New Approaches to Studying Information Technology: Escaping the Organizational Straightjacket

New Approaches to Studying Information Technology: Escaping the Organizational Straightjacket

The information systems (IS) field has been constrained by organizational studies (OS) for far too long. Although the close relationship between IS and OS has produced fruitful results, the prevalence of IT and its ever-widening impact at all levels of society requires that the IS field escape its organizational straightjacket and embrace new foundations. This research presents a foundation for...

Search in AI: Escaping from the CSP Straightjacket

We investigate some useful strategies for solving a variety of hard search problems. In the process we identify weaknesses in the standard CSP formalisation of such problems. 1 Search in Artificial Intelligence A basic challenge in Artificial Intelligence is to understand how people solve problems. In 1968 Herbert Simon wrote [14]: Problem solving is often described as a search through a vast m...

New Information Technology and Organizational Culture

Studying Information Technology in Organizations: Research Approaches and Assumptions

We examined 155 information systems research articles published from 1983 to 1988 and found that although this research is not rooted in a single overarching theoretical perspective, it does exhibit a single set of philosophical assumptions regarding the nature of the phenomena studied by information systems researchers, and what constitutes valid knowledge about those phenomena. We believe tha...

Studying Organizational Computing Infrastructures: Multi-method Approaches

This paper provides guidelines for developing multi-method research approaches, provides several examples of their use, and discusses experiences with conducting a multi-method study of one organization’s computing infrastructure changes. The focus on organizational computing infrastructures is due to the contemporary belief that these are increasingly critical to organizational success. Howeve...