Socio-technical IS design science research: developing design theory for IS integration management

Design science research is an essential part of IS research since the field should not only try to understand how the world is, but also how to change it. We argue that the aim of IS design science research should be to develop practical knowledge not only for the design of novel information technology (IT), but also for IS governance and management. Whereas at least some methodological support exists for researchers engaged in IT-centric design science research, limited support is available for researchers who want to develop design knowledge and theory for IS governance and management. To overcome this shortcoming, we suggest a socio-technical IS design science research approach. The approach has four main activities: (1) identifying problem situations and desired outcomes, (2) reviewing extant theories, knowledge and data, (3) proposing/refining design theory and knowledge, and (4) testing design theory and knowledge. The applicability and usefulness of the proposed approach is shown by means of a design science research project concerning IS integration management in the context of mergers and acquisitions.     

The DySIIM model for managing IS integration in mergers and acquisitions

Corporate mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are prominent means for corporate strategy. In many M&As information systems (IS), integration is critical for achieving the intended goals. By integrating previous research on M&A and IS integration, we develop a six‐dimensional theoretical framework for IS integration in corporate M&As. The framework is used to describe and explain IS integration management in four M&As. Based on the four cases, the theoretical framework and the existing literature, an initial model (Dynamic System of IS Integration in M&A, DySIIM) describing and explaining how IS integration relates to the M&A process is developed. Through the combination of the DySIIM's dimensions, the dynamics of different parts of the M&A process are captured. The model can be used in further research to build cumulative knowledge about how to manage IS integration in M&A. The model can also be used by companies in their M&A since through the combination of dimensions, it shows the IS integration issues, decisions and actions that a company has to address in the process.     

Practical human factors integration in the nuclear industry

Human factors integration (HFI) is the principal method for applying human factors to the development of socio-technical systems across safety-critical industry. The method has been developed successfully across industries from the defence sector right through to the medical sector, with various forms of application. Countries that are now seeing a nuclear renaissance have both the opportunity to apply new practices but also the challenge of true and cost-effective integration of human factors in new build projects. In this paper, we provide a framework of generic goals and a question set to guide appropriate and effective application of the method to project phases. The framework describes three main human factors goals of feasibility, usability and reliability and attempts to map these goals to project phases. We apply these concepts to the nuclear industry and indicate how practical HFI can facilitate a systems and lifecycle approach to human factors in the nuclear industry. We discuss some of the key socio-technical challenges now facing the industry.     

Information systems development as situated socio-technical change: a process approach

We outline a process approach for conducting qualitative research on how contemporary information systems (IS) development is enacted in practice. The approach involves a longitudinal case study to obtain rich data from which a detailed process narrative is produced. The narrative is informed by a conceptual model of IS development as situated socio-technical change, generating a theoretical explanation that highlights the temporal, emergent and contingent nature of IS development. This approach extends prior process studies of IS development by focusing on micro-level project activities, examining change as a continuous process and theorising IS change as the outcome of a dynamic trajectory of situated and socio-technical interactions. The methodological approach developed here can be used by other researchers to inform process studies of this complex organisational phenomenon.     

Does risk matter? Disengagement from risk management practices in information systems projects

Risk management and ‘routine-based reliability’ is considered fundamental to project performance. Existing theories of project risk management do not fully explain why project managers stop practicing risk management information systems (IS); however, constructs drawn from organisation theory offer insights into how and why such disengagement occurs. The study examines risk management practices in 21 IS projects within 10 organisations. By focusing on risks that resulted in significant events and mapping backwards over time the practices associated with those risks, we identify that in all but five projects the manager had disengaged from prescribed risk management before executing risk responses. In most projects, the majority of formally identified and assessed risks remained unallocated and untreated. A laddering technique was used to help explain why this transpired. We found five key underlying beliefs that governed project managers’ risk management attitudes and actions.     

