Hegelian Inquiring Organizations: Guiding Principles, Design Guidelines, and IT Support

This paper continues the tradition (Courtney et al. 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999) of using the principles of inquiring systems design (Churchman, 1971) to suggest how effective learning organizations might be developed. Specifically, the paper proposes that Hegelian inquiring systems are well suited for “wicked” problems and knowledge work, and therefore that Hegelian inquiring organizations are well suited for the wicked environments of the new world of business (Malhotra, 1997, 2000). In addition, the paper shows how extant information technologies can support Hegelian inquiring organizations

Information Technology and Sustainable Development

A recent United Nations (UN) study concludes that degradation of the world\u27s ecosystems over the past century …could have devastating implications for human development and the welfare of all species.” (United Nations, et al., 2000, p. 6). The report calls for an ecosystems approach to environmental problems that would foster sustainable development, development capable of meeting the needs of today without sacrificing resources needed by future generations. The ecosystems approach would take a holistic view of problems; include the public in the management of ecosystems; integrate social and economic information with environmental information to address the ecosystems “information gap”; and bring urban planning into ecosystem management, as urbanization places severe pressures on ecosystems today. This paper argues that ecosystems management constitutes a wicked problem (Rittel and Webber, 1973) or a mess (Ackoff, 1999), and that Singerian inquiring organizations (Churchman, 1971; Courtney, Paradice and Croasdell, 1998; Richardson, Courtney and Paradice, 1999) can provide a framework for ecosystems management. A study of infrastructure decision making in Houston, Texas (Lomax, et al., 1998) is presented as an example of using the Singer model in ecosystem management. The objective of the study is to develop decision support systems for Houston\u27s infrastructure systems, including roads, sewers, water supply, and drainage. A very broad perspective on infrastructure decision making is being taken. The relationships among built, human and natural environments are being considered. Preliminary results show that infrastructure decision environments are indeed wicked, that the Singerian model does provide a useful framework in which to investigate them, and that decision factors tend to cluster into political, need, economic, and environmental categories. The wicked domain presents special problems for DSS development. However, an effective DSS may be help alleviate the present lack of under development

Philosophical Foundations of Information Systems (PFIS) Doctoral Workshop

This IS and Philosophy mini-track, now in its tenth year, continues very successfully from its beginnings within the inaugural 1996 AMCIS/AIS conference in Phoenix, Arizona. This mini-track is now included in the track sponsored by the SIG “Philosophy and Epistemology of IS”created in 2002. Many leading IS scholars from Europe, UK, USA, and Australia, have, over the years, participated in this mini-track. Over the last 2 years, at AMCIS Tampa and New York, this mini-track has examined its history with a view to moving forward and creating new opportunities for participants to explore ideas and areas relevant to PFIS. As a result of requests by our PhD student group members at AMCIS Tampa and New York, this workshop addresses the theme of “Philosophical Understanding of Research Approaches in the Field of Information Systems/Technology”. Students participating in this workshop have submitted a position paper of 1000 words (based on the student’s understanding of how PFIS is relevant to the research approach used within current dissertation work) and it is these papers that have formed the basis of the workshop theme, direction and structure. The workshop was devised and led by the PFIS mini-track co-chairs (Prof. James Courtney, Prof. John Haynes & Dr Deborah Bunker). This workshop was designed and structured to generate a dialog with students about their understanding of how philosophy underpins their dissertation research. The workshop has also been recorded and a working paper on important areas of focus for students in this area, is available for general distribution from Prof. J. Courtney ([email protected]). Philosophy is an established and vast field, as compared to our fledgling area of information systems and many of the PFIS group student members have expressed an interest in better understanding the philosophical underpinnings of their work. This workshop has been founded on the belief that we have hardly begun to tap the potential of philosophy in our work, especially in developing a more robust foundation for what we do. Our students are the future of our work and as such, should have the opportunity to explore ideas in PFIS with each other and more experienced researchers

Mindful Administration of IS Security Policies

Managers of information systems have ethical, moral and legal obligations to protect their organization’s intellectual property. They often look to frameworks such as the Control Objectives for Information and related Technology (CobIT) to guide them to what data needs to be secured or standards such as the ISO/IEC 27000 series to provide best practices regarding their policies on how to safeguard this information. However, these policies are either vague in the details or not fluid and flexible enough to account for the unexpected security events that may render them obsolete. For example, Google recently released an online suite of applications that would allow an organization’s employees to collaborate on items of intellectual capital stored on Google’s servers outside the control of the organization’s information technology (IT) department. Additionally, new techniques have been discovered to break the encryption of data that was previously thought to be lost when the device containing it was powered off. While these events certainly have utility to practitioners, they also pose new threats to the security of intellectual capital created and stored on IT artifacts. This paper advocates mindfulness (Weick and Sutcliffe, 2001) as a necessary component of choosing and adapting security policies to better predict the unexpected security threats that may come as a result of technological change, environmental forces, or organizational use of IT

