THERE IS NO LONGER ONE TRUTH!: CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS AND SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT THROUGH DEFERRED SYSTEMS

Web 2.0 technologies promote democracy which poses issues for corporate communications. Corporate communications is orchestrated by companies to promote business strategy and raise brand profile. However, companies’ use of Web 2.0 technologies in the form of social media raises problems for corporate communications departments. Web communities on social media may run campaigns that have adverse effects for companies. This is the emergence effect of Web 2.0 technologies. The Web 2.0 platform is likely to be a permanent feature for corporate communications. In this paper, the theory of deferred action is proposed to promote the positive use of social media whilst managing its adverse effects, or more generally emergence. The deferred systems concept in particular is proposed for conceptualising and developing social media uses for corporate communications whilst managing emergence. Design principles are proposed to develop social media effectively for business use

Developing Tailorable Information Systems through Deferred System\u27s Design

The development of business information systems for changing social organisations is considered by redefining the ‘engineering problem’ of information systems development as the ‘living problem’. Tailorable information systems are proposed to address the living problem. The concept of deferred system’s design, derived through interpretivism and phenomenology, provides a design philosophy for addressing the living problem

Emergent Forms of IT Governance to Support Global eBusiness Models

A critical aspect of global e-business information technology (IT) governance is ensuring that it is integrated and that it generates economic viability of a company. Poorly thought through purposes will result in poor IT governance, the aim is to improve IT governance and business efficiency and effectiveness. A normative framework for global e-business IT governance is developed in this paper drawing on research evidence from information systems development and organization study. It proposes fundamental re-directions in global e-business IT governance thinking and it applies to companies that seek to integrate Internet, Intranet and Web technologies into their business activities in some form of an e-business model. Such integration is termed the fusion of IT and business to develop an e-business. The framework explains and elaborates ebusiness strategies for coping with emergent organizations and planned aspects of IT. The basic premise of the proposed framework is that organization, especially virtual organization, is both planned and emergent, diverging from the dominant premise of central control in IT governance

Developing living information systems through systems tailorability: Deferred systems design

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.An interpretivist investigation of computer-based business information systems was conducted in two commercial companies and two higher education institutes, by using both quantitative questionnaire survey and qualitative interview research methods. The investigation focused on the social and organisational context of information systems development and usage in these organisations. The utility of structured methodologies is now being questioned by some researchers who are calling for alternative approaches, and this investigation draws on that alternative strand of thinking. The collected data primarily reveals that the development and usage of information systems happens in changing organisations, which suggests that the design and usage of information systems must cater for such a changing or dynamic environment. Therefore the data is interpreted using a philosophical outlook encompassing the notion of "living" information systems and Critical Theory, and this philosophical stance regards information technology as liberating human endeavour in organisations. Five sub-concepts and the concept of deferred system's design are derived from the data, which have been formulated to account and cater for change in information systems environments. The concept of deferred system's design encourages the design of information systems which allow for organisational human behaviour, consisting of organisational change, uncertainty, and learning, to be mediated by information technology. A systems design principle called `deferred system's design decisions' is derived to enable designs of tailorable information systems, which may be regarded as one form of living information systems to facilitate such organisational behaviour. An intersubjective theoretical model called the spiral of change model of tailorable information systems is proposed to explain and understand better the changing organisational environment in which information systems must be developed and in which they must function. To inform practice a computer tool is proposed which enables conceptions of " tailorable information systems that employ the principle of deferred system's design decisions and enables modelling changing or dynamic information systems

Deferred Systems Software Model for Semantic Information Sharing in Context on the Web

This research reports on the deferred system software model to inform semantic and contextual information sharing in Web applications. Contextual information sharing requires software models that can lead to tight coupling of the Web application and the system environment. The problem addressed concerns how to improve the coupling of a Web-based system and the system environment to facilitate information sharing in context. The generalised Deferred System’s Design model and the Deferred-Specified IT/IS Matrix are presented as conceptual tools to guide design. The System-System Environment Interface is introduced as the software mechanism to cater for contextual information sharing. The Web itself and the discww Web application are used to exemplify deferred systems that reflect the system environment and enable contextual information sharing

The Structure of Information and Knowledge in a Market Research Company: Systems or Webs?

Interpretivist research in progress in a market research company is reported. Market research is information and knowledge intensive. The problem addressed concerns sharing information and knowledge among business partners over multiple computer networks. The aim of the research is to develop appropriate concepts for knowledge work. The second order concept of web is developed and contrasted with the system concept. For knowledge work, the web concept is proposed as a conceptual tool to develop applications better suited for business organisations dealing in information and knowledge