Information Systems Professionals Research Articles

Tomorrow’s ethics and today’s response: An investigation into the ways information systems professionals perceive and address emerging ethical issues

This paper explores the question of how foresight and futures research can identify and address ethical issues in the field of Information Systems (IS). Starting from the premise that such IS are part of socio-technical systems, the interaction between technology and human actors raise ethical concerns. Early recognition of these concerns can address ethical issues and improve the use of the technology for a range of social and organisational goals. This paper discusses research conducted in two futures research projects. Both projects investigated emerging information and communication technologies (ICTs) and ethics. The first project established approaches for identifying future technologies and their related ethical concerns. This led to the identification of 11 emerging ICTs and their associated ethical concerns. The second project took these general ethical concerns and focused on their role in IS. Specifically, how IS professionals view future emerging technologies, their associated ethical concerns, and how they think these concerns could be addressed. The key findings are that IS professionals are primarily interested in the job at hand and less so in the ethical concerns that the job might bring; ethics is a concern that is best left for others to deal with. This paper considers the implications of research on ethics in emerging ICTs and draws general conclusions about the relevance of future technologies research in IS.

Overcoming the Reluctance to Convey Negative Project Information during an Information Systems Pre-Implementation Review

ABSTRACTThis study investigates conditions under which the presence of an auditor conducting a pre-implementation review increases experienced information systems (IS) professionals' willingness to convey negative project information beyond reporting to senior management. Results of an experiment suggest that the presence of an auditor during the pre-implementation process encourages reporting to an auditor when (1) IS professionals believe their responsibility to report is low, and (2) perceived negative consequences are high and the expectancy that problems will be corrected if reported is low. Further, our results indicate that confidentiality provided by the auditor is particularly important when IS professionals believe their responsibility to report is low. Results of this study have important implications for organizations seeking to reduce risks associated with runaway IT projects by identifying circumstances in which auditors can reduce the information asymmetry between IS professionals and management, especially in circumstances where IS professionals are the most reluctant to report (e.g., low perceived responsibility, high perceived negative consequences).

A Study of How Information System Professionals Comprehend Indirect and Direct Speech Acts in Project Communication

Research problem: Indirect communication is prevalent in business communication practices. For information systems (IS) projects that require professionals from multiple disciplines to work together, the use of indirect communication may hinder successful design, implementation, and maintenance of these systems. Drawing on the Speech Act Theory (SAT), this study investigates how direct and indirect speech acts may influence language comprehension in the setting of communication problems inherent in IS projects. Research questions: (1) Do participating subjects, who are IS professionals, differ in their comprehension of indirect and direct speech acts? (2) Do participants display different attention processes in their comprehension of indirect and direct speech acts? (3) Do participants' attention processes influence their comprehension of indirect and direct speech acts? Literature review: We review two relevant areas of theory-polite speech acts in professional communication and SAT. First, a broad review that focuses on literature related to the use of polite speech acts in the workplace and in information system (IS) projects suggests the importance of investigating speech acts by professionals. In addition, the SAT provides the theoretical framework guiding this study and the development of hypotheses. Methodology: The current study uses a quantitative approach. A between-groups experiment design was employed to test how direct and indirect speech acts influence the language comprehension of participants. Forty-three IS professionals participated in the experiment. In addition, through the use of eye-tracking technology, this study captured the attention process and analyzed the relationship between attention and comprehension. Results and discussion: The results show that the directness of speech acts significantly influences participants' attention process, which, in turn, significantly affects their comprehension. In addition, the findings indicate that indirect speech acts, if employed by IS professionals to communicate with others, may easily be distorted or misunderstood. Professionals and managers of organizations should be aware that effective communication in interdisciplinary projects, such as IS development, is not easy, and that reliance on polite or indirect communication may inhibit the generation of valid information.

