Louise Whittaker

The Phenomenology of Information Systems Evaluation: Overcoming the Subject/Object Dualism

In this paper, we argue that the path to better IS evaluation in organizations is to get beyond the dualisms of subject/object, mind/body, and cognition/action that limit our analysis, understanding, and practice of evaluation in the flow of organizational life. We present a discussion of the unity of cognition and action using the work of phenomenologists such as Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty, and Henry. We argue that the subject/object dualism as described in the evaluation literature only seems to exist because we accept and depend on another dualism, namely the assumed split between cognition and action. We propose that managers do not apply methods, propose alternatives, argue costs and benefits, and attempt to subvert these, in order to judge or decide. Rather the applying, proposing, arguing and subverting—the discourse—is exactly already the judging and the deciding. We proceed to present a set of principles that take the unity of cognition and action seriously. We believe these point to a way of making IS evaluation more skillful while taking into account both the rational and the political dimensions that now seem to stand as irreconcilable opposites.

Power, Cash, and Convenience: Translations in the Political Site of the ATM

The automatic teller machine (ATM) will be for the foreseeable future the dominant mode of access to cash for those living in industrialized societies. In this article we present the ATM as a political site where a multiplicity of relationships—primarily but not exclusively between the customer and the bank—become configured in ways that serve some interests and not others. The article draws on the work of Winner, Haraway, and Latour in discussing the ongoing translation of ATMs as it occurs in the United Kingdom, with further reference to South Africa and the United States. In order to make some of the politics of the ATM more visible, we illustrate the political struggles through four interconnected narratives: (a) the talking ATM, (b) the insecure ATM, (c) the charging ATM, and (d) the cashless ATM. In each of these descriptive accounts we attempt to show how the ATM becomes (or is) a cybernetic actor that is configured and reconfigured through a multiplicity of political translations resulting in a multiplicity of politically significant cybernetic ATM networks. Finally, we briefly discuss how these narratives interrelate to form the political site of the ATM.

Truth, Journals, and Politics: The Case of the MIS Quarterly

In this paper, we want to demonstrate the way in which regimes of truth at the MIS Quarterly (MISQ) have made it possible for certain types of research to be published there, and others not. The importance of this claim lies in the fact that publication in MISQ is often seen as an indication of status. Furthermore, publication in MISQ also plays an important role in decisions about tenure and promotion. However, the aim of the paper is not to rid MISQ of regimes of truth—this is not possible. The paper will argue, with Foucault, that all institutions always already have their politics of truth. The production of truth is always intimately tied to relations of power which itself depends upon truth for its sustenance. The aim of the paper is to show this intimate connection between truth and power. In particular, in the case of MISQ, we want to question the often-implied legitimacy and status that the MISQ has over and against other high quality journals in the field. Foucault argues that power is most effective when it hides itself. This paper is an attempt to make its face more public and open to scrutiny.

An Ontological Foundation for Strategic Management Research: The Role of Narrative

The double challenge of strategic management research is to come up on the one hand with a truthful account of issues relating to the organization itself and on the other hand doing so in a way that is relevant for meeting the challenges of strategic management. To achieve this need for increased rigour and relevance we follow Heideggers thinking and develop an ontological ascertainment of the organization as being a work. A work in this sense is the kind of entity that is fundamentally characterized by setting up a world for people. We then argue that because an organization is a work, an appropriate way of giving an account of an organization is in the form of strategic narratives: narratives that give a truthful account of the world of an organization as it is and as it could be. Since narratives play a fundamental role in human existence and are a powerful means to shaping peoples thinking and actions, we argue that strategic narrative research and development meet the double challenge of strategic management research and illustrate the application with an account of strategic narrative research and development in an organization.

The employment relationship in the domestic workspace in South Africa: beyond the apartheid legacy

Employing more than one million people, domestic service is one of the largest sources of employment for black women in South Africa. In this article, we contend that, historically, the impact of apartheid has been to skew the analysis of employment relationships in domestic workspaces in South Africa so that the power asymmetry and exploitation that so characterise these relationships have been labelled an artefact of the racist apartheid regime and its legislation. By reviewing literature on domestic workers globally and drawing on a study into the impact of the Sectoral Determination for the Domestic Worker Sector, which was promulgated in 2002, we argue for a broader understanding of this relationship: one that takes into consideration its global similarities.