Research on information systems failures and successes: Status update and future directions

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10796-014-9500-yInformation systems success and failure are among the most prominent streams in IS research. Explanations of why some IS fulfill their expectations, whereas others fail, are complex and multi-factorial. Despite the efforts to understand the underlying factors, the IS failure rate remains stubbornly high. A Panel session was held at the IFIP Working Group 8.6 conference in Bangalore in 2013 which forms the subject of this Special Issue. Its aim was to reflect on the need for new perspectives and research directions, to provide insights and further guidance for managers on factors enabling IS success and avoiding IS failure. Several key issues emerged, such as the need to study problems from multiple perspectives, to move beyond narrow considerations of the IT artifact, and to venture into underexplored organizational contexts, such as the public sector. © 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York

Barriers to Effective Knowledge Management: Action Research Meets Grounded Theory

Despite evidence that the majority of knowledge management (KM) initiatives miscarry, there has been a paucity of critical, in-depth research into the causes of failure. In this paper, an action research (AR) project is described in a major motor manufacturer (WWM) focusing on one of their key knowledge processes (Design for Manufacturabilty, DFM). Intensive field work using a grounded theory methodology led to the production of a model relating the effectiveness of knowledge generation and use to a set of success factors. Many of the factors resonate with key issues described in previous KM research; for example, the need for a shared knowledge repository, a formal KM process, and a culture disposed towards knowledge sharing and re-use. The model has provided a rigorous platform on which to design interventions to improve the DFM process in WWM. Whilst technical changes (creating infrastructure, defining processes) are readily feasible, bringing about cultural change is less tractable and process improvements in WWM have tended to focus on the former rather than the latter. As well as providing insights into KM success and failure, the paper demonstrates the valuable role that grounded theory can make to the practice of action research in IS. In relation to the problem-solving aspect of AR, grounded theory can help to inform the design of organisational interventions and the evaluation of their impact; in relation to research, GT adds rigour and method to the theory building process, thereby raising the status of AR as a research tool

PROCESS SUPPORT TECHNOLOGY, COOPERATIVE WORK AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT

The emergence of CSCW (Computer Supported Cooperative Work) as a distinctive research field opens up a fresh perspective on the design of office information systems. A CSCW technology, called IPSE 2.5, is described in this paper (IPSE-Integrated Process Support Environment). ISPE 2.5 provides a powerful generic platform for building office information systems to support routine work. An approach to modelling office work based on language-action principles, argued to provide a richer and deeper understanding than conventional information mo(telling techniques, is presented. A case study of medical office work is used to demonstrate language-action modelling and to give a flavor of the experience of working in a process-support environment. Several lines of current research are described, including some preliminary field studies