An Insight into the Debates Surrounding the Changing Nature, Scope and Focus of Information Systems Research

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the debates that surround the changing nature, scope and focus of information systems (IS) research. To discuss the nature of IS research, the paper looks at the fundamental issues that have been considered to be the core of the discipline and how this is changing and has evolved in the last few decades. IS is relatively a new discipline with a changing and evolving nature which is partly as a result of the changing nature of information technology. New and improved technologies provide new affordances which lead to new ways of life and work as well as research. This means that IS research itself is not static and what has been regarded as the core of IS research has never been constant. The changing nature of the IS discipline’s core and its reliance on the IT artifact has been the bane to the illusiveness of a consensus on a core. The supposed core has changed over the years from the IT artifact being the centre stage to systems in organisation and now what is referred to fusion view. Others however, have argued that there is no need for a core. The discourse on what makes IS a discipline as well as the scope of IS is also pursued. The focus of information systems research over the years and the focus of current IS research now is also highlighted to make the big debates in IS research clearer. The paper in its last major section discusses the topic ‘Migrating processes from a traditional to a virtual environment: An application of process virtualisation theory to the Controller and Accountants General Department’s payroll services in Ghana’ and justifies why the phenomenon qualifies for IS research in terms of its nature, scope and focus of study. The paper concludes that despite the call for the need for a core, the diversity of the discipline is good for its growth.