A Look Toward the Future: Decision Support Systems Research is Alive and Well

This commentary examines the historical importance of decision support to the information systems (IS) field from the viewpoint of four researchers whose work spans the several decades of decision support systems (DSS) research. Given this unique “generational” vantage point, we present the changes in and impact of DSS research as well as future considerations for decision support in the IS field. We argue that the DSS area has remained vital as technology has evolved and our understanding of decision-making processes has deepened. DSS work over the last several years has contributed both breadth and depth to decision-making research; the challenge now is to make sense of it all by placing it in an understandable context and by applying our analysis to the relevant issues looming in the future. One major outcome of this commentary is the identification of future trends in DSS research and what the users of these new DSS outlets can learn from the past. Trends include the increasing impact of social and mobile computing on DSS research, as well as knowledge management DSS and negotiation support systems that shift the focus to delivering more customer-centric and marketplace support

DISCOMAP: A System to Support Distributed Cognition in Inquiring Organizations

Inquiring systems theory (Churchman, 1971), cognitive mapping (Lee, et al., 1992) and hermeneutics (Boland, et al., 1994) have provided the basis for systems to support organizational learning, distributed cognition, and knowledge management. Boland, et al. (1994) describe three entities in such systems and six principles for their design. Richardson (2005) argues that communication is neglected element in these systems and integrates Habermas’s (1984, 1985) theory of communicative action, specifically discursive action, to develop revised design principles. This paper describes DISCOMAP, a system that instantiates and tests the revised design principles using discussion forums and The Planners Laboratory©, a new software package that provides advanced modeling, graphical and network capabilities to provide shareable models with engaging visual interfaces for decision makers

Account-based recommenders in open discovery environments

This paper aims to introduce a machine learning-based “My Account” recommender for implementation in open discovery environments such as VuFind among others. The approach to implementing machine learning-based personalized recommenders is undertaken as applied research leveraging data streams of transactional checkout data from discovery systems. The authors discuss the need for large data sets from which to build an algorithm and introduce a prototype recommender service, describing the prototype’s data flow pipeline and machine learning processes. The browse paradigm of discovery has neglected to leverage discovery system data to inform the development of personalized recommendations; with this paper, the authors show novel approaches to providing enhanced browse functionality by way of a user account. In the age of big data and machine learning, advances in deep learning technology and data stream processing make it possible to leverage discovery system data to inform the development of personalized recommendations.University of Illinois Campus Research Board (RB16001)Ope

Intrarater and Interrater Reliability of the Soong Classification for Distal Radius Volar Locking Plate Placement

Background: The purpose of this study was to analyze the intrarater and interrater reliability of the Soong classification for volar locking plate placement on a randomly selected, consecutive series of radiographs. Our hypothesis was that the classification would be reliable. Methods: Six physicians of differing levels of training (orthopedic surgery intern to fellowship-trained upper extremity staff) were asked to review 40 radiographs in a random order on 2 separate occasions, 4 weeks apart. All observers graded each image (0, 1, or 2) based on the corresponding Soong grade. A weighted κ was used to determine the intrarater agreement. The interrater agreement was determined using an intraclass coefficient: Results: The intrarater reliability using a weighted κ ranged from 0.229 (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.048-0.411) to 0.946 (95% CI: 0.840-1.051). The interrater intraclass coefficient for Randomization 1 was 0.944 (95% 0.912-0.967) and Randomization 2 was 0.877 (95% CI: 0.797-0.930). Conclusion: The Soong classification is a reliable tool, both interrater and intrarater, for assessing distal radius volar locking plate placement. The classification system remained reliable despite a randomly selected, consecutive series of images and physician observers of varying levels of training

Inquiring Decision Systems: A Churchmanian Approach to Ethical Decision Making

Many business organizations seem to be doing everything but making ethical organizational decisions these days. In stark contrast, social enterprises are organizations that operate as businesses but are altruistic, humanitarian, and seek the goal of creating social value in effective, efficient and ethical ways. This paper applies principles of social enterprises to develop a multi-perspective framework for ethical business decision-making within a philosophical context provided by C. West Churchman’s inquiring systems in organizations