Rule-based Expert Systems for Selecting Information Systems Development Methodologies

Information Systems (IS) are increasingly becoming regarded as crucial to an organization's success. Information Systems Development Methodologies (ISDMs) are used by organizations to structure the information system development process. ISDMs are essential for structuring project participants' thinking and actions; therefore ISDMs play an important role to achieve successful projects. There are different ISDMs and no methodology can claim that it can be applied to any organization. The problem facing decision makers is how to select an appropriate development methodology that may increase the probability of system success. This paper takes this issue into account when study ISDMs and provides a Rule-based Expert System as a tool for selecting appropriate ISDMs. The proposed expert system consists of three main phases to automate the process of selecting ISDMs. Three approaches were used to test the proposed expert system. Face validation through six professors and six IS professionals, predictive validation through twenty four experts and blind validation through nine employees working in IT field. The results show that the proposed system was found to be run without any errors, offered a friendly user interface and its suggestions matching user expectations with 95.8%. It also can help project managers, systems' engineers, systems' developers, consultants, and planners in the process of selecting the suitable ISDM. Finally, the results show that the proposed Rule-based Expert System can facilities the selection process especially for new users and non- specialist in Information System field.

The Enterprise and its Architecture: Ontology & Challenges

Enterprise Architecture (EA) is a set of concepts and practices based on holistic systems thinking, principles of shared language, and the long-standing disciplines of engineering and architecture. EA represents a change in how we think about and manage information technologies (ITs) and the organizations they serve. Many existing organizational activities are EA-type activities, but done in isolation, by different groups, using different tools, models, and vernaculars. EA is about bridging the chasms among these activities, from strategy to operations, and better aligning, integrating, optimizing, and synergizing the whole organization. This article: (1) posits that EA is about the architecture of the entire enterprise including its ITs; (2) describes an ontology for the information needed to holistically define and represent that architecture; and (3) asserts that this raises significant challenges for information system (IS) professionals, educators, and researchers who, like those in most other disciplines and professions, tend toward reductionist specializations.

Innovative ICT‐mediated activities for people, profit and planet

PurposeSolutions to complex environmental problems rely on the innovative knowledge and expertise of many professions whose members accept their responsibilities towards the environment. The study described here canvases information systems (IS) professionals for their perspectives, knowledge and expertise within the domains of Green IT and Green IS.Design/methodology/approachFollowing a review of the Green IT and IS literature, two topics were identified for a Q‐study conducted among IS professionals: topic 1 focussed on which technologies, systems and applications offer the greatest opportunity in solving environmental problems, and topic 2 on what sets of issues affect these green opportunities. Activity Theory was used to interpret the factors emerging from the Q‐study.FindingsThree categories of activities were identified in topic 1 involving ICT support for “teleworking and teleconferencing”, “monitoring, optimising, and modelling” and “influencing human understanding and behaviour”. The topic 2 responses were quite varied.Research limitations/implicationsA Q‐study is both subjective and exploratory, not seeking consensus but rather the breadth of opinion on a topic. The findings of topic 1 indicate three directions for future research and topic 2 identified many issues to consider in pursuing Green outcomes.Practical implicationsThe three topic 1 categories of activities identify practical “green” applications of ICT.Social implicationsThe varied issues identified from topic 2 reveal the interconnection of environmental projects with economic and social issues.Originality/valueFollowing this study of IS professional the authors call on other professions to apply the expertise of their respective fields to the environmental cause.

The Core GIS Incompetencies: Identity, Gender, Big Data, and Ineptness in the Cloud

Over the past 10 years or so, several organisations in the US have attempted to specify the things geographic information systems (GIS) professionals and educators should know and be able to do. Specifications include the original Geospatial Technology Competency Model, (Gaudet et al., 2003), the Geographic Information Science and Technology Body of Knowledge (UCGIS, 2006), the US Department of Labor’s New Geospatial Technology Competency Model (DOLETA, 2010), and the GeoTech Center’s metaanalysis of DACUM job analyses for GIS technicians (Johnson, 2010). There hasn’t been a similar exercise for cartography but given that GIS killed it off a couple of decades ago it doesn’t matter. These and similar competency specifications are most useful as self-assessment instruments that professionals and students can use to identify gaps in their knowledge and skills. However, it’s unreasonable to expect that any one individual will master every recommended competency. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses, and as Peter Drucker (2005, p. 4) points out,

