Quarterly Economic Commentary, Autumn 2014

The fiscal and economic growth conditions underpinning the 2015 budget have improved quite significantly over the past quarter. In light of the recent trends observed in economic activity, we now revise upwards our growth forecasts for GNP to 4.9 and 5.2 per cent for 2014 and 2015 respectively. This improvement in the forecast is driven by a combination of better than expected performance in the net trade sector, a pick-up in investment levels and strong budgetary receipts. In a research note to the Commentary we highlight how the adoption of the “Nowcasting” methodology enhances our understanding of movements in Irish economic activity between the official release dates of the quarterly national accounts

Exploring the Nuances of 'Wickedness' in Information Systems Development

Information Systems Development (ISD) practice is an inherently challenging undertaking, as exemplified by the high rate of ISD project failures. The scale of the challenge is often heightened in distributed environments where ISD practitioners can face considerable complexity, uncertainty, and contention. The concept of -˜wickedness’ epitomizes such challenges. However, ISD literature has yet to fully explore the nuances of wickedness found in ISD practices within distributed environments. To address this gap, we use a theoretical framework to analyze case study findings from an interdisciplinary connected health project. In particular, we break open the social aspects of wickedness and explore their impact on shared understanding and shared commitment in ISD projects. The paper highlights the implications that these nuances have for group decision-making in distributed ISD project teams

Blended Stakeholder Participation for Responsible Information Systems Research

Researchers often conduct information systems (IS) research under the assumption that technology use leads to positive outcomes for different stakeholders. However, many IS studies demonstrate limited evidence of having engaged with the stakeholders that they claim benefit and speak on behalf of. Therefore, we can unsurprisingly find many examples in which technology use failed to make the world a better place or, worse still, contributed towards unintended negative outcomes. Given these concerns, calls have recently emerged for responsible research and innovation (RRI) studies in IS to understand how different stakeholder groups can have a voice in complex socio-technical issues. In this paper, we take steps towards addressing this call by presenting case study findings from a responsible IS research project that combined “blended” face-to-face and online participatory techniques. The case study relates to a large-scale consultation in a 24-month European project that involved 30 countries. The project engaged over 1,500 stakeholders in co-creating future research agendas for the European Union. We discuss case study findings using Stilgoe, Owen, and Macnaghten’s (2013) framework and reflect on lessons learned for responsible IS research going forward

Exploring the Nuances of \u27Wickedness\u27 in Information Systems Development

Information Systems Development (ISD) practice is an inherently challenging undertaking, as exemplified by the high rate of ISD project failures. The scale of the challenge is often heightened in distributed environments where ISD practitioners can face considerable complexity, uncertainty, and contention. The concept of -˜wickedness’ epitomizes such challenges. However, ISD literature has yet to fully explore the nuances of wickedness found in ISD practices within distributed environments. To address this gap, we use a theoretical framework to analyze case study findings from an interdisciplinary connected health project. In particular, we break open the social aspects of wickedness and explore their impact on shared understanding and shared commitment in ISD projects. The paper highlights the implications that these nuances have for group decision-making in distributed ISD project teams

TOWARDS A FRAMEWORK FOR SHARED UNDERSTANDING AND SHARED COMMITMENT IN AGILE DISTRIBUTED ISD PROJECT TEAMS

Agile distributed Information Systems Development (ISD) is an innately social process in which distributed team members must continuously interact to develop new IT solutions. Existing literature suggests that shared understanding and shared commitment are essential for the effective functioning of agile distributed ISD project teams; however, the factors that shape the emergence of these two phenomena remain elusive. In this paper, we seek to develop a framework for investigating the interplay of factors that shape shared understanding and shared commitment during agile distributed ISD project team interactions. We draw on in-depth case study findings from an agile distributed ISD project called the “CHP project” which involved team members from diverse backgrounds such as academia, healthcare, and industry. The study reveals that shared understanding and shared commitment in agile distributed project teams are shaped by the dynamic interplay between macro-level (contextual) and micro-level (localised) factors. In particular, we find that diverse macro-level structures, identities, and cultures interplay with the micro-level vision, approach, and means of the project to impact shared understanding and shared commitment. Empirical findings also suggest that the absence of shared understanding and shared commitment can sometimes be constructive as conflict allows team members to air differences of opinio

Distributed ISD Team Leadership and the Paradox of Cohesion and Conflict

Distributed ISD projects are often typified by deep-seated differences between team members from diverse organizational and professional backgrounds. Consequently, literature suggests that cohesion is crucial for aligning the efforts of a distributed ISD team; however, a competing body of literature also asserts that conflict is essential for capitalizing on diverse knowledge flows. Team leaders can therefore face a conundrum around how to balance the paradoxical need for both cohesion and conflict. In this paper, we develop a theoretical framework to analyze case study findings from the ‘CDSS project’, a distributed ISD project undertaken in an Intensive Care Unit (ICU). We find evidence that distributed ISD leaders must adopt a ‘paradox mindset’, one which embraces both cohesion and conflict. Based on these findings, we also put forward the concept of ‘leadership intelligence’ which describes the simultaneous enactment of a diverse set of leadership styles for balancing constructive cohesion and conflict

A Typology for Organizational ICT Practice

This paper sets out a typology for organizational ICT practice in order to derive a more holistic perspective of sociomateriality and its constituent elements (i.e. humans, objects, and practice). Seminal literature by Parsons and Bourdieu is combined with sociomateriality literature in order to offer insights into the factors that need to be investigated when conducting research into organizational ICT practice. The outlined typology is evaluated through an empirical case study of a connected health ICT project to show how the dimensions of the typology come together and contribute to a better understanding

Assessing policy making for ICT innovation: a decision support research agenda

Our study explores European telecare policy and considers the different types of uncertainties for policy makers when addressing ICT innovation. We specifically examine 14 European countries in our study using document analysis, expert interviews and workshops. The findings reveal nuances in how policy makers are reacting to the uncertainty of telecare technologies as a representative of ICT innovation. Our contribution lies in exploring decision support as per Alter’s contention that to improve the quality of decision making we most focus on broadly defined avenues for decision support rather than exclusively Decision Support Systems [1]. Following Earl and Hopwood (1980), we analyse the case of European telecare policy and outline implications to strengthen policy making for ICT innovation [2]. Our study is pertinent to policy makers as we argue that they will increasingly be challenged to consider ‘responsible innovation’ in their policy making efforts

The Rise and Fall of Collective Identity: Understanding Antecedents and Inhibitors of Social Identification in Distributed Teams

The diverse backgrounds of distributed team members can pose unique challenges during decision-making processes. Notable of these is the gradual emergence of social identities, where individuals seek to form new social groupings within the temporal context of a project. However, our understanding of social identity within distributed teams remains nascent. Drawing on Social Identity Theory (SIT) and in-depth case study findings, we investigate the impact of social identity on decision-making in a distributed healthcare systems development team. Contrary to SIT, we see the dissolution of distinct social groupings and rise of individualism within the project. Based on our findings, we discover five inhibitors which can impede social identification in distributed teams: role ambiguity, absence of a collective vision, transfer of ownership, lack of shared history, and incompatible personalities. We extend SIT to include antecedents of collective identities (e.g. distinctiveness, prestige, salience of out-group), as well as inhibitors which foster individualism