Information Systems Development and the Participatory Ethos

Participatory--also called emancipatory--information systems development (ISD) approaches claim systematic and meaningful user involvement, workplace democratization, and reduced worker alienation. Grounded in a humanist view of information systems (IS) as social systems, participatory ISD advocates open and non-distorted communication, reasoned argumentation, cooperation and mutual understanding between IS users and developers. However, the critical theoretical foundation of participatory ISD was contested and its practical value called into question (Wilson, 1997). Moreover, participatory ISD was criticized as serving the interests of capital by co-opting workers and thereby weakening their resistance (Asaro, 2000). Given the controversy surrounding participatory ISD, its objectives, theoretical foundation, and application in practice, further studies are warranted. Drawing on a longitudinal field study, this paper provides insight into a company that successfully implemented participatory practices in organizational decision-making including ISD. By exploring ISD in a broader organizational context, this paper re-examines conditions for participatory ISD and sheds light on the subtle difference between ISD practices that liberate and empower, and those that colonize and disempower

The notion of lifeworld applied to information systems research

The paper revisits the notion of emancipation in Information System Development (ISD) that seems to have lost a battle against functionalist and managerialist approaches dominant in information system (IS) research and practice. Unlike functionalist and managerialist views, the emancipatory view of ISD, informed by Critical Theory, considers ISD as a site of organizational innovation, self-reflection and a struggle for humanization of work and liberation from different forms of domination. Critics of emancipatory project in IS and management literature question the very possibility of the emancipation and deplore its intellectualism, naivety and negativism. The purpose of this paper is to re-consider the notion of emancipatory ISD in the face of these criticisms and develop a more refined and nuanced view of micro-emancipation in ISD that is meaningful in practice. Informed by Alvesson and Willmott (1992, 1996) we explore, question, redefine and ground the micro-emancipatory ISD processes based on a longitudinal (15 year) study of a retail company. Our analysis and critical reflection demonstrate that micro-emancipatory ISD processes have real substance for the people involved, and that their meanings are neither fixed nor universal, but rather local, emergent, uncertain, and sometimes contradictory. This paper contributes an empirically grounded and practically relevant reconceptualization of micro-emancipatory ISD projects which reveals both its benefits and risks for all involved

Ecommerce: a social action view

We aim to study the social dimension of business-to-customer electronic commerce (B2C eCommerce) and propose a critical social-theoretic approach that equates commercial transactions with social actions undertaken by buyers and sellers who are conceived of as social actors. The critical socialtheoretic approach enables analyzing and interpreting empirical evidence of automobile sellers and buyers. By comparing and contrasting social actions of actors in traditional, face-to-face and electronically mediated automotive sales, we discuss how eCommerce affects social conditions of trade and buyer-seller behaviour. Our motive is explain unintended and unexpected consequences arising from eCommernce, including decreasing prices, power redistribution among sellers and buyer, emancipated and empowered buyers, and increasing fairness of trade practices

Information Systems and Rationalization of Organizations: An Exploratory Study

In this paper we aim to situate social implications of information systems (IS) within a broader context of progressive rationalisation in modern organisations. More specifically, we examine what roles IS play in increasing rationalisation of organisational processes and what are the implications. Our objective in the paper is twofold: i) to propose a rationality framework that synthesises different approaches to reason and rationality, and ii) to demonstrate how it can be used as a conceptual model for critical analysis of social and organisational consequences of rationalisation in organisations enabled and supported by IS. By drawing on a field study in a retail company, we interpret three IS cases to demonstrate how the rationality framework helps explain different IS-organisation relationships in the light of increasing rationality that entails both substantial benefits and risks

eCommerce as Computer-Mediated Social Action

We regard business-to-customer electronic commerce (eCommerce) a form of social action that can be analyzed with Habermas’s (1985) communicative action theory. This theory presents a typology consisting of instrumental, strategic, normatively regulated, dramaturgical, and communicative action. We propose that social action theory in general and the action typology in particular are useful for analyzing eCommerce applications and as a framework for eCommerce research

Relationship between Information Systems and Organisational Learning – Lessons from the Field

The relationship between information systems (IS) and organisational learning has long been claimed but not sufficiently empirically grounded (Robey et al., 2000). This paper examines this relationship by drawing on a longitudinal study of the Slovenian company Sava during its 1995-2004 transition period when it adapted to and prospered in a free market economy. The company is particularly interesting because of the pivotal role information systems (IS) played in supporting organisational learning during its successful transition from a socialist company operating in a protected market to a privatized company operating in a capitalist global market. By providing insights into the role of various IS in organisational learning and in the company’s successful transition, the paper contributes to a deeper understanding of the relationship between IS and organisational learning which is relevant and inspiring to other companies, especially those undergoing radical change