THE USE OF FOCUS GROUP TO ELICIT RELEVANT DIRECTION ON INFORMATION SYSTEMS SKILLS

This paper presents the results of a focus group conducted in 2012, among Information Systems (IS) alumni from the Caribbean region; to obtain relevant direction on IS skills, based on their experiences as IS professionals. The focus group, as well as the computer-assisted tool used, is explained. The most significant IS skill categories, in order of importance, were listed. The majority of those skills were consistent with the results of previous studies conducted in other geographical areas, which tend to indicate alumni of different cultural and geographical areas share the same challenges as IS professionals. The additional IS skills categories identified in this study were: negotiation with clients about a possible and cost-effective solution as well as awareness and use of innovative technology equipment. This study contributes to the IS body of knowledge by providing a unique description for each IS skill category, new additional IS skill categories, and the order of relevancy for the IS skill categories. The results of this study are only considered to be applicable to the sample used, so generalizations should be done with caution, as it is true for other research methods. The replication of this study can be done by using similar samples.

Health information system to improve elderly health study of health information system in us to setup standard for developing countries

In this paper the state of health information system in US investigated to reach an instance for developing countries. Our main concern was to obtain how HIS and HIT help to increase public and especially elderly health. We do this investigation to setup standard bound to use in developing countries. HIS and HIT transit a mismanaged paper structure of record keeping to an efficient electronic database for record keeping. It will transform the method of management of data to ensure better information results for overall quality improvement. Health information System professionals also play pivotal role information interoperability. Information interoperability helps in easy transfer of data wherever it is needed. Information interoperability is essentially a function of hospitals, but the role played by HIS professionals makes them a good choice for interoperability developers in healthcare.

About Our Authors

About Our Authors

Enhancing Information Systems Students' Soft Skill – a Case Study

Information Systems (IS) curricula should provide students with both technical and non-technical (soft) skills. The technical aspects are covered by various courses. However, soft skills like teamwork, interpersonal communication, presentation delivery, and others are hardly covered. Employers, who consider both technical and soft skills to be equally important, search for professional Information Systems employees possessing both sets of skills. These employers often complain that finding an IS graduate with both types of skills is quite difficult. The IS 2010 Model Curriculum refers to both types of skills, considering them an essential part of the graduate knowledge base. However, in many cases the soft skills are not sufficiently addressed, and even if they are, it is not necessarily in the context of software development projects. The Systems Analysis and Design (SAD) course provides an important foundation for the IS profession. This is especially true due to the emerging role of the programmer-analyst who is responsible not only for programming but also for some analysis work. In order to strengthen the soft skills in the context of system analysis and design, we suggest a workshop structure emphasizing these soft skills while students analyze and design a complete information system. Our SAD workshop includes some face to face lectures and team- based collaborations. The students undertake many online activities, including teamwork, interviews with simulated clients, team-based peer reviews, presentation delivery, and so forth. The workshop employs a grade difference calculation mechanism that revealed, along with the students' reflections, that the workshop structure enhanced the students' ability to cope with the workshop assignments while strengthening their soft skills and preparing them for their future analysis and design challenges.

About Our Authors

About Our Authors

The relationship between internal audit and information security: An exploratory investigation

The internal audit and information security functions should work together synergistically: the information security staff designs, implements, and operates various procedures and technologies to protect the organization's information resources, and internal audit provides periodic feedback concerning effectiveness of those activities along with suggestions for improvement. Anecdotal reports in the professional literature, however, suggest that the two functions do not always have a harmonious relationship. This paper presents the first stage of a research program designed to investigate the nature of the relationship between the information security and internal audit functions. It reports the results of a series of semi-structured interviews with both internal auditors and information systems professionals. We develop an exploratory model of the factors that influence the nature of the relationship between the internal audit and information security functions, describe the potential benefits organizations can derive from that relationship, and present propositions to guide future research.

