New Approaches to Studying Information Technology: Escaping the Organizational Straightjacket

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Introduction The information systems (IS) field has historically limited itself to design, use and implementation of information technology (IT) in organizations. Consequently, it is no surprise that IS field has become constrained by this straitjacket since its inception. Dickson (1981, p. 20) acknowledges that much of [management information systems] MIS research that has been performed has been done in an organizational setting. Markus (1999) was first to highlight tendency of field to be constrained by its roots in organizational science. The IS field, she warns, is at a crossroads and in order to avoid possible extinction, needs to go beyond its traditional areas of study by revisiting its mission and its customers. Markus notes that core concerns of IS field are no longer limited to needs of IS department and organization that it serves. IT is so prevalent today that its benefits and dangers are felt beyond organizational or disciplinary boundaries. Galliers (2003) emphasizes need for a transdisciplinary approach to IS, one that is neither limited to locus of organization nor to parochial needs of IS field itself. For instance, Declaration of Principles and Plan of Action at World Summit on Information Society, held in Geneva in 2003, asserts that benefits of IT are global and are no longer limited to organizational concerns. Conversely, repercussions of failures of IS are equally far-reaching. For example, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and Intelligence Community within U.S. government blame, among other reasons, ineffective IS for not being able to avert tragedy of September 11, 2001 (National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, 2004). The repercussions of this IS failure is felt beyond intelligence community. This paper contends that IS field needs to widen its focus beyond its traditional foundations in organization studies (OS) by theorizing about its core concern--information technology (IT). Based on a philosophy of technology and a philosophy of information, a framework that embraces societal concerns in studying IT is proposed. Escaping Organizational Straightjacket The close relationship between IS and organizational studies (OS) is engendered by OS background of many IS authors. Consequently, IS research is performed hand-inhand with OS research, even though, epistemologically, they are different (Orlikowski & Barley, 2001). Not only is field of IS epistemologically different from OS, it is ontologically different from OS. The arguments presented by Orlikowski and Barley (2001) to support epistemological difference between IS and OS research also support ontological differences between two fields. In their opinion, because IS studies development of systems and their consequences, and provides practical solutions to real-life problems, agenda of IS research closely resembles agenda of architecture and other design sciences rather than of OS research. OS is closer to traditional science because it provides parsimonious explanations to broad classes of organizational phenomena. As a result, OS discovers generalities, sets down general principles and identifies causal relationships. Therefore, subject matter (ontology) studied in IS is very different from subject matter studied in OS. A field that is ontologically and epistemologically different from another cannot hope to flourish if it remains within constraints of latter. That is why remaining with OS approaches places IS field in an straightjacket. Both epistemological and ontological differences between IS and OS support need for a fresh look at how IT should be studied. Additionally, in limited context of organization, OS may study the best way of managing people in order to improve productivity, whereas IS studies how technology can be designed and implemented to improve organizational productivity. …