Annie Röstlinger

Towards an integral understanding of organisations and information systems: Convergence of three theories

A need for an integrated theoretical understanding of organizations and information systems has been acknowledged. For this purpose three theories inspired by language action perspective are investigated. These three theories (Theory of Practice, Business Action Theory, Information Systems Actability Theory) deal with different but related subject matters. The theories have theoretical affinities but lack clear relations. The common theoretical thread of these theories is articulated in terms of socio-instrumental pragmatism. The different theories give substance and basis for steps towards development of an integral understanding of organizations and information systems. This includes the clarification, modification and convergence of the investigated theories.

Change Analysis — Innovation and Evolution

Is information systems development (ISD) an organisationally legitimate and appropriate change measure? This is a fundamental question for information systems (IS) practitioners and researchers. It is one possible question that a change analysis (CA) tries to answer. Before one starts to develop or procure an information system, one needs to be sure that this kind of measure really will solve problems and realise goals. Change analysis is. an investigation with the purpose to perform a diagnosis of a current organisational situation and a determination of appropriate change measures. A basic idea of CA is not to take ISD or any other type of change for granted. Determined change measures should be well-founded through an unbiased analysis.

Visionary Design Research: Renewing e-government Support for Business Set Up

To set up a new business can be a complex and demanding task in a highly regulated society. There is a need for many contacts with and applications for permits to different public authorities. There exists e-government support for new businesses, e.g. business link portals with information and services based on a life-event approach. This presented research contains formulation of a vision for a renewed e-government support for business set up an assemblage information system; joined-up support for application processes; a reversed application process. This is characterized as visionary design research, which is argued to be a legitimate research approach. The paper articulates a visionary design research approach based on multi-grounding principles. Grounding of the emergent vision is done in theoretical pre-knowledge, internally through vision coherence and empirically in identified problematic situations, articulated goals and opinions/assessments from knowledgeable practitioners.

Organisations as Practice Systems

There is a well recognised need for a broad organisational perspective on information systems and the development of such systems. The paper elaborates on a perspective on organisations as practice systems. A generic model of organisational practice is presented. This model is theoretically grounded in a discussion on different organisational phenomena as knowledge, artefacts, signs, business processes and coordination. The model is a contextualised description of an organisational practice emphasising actors, actions, relationships and action objects (prerequisites/results). It recognizes different dimensions of organisational actions as vertical and horisontal coordination and horisontal transformation. One key concept in the model is organisational ability. Such an ability is said to consist of individual and intersubjective knowledge, artefacts and organisational descriptions (signs) as actable assets. Organisational learning through assimilating experiences from action is also recognized. The generic model can be used as a basis for making business definitions, which is considered to be of great importance in IS planning and IS development. An illustration of the use of a business definition is made from a case study on business and IS development in a municipal home care unit for elder people.