David B. Paradice

Ethical attitudes of entry-level MIS personnel

Abstract A survey examining the ethical attitudes of over 125 uppe4 division undergraduate business students was administered. As this sample contains students from throughout the southwestern United States that will be accepting jobs in a matter of months this group is representative of entry-level employees in this United States area. Frequently, entry-level employees are naive regarding “accepted” corporate behavior. “Acceptable behavior” may be a particularly ambigous concept in the information systems field, since the field is still relatively young and is evolving at a tremendously rapid pace. The survey focussed on situations containing computer-based systems and investigated motives of obligation, oppurtunity, and intent. Responses by MIS subjects are compared to non-MIS subjects. Some statistically significant differences between the groups appeared: non-MIS subjects felt programmers should be responsible for the inherent correctness of calculations embodied in programs, MIS subjects indicated stronger notions of professional responsibility, and MIS subjects were more tolerant on the issue of unauthorized software copying. These results indicate entry-level personnel should be given specific guidelines regarding acceptable corporate behavior.

The ethical decision-making processes of information systems workers

An empirical investigation was conducted to determine whether management information systems (MIS) majors, on average, exhibit ethical decision-making processes that differ from students in other functional business areas. The research also examined whether the existence of a computer-based information system in an ethical dilemma influences ethical desision-making processes. Although student subjects were used, the research instrument has been highly correlated with educational levels attained by adult subjects in similar studies. Thus, we feel that our results have a high likelihood of generalization to the MIS professional community. The results indicate that MIS majors exhibit more socially-oriented ethical decision-making processes than non-MIS majors measured by the Defining Issues Test. The results also indicate that the existence of a computer-based information system in an ethical dilemma may influence ethical decision-making processes. The study makes no statement regarding MIS majors making “more (or less) ethical” decisions. The business ethics literature is reviewed, details of the study are presented, implications for management are considered, and directions for future research are suggested.

Philosophical foundations for a learning-oriented knowledge management system for decision support

Traditional organizational and support structures no longer function efficiently in the face of increasingly complex problem domains because these structures are generally not conceived from the social perspective, requiring development of new organizational structures and support systems. These structures must be able to support traditional decision-making in an increasingly complicated social domain. This paper defines the concept of an inquiring organization and conceptualizes a learning-oriented knowledge management system (LOKMS) for that type of organization. The role of the learning-oriented knowledge management system for inquiring organizations, which includes decision-making and learning process support, is discussed.

Prepare your mind for creativity

he adoption of new technologyoften disrupts an organization—the business environmentchanges, rules change, and the tried-and-true methods of conducting business loseeffectiveness. A creative approach isneeded to best match technology solu-tions to business problems in such situa-tions. If they are to prosper, organizationsmust identify and nurture creativeemployees, who for their part must max-imize their creative potential to remainemployable. But how? For one, individu-als and organizations alike can benefitfrom increased awareness of the keybehaviors known to enhance creativity, aswell as those that impede it.Creativity is rather difficult to definebut easy to recognize. Cognitive psychol-ogists who study creativity call a productor service “creative” if it is at least noveland useful. The usefulness criterion neednot exclude works of art or entertainingproductions, and the novelty criterion canbe satisfied at either a personal or societallevel. If a student produces a bubble-sortprogram without previous exposure tothe bubble-sort algorithm, the program isa creative work for that student. Such per-sonal novelty is far more commonplacethan societal novelty, which occurs whensomething never before experienced isproduced. The first bubble-sort program,the first network, and the first computervirus are examples of societal novelty.When measures of novelty and usefulnessare combined, mundane and exceptionalcreativity become endpoints of a contin-uum used to rank creative productions, as

Studies in managerial problem formulation systems

Abstract A series of projects to develop decision support systems for managerial problem formulation is described. Problem-solving theory from cognitive psychology is integrated with problem structuring techniques (cognitive mapping and structural modeling) to provide the theoretical foundation for the work. The first project involved the development and testing of graphics software to support problem formulation. Subsequent studies examined the use of this software in group decision-making, and extended the system to include a problem diagnosis module, statistical routines to test relationships before they were stored in the systems knowledge base, an advisory module, and a discovery module which searches the database for relationships as yet untested by users. Current work includes the addition of a dialectical module and extension of the system to support an organizational perspective on the management of causal knowledge.

