Facts, myths and thought-styles: a rant

This polemic calls for an end to our enchantment with Theory in the IS field. My critique uses Barthes’ structuralism to argue that theories are myths which order, interpret and normalise the world. I address the fundamental question “what is a fact”, drawing on the epistemology of Ludwik Fleck, which deserves more recognition in IS. A “fact” from the domain of child welfare is used to illustrate the argument

THE LAGADO DAILY NEWS: “SCIENTISTS LOCATE BRAIN CENTRE FOR INFORMATION SYSTEMS STRATEGY” (31)

Neuromania refers to the proliferation of neuroscience outside its home territory, across diverse and unlikely disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences. Examples of the neuro prefix’s promiscuity include neuro-economics, neuro-ethics, neuro-politics. Management science has not been immune; organization neuroscience, if not burgeoning, is a growing area, spawning research in areas such as leadership, personnel selection. Information Systems too has seen the birth of a new sub-field, that of NeuroIS, devoted to the application of neuroscience and its technologies “to study the development, adoption and impact of Information and Communication Technology”. Articles have appeared in august journals excitedly setting out research agendas, promising new traction on old problems. In this presentation, I will take a critical look at what may realistically be achieved, separating this from the hype and over-claiming, and examine some of the moral hazards that may lie ahead. Other challenges relate to the unsettled state of the neuroscience knowledgebase, methodological costs/benefits and mismatching ontologies. As well as tempering neuromania, I will make a positive (but balanced) case for NeuroIS, drawing on some of my own work, on stress and mental workload, which shows the utility of neurophysiological methods (in both laboratory and field) in the context of sociotechnical systems design

The Organization of Software Development: A Cybernetic Perspective

This paper considers an organizational perspective upon software development. It proposes the use of a cybernetic approach is complementary to the more conventional software process improvement paradigm. The findings of three case studies are briefly presented

Addressing the Productivity Paradox: The Need for a Psychophysiological Perspective

In this paper, we argue that the “PsychophysiologicalPerspective” has a valuable contribution to make to our understanding of the impact of new technology on individual and organizational performance. In essence, the psychophysiological perspective views the human agent as a “multi-component, multi-modal system” made up of interacting physiological, behavioral and experiential subsystems (Gale and Christie 1987). By triangulating these three dimensions, psychophysiology has the potential to yield a much richer account of the dynamics of user interaction with complex technologies than conventional approaches. Although psycho-physiological investigations are something of a rarity, there are encouraging studies in the literature where psychophysiology has provided critical diagnostic insights: for example, in situations where paradoxical decrements in perform,a.nce have ensued following the introduction of new systems (e.g., Brown, Wastell and Copeman 1982; Wastell 1990)

A manifesto for a socio-technical approach to NHS and social care IT-enabled business change - to deliver effective high quality health and social care for all

80% of IT projects are known to fail. Adopting a socio-technical approach will help them to succeed in the future. The socio-technical proposition is simply that any work system comprises both a social system (including the staff, their working practices, job roles, culture and goals) and a technical system (the tools and technologies that support and enable work processes). These elements together form a single system comprising interacting parts. The technical and the social elements need to be jointly designed (or redesigned) so that they are congruent and support one another in delivering a better service. Focusing on one aspect alone is likely to be sub-optimal and wastes money (Clegg, 2008). Thus projects that just focus on the IT will almost always fail to deliver the full benefits

Metric for Designing Inclusive User Interfaces: Action Research on the Implementation of the Care Act 2014

This action research is aimed at creating metric for inclusive user interfaces that provide are intuitive and mimic the natural conversation to bridge the skill gap between skilled users and novice users. This metric will help user interface designer to measure the ‘inclusivity’ of their design, thus producing services that as easy as an IKEA manual. This action research is conducted in Nottinghamshire County Council who invested resources to create online channel that enables customers to apply online for social care services, while recognising that their customer base is very diverse. The council adopted an inclusive design strategy to cater to all users with different needs and computer literacy levels

Unpacking multiculturalism in the ICT workplace: Differences in responses to workplace situations for English and non-English speaking backgrounds

This paper presents a detailed ethnographic study of the design problems of a major national IT system in UK child protection and welfare services. The implementation of the Integrated Children’s System (ICS) has disrupted social work practice and engendered growing professional resistance, prompting a fundamental review of its design. Marshall McLuhan’s concept of chiasmus is a central feature of the analysis presented here of the tribulations of the ICS. Chiasmus refers to the tendency of any system, when pushed too far, to produce unintended contradictory effects, and is an intrinsic feature of the behaviour of complex, socio-technical systems. The dysfunctions of the ICS provide a pertinent, large-scale example. The ICS constitutes an attempt, via technological means, to reorganize child welfare services in the UK. Whilst aimed at improving child safety, the ICS has had the opposite effect of increasing the potential for error. This chiasmus has been exposed through the multi-site ethnography reported here, which shows how rigidly designed processes, enforced by IT systems, force social work professionals into unsafe investigative and recording practices which put children at greater risk. The paper ends by proposing an alternative approach to design, based on proven socio-technical precepts, emphasizing the principles of minimum critical specification, usercenteredness and local autonomy

Invited Panel: Evidence Based Practice (EBP) – The Problem and Challenges, The Need within IS research and practice, Open Access Publishing.

Launch of the ‘Journal for Evidence Based Information Systems’ (EBIS): An open access journal for IS researchers and practitioners – An independent journal in association with the UKAI