IS ACTIVITY AS ORGANIZATIONAL ACTIVITY WITHIN A BROADER CONTEXT Michael S H Heng Free University of Amsterdam

Aim: to reflect on the concept and draw some conclusions The idea is intuitively very appealing It is present in some important IS works Some authors articulate this point more explicitly than others Examples: Web model of Kling, Semiotics framework of Stamper, and IS as social system of Hirschhiem

Relevance of the concept in IS strategy formulation and presentation the background of IS development methods IS as a sub-discipline in management school IS as a sub-discipline in organizational studies use of sociological theories in IS research implications for IS curriculum

IS strategy formulation and presentation It tends to conform to the rational expectations of stakeholders in normal circumstances It is related to the prevailing moods or fashions of powerful stakeholders, especially in abnormal situations, e.g. the last quarter of 1999 and first quarter of 2000

IS development methods A system development method is an organized collection of concepts, beliefs, values, and normative principles supported by material resources. (Lyytinen 1987) The differences in ISD in the American and Scandinavian traditons - the MIS tradition and history in the USA as opposed to the trade unionist and user centred in Scandinavian countries

continued The deep philosophical divide between these two traditions The importance of relating ISD methods to social norms

IS in management school It tends to follow the main concerns of dominant business schools, e.g. in Harvard Business Review It lags such fashions by a few months IS has not contributed much to shape the teaching and research agenda of business schools

IS in organizational studies Reflects organizational issues like power, culture, history the boundaries between IS researchers and organizational researchers is not clear important contributions of organizational researchers have made them members of IS community e.g. James March; Stern Jonsson

IS in schools of computing Let us fill in the blanks here

Use of sociological theories Giddens’ structuration theory Postmodernism Habermans theory of communication Actor network theory But what about other influential theories, especially feminism

Implications for research and teaching Inter disciplinary and multi disciplinary approach Potential rewards in integration and synthesis training courses for Ph D researchers with pure IT background

Implications for IS courses Compulsory introductory sociological course Relate the IS theories and concepts to wider societal context Invite guest lectures from organizational researchers who do IS studies