Udo Richard Averweg

Enabling role of an intranet to augment e‐coaching

Purpose – This paper has the aim of exploring whether virtual coaching in an organisation may be facilitated and enabled by intranet technology for the creative dialogue of e‐coaching.Design/methodology/approach – A review of the e‐coaching, the enabling role of technology, and intranet technology and intranets literature is undertaken. It is then argued that by adopting an autopoietic view of an intranet, virtual coaching may be facilitated and enabled by intranet technologies for the creative dialogue of e‐coaching in an organisation.Findings – Rather than intranet technology and intranets being simply an add‐on to established processes in an organisation, technology and coaching are synthesised into something new and exciting in the e‐coaching domain.Research limitations/implications – The six implications for organisations suggested in the paper are not inclusive, but may provide an avenue for research in the evolving e‐coaching domain. A research entry point may be the development and validation of a...

Executive Information System implementation in organisations in South Africa and Spain: A comparative analysis

Abstract Executive Information Systems (EIS) grew out of the information needs of executives and are designed to serve the needs of users in strategic planning and decision-making. EIS are high risk information technology implementation projects. The authors compare survey studies of EIS implementation in well-established organisations in South Africa and Spain. From a comparative analysis, the authors report eight identified parallelisms and three differences in EIS in these countries and suggest that there is scope and need for continued research in the area of future EIS implementation in these countries.

Information Systems: Practitioner-Based Inquiry Research

As the field of information systems (IS) has developed, IS practitioners have somewhat disconnected themselves from academic scholars. Fortunately, practitioner-based inquiry research can bridge the gap, bringing both practical relevance and theoretical and methodological rigor to IS research.

CSFs for decision-making support systems: an IS practitioner-researcher perspective

Organisations require the support of information systems (IS) to improve business performance and decision-making. Two popular IS implemented in organisations in South Africa are Decision Support Systems (DSS) and Executive Information Systems (EIS). Critical success factors (CSFs) are associated with the successful implementation of DSS and EIS in organisations. From an IS practitioner-researcher perspective, a review was made of the available literature during the period 1994--1998 of previously identified CSFs for the successful implementation of DSS and EIS in organisations in South Africa. With the advent of the Web and Web-based technologies, six pointers are suggested towards a future CSFs for DSS and EIS implementation practitioner-research agenda in South Africa.

Probing some theoretical aspects of practitioner-based inquiry research in information systems

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) practitioners are often located in the social sciences branch of Information Systems (IS). Practitioner research comprises of research that practitioners undertake with a view to the advancement of their practice. A question arises in respect of research conducted by ICT practitioners: does practitioner-based inquiry research have a theoretical base and does practitioner-based inquiry research challenge enlightenment presuppositions based upon an empiricist epistemology? The probing and discussion of this question is the objective of this paper. In this paper, ICT practitioner-based inquiry research in organisations is discussed. Some philosophical underpinnings of practitioner-based inquiry research are probed and a reflection on practitioner-inquiry research is given. It is suggested that actively participating ICT practitioners in the IS research domain are a necessity in the workplace environment but their participation requires that the actual context in which IS practices are conducted, should be analysed. To ensure that such IS research is valid, an epistemological base is needed, for critical reflection and thoughtful action from which to draw.