for the overall orientation of social research are indeed very helpful in understanding the problems that occurred in this particular situation

Cross-Cultural (mis)Communication in IS Offshoring: Understanding through Conversation Analysis

The offshoring of information systems (IS) work has seen phenomenal growth in the past 5 or more years. This has resulted in IS professionals, interacting with workers from vastly different cultural backgrounds, in order to deliver IS project and support services. This cultural ‘barrier’ has been highlighted in the IS literature as a key challenge for offshoring; however, the attention given to research in the field has in the main been restricted to surveys or interviews, often reliant on reductionist national culture models. Within the fields of linguistics and anthropology, the ethnographic research technique of conversation analysis (CA) has been successfully applied to cross-cultural communications. However, there have been no concerted research efforts to apply CA to IS research in general and to IS offshoring in particular. Our research aims to address that gap by analysing naturally occurring recordings of telephone conferences between offshore vendor staff in India and UK/US employees of a major pharmaceutical company. The research has identified and analysed two important phenomena observed within these communications. Firstly, evidence of asymmetries of participation across cultural divides has been documented, and analysed for underlying causes, such as different attitudes to hierarchy and a lack of shared understanding of expected responses. Secondly, differences in the rhetorical organisation of conversation by participants have also been observed and clearly documented within transcribed specimens of these conversations. These phenomena led to seven findings that are aimed to stimulate further research. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this paper demonstrates how the methodological approach of CA can be applied to IS offshoring research, producing key insights into culturally loaded conversations with clear applications for practice. We hope that this evidence of the potential of CA in IS research will inspire IS researchers to use the approach in other domains as well as in further work in offshoring situations