"Socio-Technical and Human Cognition Elements of Information Systems"

A book edited by Steve Clarke, Elayne Coakes, Gordon Hunter and Andrew Wenn

  The 1980s and 1990s has seen a growing interest in research and practice in information systems viewed from a combination of social, technical and cognitive perspectives. 

This book is a compilation of contributed chapters by researchers and practitioners from these social, technical and cognitive domains, addressing conceptual, methodological, and empirical studies. 

Testimonials include:

E.W. Dijkstra, one of the founders of computing science, noted a long time ago that when computers first appeared the goal of our programs was to instruct our machines, but now the goal of our machines should be to execute our programs. Similarly, the goal of IT systems should be to satisfy well-defined business needs instead of -- as it often still happens -- directing businesses in their operational, tactical, or strategic work. When IT provides opportunities as a business enabler, the business (including social) and IT aspects of an organization are intertwined and thus have to be specified and reasoned about explicitly. In all cases, reasoning about IT systems (which never exist in isolation) and their organizational contexts should be done using concepts and terms understandable to all stakeholders, from business decision makers to IT developers. This interesting book shows various approaches of doing just that.

Too many IT systems have failed because assumptions (often tacit), norms and values of IT system designers and developers differ from those of their various business and organizational customers. This has been recognized both in academia and in industry, and the book's thirteen papers propose interesting and promising ways of improving this unfortunate state of affairs. In many cases, the authors of this thought-provoking book do not deliver answers, but rather recognize and clearly formulate problems, thus leading to an essential framework for solving these problems. Several papers provide sincere and often eye-opening assessments of important IT usage failures. And all authors show interesting and useful models that help to determine how business and organizational issues -- including political ones -- ought to be treated in an explicit, rigorous and proactive manner before, during and after IT system design and development.

"This book bundles up a wide range of perspectives on the social and individual contexts within which computer-based systems are developed and used. The reader will get insights into the thinking that went into the further refinement of Multiview. Fresh ideas are generated concerning privacy, conflict, politics and technology-push or user-pull. Most of this work is grounded in interesting case studies. As an extra treat, Habermas, Foucault and Latour are also unpackaged
and used to illuminate the world of IS development."

Representative topics include but are not limited to the following:

 ·        Case studies or action research covering the operational development and management of information systems.

·        Case studies or action research covering the formulation and/or management of information systems strategies.

·        Reports of interventions in the private and public sectors.

·        Issues of conflict resolution in information systems management.

·        Reports of system failure.

·        The relationships between people, organizations and information technology.

·        The role of organizational culture in information systems management.

·        The role of organizational structure in information systems management.

·        Methodological developments in information systems development and strategy.

·        Studies addressing the difficulties of linking ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ issues, and focusing on solutions from an interpretative perspective.

·        The development and management of end-user computing.

·        The impact of user involvement on information systems success.

·        Innovative approaches to emerging technologies.

·        Investigations leading to new theoretical constructs to underpin research and practice in information systems.

·        Studies linking theory to practical interventions.

·        New paradigm research into the human (cognitive or social) aspects of information systems research and practice.

·        The impact of research and practice based on critical theories.

The book was published by Idea Group Publishing Autumn 2002.

ECoakes