326 research outputs found
How do posttraumatic stress and acculturation correlate with marital functioning in a Bosnian refugee sample?
Due to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to [email protected], referencing the URI of the item.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 17-20).Two of the most pressing problems facing today's rapidly growing population of refugees are dealing with the consequences of their past traumatic experiences (PTSD symptomology) and adjusting to a new culture (acculturation). Various clinical observations and a few previous studies have linked these variables to marital adjustment problems. The present correlational study was conducted to clarify these relationships. PTSD and acculturation were independent variables and marital satisfaction/distress was the dependent variable. Forty Bosnian refugee couples living in the United States completed translated PTSD Symptom Scale-Self-Report, Behavioral Acculturation Scale, Marital Satisfaction Inventory-Revised (MSI-R), and a demographic questionnaire. PTSD symptomology was the best predictor of marital functioning: the two showed strong significant positive correlation. PTSD was also significantly negatively correlated with the acculturation level. After controlling for PTSD, acculturation did not show significant correlation with marital functioning. Gender effects were obtained: wives' marital satisfaction was best predicted with husbands' PTSD, husband's acculturation, and their own PTSD; while husbands' marital satisfaction was not well predicted by any of the variables. The findings can provide useful guidelines to mental health professionals dealing with refugees and other traumatized populations
THE DISCIPLINE OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS: ISSUES AND CHALLENGES
This paper explores challenges of the evolution of the concept of Information Systems (IS) and its implications on IS as a discipline. The concept of IS has come a long way since the first computer applications that automated routine, repetitive tasks, up until todays organisation-wide IS, groupware systems and Internet-based IS that mediate communications. Gradually, IS have penetrated into all organisational processes and all aspects of organisational social life and inter-organisational relationships. As a result IS are coming to be considered as social systems, a component of the much wider domain of human language and social interaction. By addressing this dramatic shift from the first idea of the IS as a technical system to the idea of the IS as a social system, technologically realised, the paper aims to contribute to the understanding of the emergence of the IS discipline
ON METHODS, METHODOLOGIES AND HOW THEY MATTER
The field of Information Systems, it is argued, suffers from identity crisis and faces difficulties in achieving a disciplinary status (Galliers, 2006; Hassan, 2011). The IS research continues to be seen as lacking relevance and impact that negatively affects IS prospects for becoming a discipline. Key charges include the narrow research focus and a rigid application of research methods that constrain investigative possibilities, impede the relevance of IS research and also stifle creativity and the production of relevant knowledge. Given a historical privileging of the positivist research approach and associated methods (survey and experiments in particular) IS research has been slow in adopting other approaches and expanding research methods. While this is gradually happening and IS researchers are seen venturing into non-positivist territories, adopting a broader range of methods (such as ethnographies or action research), the emphasis on research methods and their ‘rigorous’ application remains. After critiquing the narrow focus on methods and drawing attention to limitations of all methods, the paper proposes a broader focus on research methodology that is concerned with the ontological, epistemological, and normative assumptions behind research methods and their inherent limitations. The paper argues for a (re)turn to methodology conceived as a theory of inquiry that is contextually sensitive and evolving within a research project. The return to methodology would involve a continuous interplay between assumptions about the phenomena studied and the practical questions of designing research strategies and selecting and adopting research methods underpinned by the assumptions. The broadening of focus and the questioning of both metatheoretical assumptions and methods might open up researchers’ perspectives and stimulate the discovery of new and innovative ways of conducting research and thereby facilitate progress in the IS field
Ethical Implications of IT-enabled Information Flows Conceived as Intermediaries or Mediators
This paper contributes to a better understanding of ethical concerns regarding the deployment of complex public sector IT systems and the information flows they instigate. The paper aims to reveal how different views on IT and IT-enabled information flows allow us to see differently their social implications and to construe different ethical questions. This is achieved by i) defining two opposing views on IT-enabled information flows as ‘intermediaries’ and ‘mediators’; ii) by analysing the controversial case of My School – a web portal that provides performance data of 9,500 Australian schools – that introduces new information flows in the education sector; and iii) by revealing and explaining how some unintended negative social implications emerge and how the articulation of ethical concerns depends on the view on My School-enabled information flows. The paper concludes with theoretical and practical implications, with particular emphasis on responsibilities of all involved, setting up foundations for an important area of future IS research
Pre-Investment Information Systems Assessment: An Actor Network Theory Account
The dominant view in the information systems (IS) and software engineering literature is that the
application of a rigorous pre-investment evaluation methodology is the key to ensuring the selection of
the best IS projects – that is those with the highest expected value for the organisation and with the
highest probability of success. While the literature is replete with methodologies for the evaluation of
IS projects, there is insufficient attention given to the evaluation process itself and to what constitutes
successful IS evaluation. Whilst some within IS argue that the development of more elaborate
evaluation methodologies is necessary for the advancement of the field, many report that it is not
methodologies as such that need improvement. What is missing is an understanding of IS evaluation
processes in practice and how organisations adopt and apply evaluation methodologies. In this paper
we focus on the IS evaluation process in a company with a history of IS successes and examine the
ways in which the evaluation process shapes and ensures the selection of the best IS projects. By
adopting the Actor Network Theory lens we demonstrate a) that the view of pre-investment IS
evaluation in the literature is very narrow, b) that the practice of IS evaluation produces the ‘object’ it
evaluates, c) that this object, that is the IS project proposal document, is an inscription device
produced by relations in the actor network formed around it, and d) that these networks and relations
as well as the translation of actors’ expertise, experiences and interests into the document (inscription
device) are critical for IS project proposals evaluation and their chances of success
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
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
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