The Role of Responsibility Factors of Reducing Inefficiencies in IS Projects on Six Sigma Certification in Service Organizations

Service organizations worldwide are turning to Six Sigma Program (SSP) to remove variability in their processes to attain a competitive marketplace advantage. SSP offers methodology, concepts, and statistical tools to understand and standardize processes by reducing sources of variability. An effective “Belt” certification program, considered a major contributor to successful implementation of SSP as it provides the SSP professionals a clear understanding of what their responsibilities should be. It’s been argued that a successful implementation of SSP in an organization may require a significant percentage of the organization’s workforce, about 25% to 50%, to become Green Belt (GB) certified. A significant number of professionals who attend GB certification training elect not to become certified. The certification challenge is even more daunting in an information systems (IS) environment due to number of certifications available to IS professionals and their weak intention to become certified. In this study the authors’ developed a predictive model to address the certification challenges that IS organizations face in implementing SSP by investigating the factors that can influence the intention of professionals to acquire GB certification. Five major responsibility factors along with specific responsibilities under each major factor were developed through a multi-phase grounded theory approach with IS professionals of a Fortune 500 company.

ISJ inaugural editorial

ISJ inaugural editorial

Systemic Determinants of the Information Systems Outsourcing Decision: A Comparative Study of German and United States Firms

The practice of information systems (IS) outsourcing is widely established among organizations. Nonetheless, evidence suggests that organizations differ considerably in the extent to which they deploy IS outsourcing. This variation has motivated research into the determinants of the IS outsourcing decision. Most of this research is based on the assumption that a decision on the outsourcing of a particular IS function is made independently of other IS functions. This modular view ignores the systemic nature of the IS function, which posits that IS effectiveness depends on how the various IS functions work together effectively. This study proposes that systemic influences are important criteria in evaluating the outsourcing option. It further proposes that the recognition of systemic influences in outsourcing decisions is culturally sensitive. Specifically, we provide evidence that systemic effects are factored into the IS outsourcing decision differently in more individualist cultures than in collectivist ones. Our results of a survey of United States and German firms indicate that perceived in-house advantages in the systemic impact of an IS function are, indeed, a significant determinant of IS outsourcing in a moderately individualist country (i.e., Germany), whereas insignificant in a strongly individualist country (i.e., the United States). The country differences are even stronger with regard to perceived in-house advantages in the systemic view of IS professionals. In fact, the direction of this impact is reversed in the United States sample. Other IS outsourcing determinants that were included as controls, such as cost efficiency, did not show significant country differences.

Towards A Career Skills Oriented Undergraduate Information Systems Curriculum

The Information Systems (IS) curriculum needs to be updated to be current with the advances in information systems (IS), the technologies that drive IS, and also industry’s skill requirement of IS graduates. This paper is for IS academicians and it describes a career skills oriented approach to enhance the IS curriculum based on current information from recent career skills studies, IS2002 model curriculum recommendations, United States Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the current demand for information security professionals, professional certifications in demand, and the availability of the resources of a School of Management. Employers in industry are in serious need of IS professionals with the specialized skills required to strive in the Internet economy. The career skills oriented approach is an effective method to enhance the IS curriculum to educate and train IS undergraduates to meet the IS skills needs of industry.

