Allen S. Lee

Generalizing Generalizability in Information Systems Research

Generalizability is a major concern to those who do, and use, research. Statistical, sampling-based generalizability is well known, but methodologists have long been aware of conceptions of generalizability beyond the statistical. The purpose of this essay is to clarify the concept of generalizability by critically examining its nature, illustrating its use and misuse, and presenting a framework for classifying its different forms. The framework organizes the different forms into four types, which are defined by the distinction between empirical and theoretical kinds of statements. On the one hand, the framework affirms the bounds within which statistical, sampling-based generalizability is legitimate. On the other hand, the framework indicates ways in which researchers in information systems and other fields may properly lay claim to generalizability, and thereby broader relevance, even when their inquiry falls outside the bounds of sampling-based research.

Communication richness in electronic mail: critical social theory and the contextuality of meaning

Information Richness Theory (IRT) has enjoyed acceptance by information systems researchers throughout the last decade, but recent unfavorable empirical evidence has precipitated a shift away from it and a search for a new theory. Because of this shift, a new definition of communication richness is needed to succeed the IRT definition. Since its inception, IS research on communication richness has been limited to the perspective of positivism and, more recently, interpretivism. In this study, a new perspective to the study of communication richness in computer mediated communication, critical social theory (CST), is introduced. This paper outlines (1) a CST-based definition of communication richness and compares it with positivist and interpretivist definitions of communication richness and (2) a CST-based social action framework for empirical study of organizational communication in any media use situation. The CST definition and framework are used in an intensive investigation of an episode of the managerial use of electronic mail in a company to illustrate how research on communication richness can be conducted from the CST perspective. This illustration also points out the usefulness of the CST perspective in recognizing instances of communication richness in electronic mail communications that would escape detection in not just the IRT perspective in particular, but also positivist and interpretive perspectives in general. Finally, the paper concludes by outlining the potential for future IS research on organizational communication and information technology from the CST perspective. In addition to the specific contribution to the development of a new theory of communication richness in electronic media, this study also contributes an example of CST research on IS and extends the domain of the CST-IS research program.

Electronic mail as a medium for rich communication: an empirical investigation using hermeneutic interpretation

This study provides an account of how richness occurs in communication that uses electronic mail. In examining actual e-mail exchanged among managers in a corporation, the study interprets the managerial use of the communication medium of electronic mail as the users themselves understand and experience it. Employing the research approach of interpretivism in general and hermeneutics in particular, the study finds that richness or leanness is not an inherent property of the electronic-mail medium, but an emergent property of the interaction of the electronic-mail medium with its organizational context, where the interaction is described in terms of distanciation, autonomization, social construction, appropriation, and enactment.Conclusions and recommendations are that managers who receive e-mail are not passive recipients of data, but active producers of meaning; that the best or just an appropriate communication medium is not determined through an individual managers exercise of rational decision making, but emerges as best or appropriate over time, over the course of the mediums interactions with many users; that systems professionals need to treat the managerial user of an e-mail system not merely as a client of information services, but also as a processor or co-processor to be integrated into the system design; and that information systems researchers need to dedicate attention to the actual processes by which the users of communication medium come to understand themselves, their own use of the medium, and their organizational context.

Using a case study to test the role of three key social enablers in ERP implementation

The literature indicates that three key social enablers—strong and committed leadership, open and honest communication, and a balanced and empowered implementation team—are necessary conditions/precursors for successful ERP implementation. In a longitudinal positivist case study, we find that, while all three enablers may contribute to ERP implementation success, only strong and committed leadership can be empirically established as a necessary condition. This presents a challenge to future ERP researchers for resolving apparent contradictions between the existing literature and the results of our analysis, and for investigating the nature of interactions among the leadership, communication, and team characteristics.

Information systems and qualitative research

Most mature social studies include both qualitative and quantitative methods in the normal course of research activities. Scholars may gain reputations based on one or the other, or in some cases on the combination of both. In fields such as sociology, psychology, history, political science, and even anthropology the balance has been struck; the rules are accepted. Business studies in general, and information systems in particular, have had a much harder time coming to terms with the balance. With so many colleagues using exclusively quantitative methods in business economics, in marketing, in accounting and even in organizational behavior, and other colleagues sticking strictly to formal methods in computer science and software engineering, we have had to fight an uphill battle at times. This volume is evidence of the maturing of information systems as a discipline which can recognize the place of qualitative along with quantitative research methods.

A scientific basis for rigor in information systems research 1

Qualitative research is just as able as quantitative research to follow certain fundamental principles of logic in general and scientific reasoning in particular. Two such principles are the logic of modus ponens and the logic of modus tollens. In this essay, we frame different research approaches- positivist research, interpretive research, action research, and design research-in the forms of modus ponens and modus tollens. Three issues emerge from this framing and call into question how research is now conducted in the discipline of information systems. They are the issue of a common scientific basis, the issue of the fallacy of affirming the consequent, and the issue of summative validity. Both rigor and relevance in information systems research may be better achieved by attending to the three issues.

Diagnosis of an information system failure

Abstract In diagnosing an episode of information system application failure, the IS professional and others doing the analysis face two challenges: (1) relevant data must be identified, collected, and organized; and (2) the data must be analyzed and interpreted to form a coherent picture of the perspectives, actions, and events which resulted in the troubled or failed system. This article provides a diagnostic framework and interpretive process for performing a diagnosis. The premise underlying the diagnostic framework is that an information system is a social system has uses information technology. The social and technical dimensions in the diagnosis of an information system are represented in a two-dimensional framework. Once the data and comments about the failure have been organized in the framework, the process of interpretation follows procedures based on interpretive methods (hermeneutics). The framework and associated interpretive process assist those doing a diagnosis in applying two powerful bodies of knowledge to failure diagnosis — socio-technical systems and interpretive methods. The article describes the framework and interpretive process, explains the rationale for them, and demonstrates their use for a case situation.

Presumed Versus Actual Organizational Culture: Managerial Implications for Implementation of Information Systems

This paper builds on Markus and Roheys four-level framework of analyzing resistance to implementation of information systems. The four levels of analysis pertain to the user, the organizational structure, the political power and the environment. We suggest adding a complementary fifth level pertaining to the organizational culture. The paper proceeds from a definition of culture to an explanation of its dimensions, in line with the management and control approach to culture. A case study of an attempt to implement an information system is presented and the five levels of analysis are used to explain the implementation failure

Retrospect and prospect: information systems research in the last and next 25 years

To its detriment, past research in information systems (IS) has taken for granted many of its own key concepts, including ‘information,’ ‘theory,’ ‘system,’ ‘organization,’ and ‘relevance.’ This essay examines these concepts, shows how they have been neglected, and offers the prospect in which research in IS no longer models itself on the research disciplines found in the natural and social sciences, but instead charts a course for its future development by modeling itself on the research disciplines found in the professions, such as medicine, engineering, architecture, and law.

Case Studies as Natural Experiments

The paper poses organizational case studies as a provocative way of addressing a long-standing controversy within the social sciences between the subjectivist and objectivist schools of thought. Whereas organizational case studies are customarily conducted as a form of subjectivist research, they may, in addition, be conducted so as to fit the conceptions of objectivist research as well. The paper explains how to achieve this result by conducting case studies as a form of natural experiment. The paper uses organizational case studies in this way to reveal the intersection which exists between the subjectivist and objectivist schools of thought. Organizational case studies which fall in the intersection constitute, in themselves, refutations to the alleged incompatibility between the two schools of thought, and exemplify how a rapprochement can be forged between them. The paper uses an actual organizational case study, Kanters Men and Women of the Corporation, to illustrate these points.