A prototype DSS for structuring and diagnosing managerial problems

A methodology for managerial problem recognition, structuring, and diagnosis is presented. The system integrates diagnostic concepts from artificial intelligence with database management and structural modeling techniques. Given an organizational database, a user specifies control bounds for selected data items and causal relationships between variables in the database. Structural modeling techniques are used to represent knowledge of causal relations. If a control variables value is out of bounds, structural models are used in an attempt to diagnose (explain) the discrepancy. If the discrepancy is explained, a diagnosis is at hand. If not, the users model is somewhat deficient and what-if analysis can be used to construct an improved model. This methodology has been implemented in a prototype decision support system (DSS) that is described, along with an example of its use. >

Causal and non-causal relationships and dynamic model construction in a managerial advisory system

Abstract:Recent successes in the design and implementation of expert systems in non-managerial problem domains has spurred interest in the proposition that expert systems may be viable in managerial problem domains as well. Continuing research in the design, implementation, and testing of a prototype managerial expert system is described in this paper. Issues regarding managerial knowledge organization, acquisition, representation, and utilization are discussed, and progress in the development of an advisory module is presented. Finally, results of evaluating the prototype versus the abilities of human subjects are also presented.

An Assessment of the Singerian Inquiring Organizational Model: Cases from Academia and the Utility Industry

The Singerian model of inquiring organizations is reviewed (Proceedings of the Americas Conference on Information Systems, Phoenix, Arizona Aug. 16–18,1996:443–445; Australian Journal of Information Systems, 1998;6(1):3–15, reprinted in Foundations of Information Systems: Towards a Philosophy of Informative Technology, http://www.cba.uh.edu/~parks/fis/fisart.htm.) and two cases of organizations representing the Singerian approach are analyzed. The Singerian organization, based on Churchmans (The Design of Inquiring Systems: Basic Concepts of Systems and Organizations, New York, NY: Basic Books Inc., 1971.) Singerian inquiring system, has ethical purposes, treats employees, customers and other stakeholders with trust and respect, and pursues socially responsible goals, including a respect for the environment. Decision making in Singerian organizations is holistic and systemic, and includes diverse stakeholders, thus requiring an open, cooperative culture, wherein debate is encouraged. Authority is diffuse. Measurement is fundamental. A system of measures is continuously monitored, refined, compared and revised to assess progress. Cooperation and communication are supported with various types of groupware, including e-mail, electronic meeting systems, group support systems, negotiation support systems, discussion forums, knowledge bases, knowledge management systems and the like. The Internet and World Wide Web may serve as resource and dissemination agents for “exoteric” knowledge created by the organization. Two organizations, an Energy Service Company and an academic Center for the Management of Information Systems, are analyzed for their conformance to and success with the Singerian approach. The organizations tended to prosper when the model was followed, but ran into difficulties when it was not.

SIMON: an object-oriented information system for coordinating strategies and operations

It is argued that successful future organizations must possess information processing capabilities oriented toward actively supporting organizational strategies. Such an information system would support organizationally intelligent behavior, since the system would facilitate purposeful, goal-oriented operations. An information system needs at least three characteristics to map organizational strategies into operational transaction processing: it must model various organizational levels, it must support information processing across organizational levels, and it must support information processing across functional levels. A computer-based information system designed with these characteristics has the potential to take an active role in supporting organizational decision-making activities. The concepts of an intelligent organization and the information system required to support it are presented. An object-oriented prototype that implements key components for supporting organizationally intelligent behavior is described. The advantages of this design are discussed, along with issues yet to be resolved. >

On the Study of Complexity in Information Systems

This article addresses complexity in information systems. It defines how complexity can be used to inform information systems research, and how some individuals and organizations are using notions of complexity. Some organizations are dealing with technical and physical infrastructure complexity, as well as the application of complexity in specific areas such as supply chain management and network management. Their approaches can be used to address more general organizational issues. The concepts and ideas in this article are relevant to the integration of complexity into information systems research. However, the ideas and concepts in this article are not a litmus test for complexity. We hope only to provide a starting point for information systems researchers to push the boundaries of our understanding of complexity. The article also contains a number of suggested research questions that could be pursued in this area.