Teaching IS to the Information Society using an “Informing Science” Perspective

Introduction In a 2003 article, Nicholas Carr argued that, as the availability of information technology (IT) continued to increase and its costs continued to decrease, IT's ability to provide competitive advantage to organizations would diminish and eventually cease to matter (Carr, 2003). Many counter-arguments notwithstanding, it is clear that certain aspects of in organizations will indeed change in focus due to commoditization, on the one hand, and disruptive developments such as peer-to-peer computing, cloud and social computing on the other. These developments have already dramatically changed the ways by which affects individuals, organizations, and societies, and vice versa. What do these developments mean to the information systems (IS) field? The IS field is no longer just about the effective use of information systems in organizations. Instead, all IS professionals require a deeper level of understanding and proficiency on how to be effective in this complex, networked, information-rich global cyber facilitated by IT--that some have referred to as the Information Society. (We use the term IT interchangeably with ICT or Information and Communications Technologies. Today's cannot be separated from the communications technologies that enable even the most basic implementation). We examine the concept of the Information Society in greater detail in the next section, but argue that the notion of the Information Society--one which permeates all aspects of society--has, in turn, important ramifications for IS education. To be successful in today's Information Society IS graduates must not only know how to design, develop, and maintain information systems; they must also be keenly aware of the societal realities wrought and perpetuated by information technologies. They must be proficient not only with the mechanics of their profession, but also on all new developments and related aspects. It is critical for IS educators and students alike to recognize the trans-disciplinary nature of information systems. We therefore submit that IS education, regardless of geographic location, should take on more of an science approach as elucidated by Cohen (2009)--that the purpose of IS education is not to focus narrowly on managing information systems within organizations, or on specific topics such as systems analysis or data management, but instead to take a larger, sociotechnical perspective that seeks to inform managers, employees, and individuals about the Information Society in which they are all participants. There is another critical reason for taking this approach to IS education: it has been noted for several years now that the MIS academic discipline is failing in its role as informer to its external clients. This is noted by Gill and Battacherjee (2007), who comprehensively analyzed the impact of MIS academic publication outlets among practitioners. They noted that observations strongly suggest that the MIS disciplinary informing system supports very limited pathways, at best, from its sender side (researchers) to its practitioner clients (Gill & Bhattacherjee, 2007. p. 25). The IS graduate, i.e., the output of the MIS discipline, thus becomes an important component--the informer, as well as enabler of organizations and societies. This adds even more imperative to our central idea about making the IS curriculum more rooted in the Informing Science philosophy--i.e., teaching the Information Society. What is the Information Society? First, we need to gain a deeper understanding of what the term Information Society means. There is no single established definition for the phrase Information Society. It has often been used interchangeably with Nico Stehr's knowledge society (Stehr, 1999), Manuel Castells' and Jan van Dijk's network society (Castells, 1996; van Dijk, 1999), and Alain Touraine's post-industrial society (Touraine, 1988). …

FACULTY PERCEPTIONS OF PEDAGOGICAL BENEFITS OF WEB 2.0 TECHNOLOGIES AND VARIABLES RELATED TO ADOPTION

In recent years, a variety of Web 2.0 technologies have surfaced as a means for collaboration and information sharing. While countless students and businesses have embraced these emerging technologies, information systems (IS) educators may not be applying these technologies in their classrooms. The purpose of this paper is to initiate the design of an on-going research study that will explore current role of Web 2.0 technologies, specifically wikis, blogs, and social networking sites in information systems classroom instruction; assess faculty perceptions of pedagogical benefits of Web 2.0 applications; describe current faculty use of Web 2.0 technologies; and how to adopt these technologies with informed decisions. This study should promote discussion on whether or how these emerging technologies can influence the way we educate future IS professionals. Results may also prove helpful to educators in implementing Web 2.0 technologies into the IS curriculum and to help prepare students to utilize these collaborative tools in business settings.

Impacting Student Perceptions about Careers in Information Systems

A shortage of graduates prepared to fill the available jobs in Information Systems remains. Previous studies have verified the shortage and attempted to explain why students do not major in Information Technology related fields. Since prior studies identified lack of awareness regarding the discipline as a major reason in ignoring the major, the purpose of this study is to determine if reading an article about the work of a requirements analyst would positively impact the perceptions of student respondents about careers in Information Systems. It was found that perceptions about careers in Information Systems related fields can be improved by exposing students to the work-life activities of Information Systems professionals. Using a pretest/posttest experimental design, perceptions regarding careers in IS were collected before and after students read Karl Wiegers’ article “So You Want to be a Requirements Analyst?” Posttest findings indicate statistically significant positive changes in participant’s perceptions about careers in Information Systems related fields, especially related to Systems Analysts roles.