Corporate mergers and the problems of IS integration

The process of integrating information systems (IS) during corporate mergers can be critical to their success. Factors that can support or impede the successful integration of IS include organizational and IS attributes, organizational merger management and IS integration activities. This study develops a conceptual framework for measuring IS integration success and identifies the factors influencing it. A field survey investigates the relationship between these factors and success. According to the results of our field survey of CIOs, prior merger experience, IS participation in merger planning, the quality of merger planning, the criteria used for setting IS integration priorities, and a high level of data sharing across applications appear to have a positive influence on the success of the IS integration. When changes that directly affect personnel have a significant impact, that impact seems to be mostly negative. Programming language incompatibilities also have a negative impact on IS integration success.     

Seamless Integration: Standardisation across Multiple Local Settings

The pressure towards tighter or “seamless” integration of health information systems is a recurring issue with both practical and analytical relevance. It taps into a discourse in the IS literature in general and organisation and management science in particular. Unfortunately, the prevailing perception of integration in the IS literature is as a predominantly technical issue. The CSCW literature, however, is attentive to the socio-technical aspects of integration. Building on this – but supplemented with recent elaborations in science studies – we aim at exploring the unintended consequences of information systems integration. A user-led perspective implies emphasising the tailoring to local needs based on in-depth studies of the micro practices. We argue, however, that the condition for such an approach is radically undermined by politically motivated, regional changes towards integration with implicated standardisation. Enforcing order in the form of standards across multiple local settings, seemingly a prerequisite for tight integration, simultaneously produces disorder or additional work in other locations for other users. Empirically, our study is based on a large, ongoing integration effort at the University hospital of Northern Norway, specifically studying work practices and perceptions across multiple laboratories.     

Risk factors in the collaborative development of management information systems for Nigerian universities

The authors discuss the risk factors associated with the collaborative development of information systems (IS) within the university environment in Nigeria. They use observations and reviews of relevant reports of the project as well as a variation of the Delphi Study in presenting their findings. The study shows that risks were associated with funding, top administrators' commitment, the number of participating universities, the role of the donor, as well as other factors. In addition, the challenges posed by each risk factor and the lessons learned are presented. Primarily, the study reports the scenario of IS development by universities in a developing economy in which the development process is characterized by collaboration. Opportunities for future research on the issue are also outlined. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

The impact of legitimacy-based motives on IS adoption success: An institutional theory perspective

Firms frequently adopt new information systems (IS). To better understand IS adoption, research has been focused on motives for an IS adoption. In this study, three legitimacy-based motives (coercive, mimetic, and normative pressure) are examined for their impact on two success determinants (i.e., project management approach and team competence) and the subsequent impact of the success determinants on IS adoption success. In a quantitative study of Australian firms, we found that coercive pressure and normative pressure influence the project management approach, whereas mimetic pressure influences team competence. Both the project management approach and team competence in turn influence IS adoption success.     

Post-merger IT integration strategies: An IT alignment perspective

When a company decides to merge with or to acquire another company, a major question is to what extent to integrate the information technologies and the organization. Interpreting merger objectives to proper IT integration strategies is a complex and time-consuming process, due to a lack of explicit understanding of the problems involved. The current literature in this field is meager and has not yet resulted in a theory. For this purpose, we developed a variant of the IT alignment model. In this model, we identify three ambition levels of mergers and IT integration from the literature. Additionally, we describe four integration methods that fit with these ambitions. The relations between these objectives and methods are moderated by contextual factors. Three hospital cases, with different merger and IT integration ambitions, describe the practice of this model. The case studies also add several new variables and relations to it. This result facilitates further research in post-merger IT integration by delivering an empirical research model.     

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.     

Explaining information systems change: a punctuated socio-technical change model

We outline a Punctuated Socio-Technical Information System Change model. The model recognizes both incremental and punctuated socio-technical change in the context of information systems at multiple levels – the work system level, the building system level, and the organizational environment. It uses socio-technical event sequences and their properties to explain how a change outcome emerged. The critical events in these sequences correspond to gaps in socio-technical systems. By conceiving information system (IS) change as a multi-level and punctuated sequence of socio-technical events, IS researchers can conceive plausible and accurate process explanations of IS change outcomes, including IS failures. Such explanations are located in the middle range and thus avoid the highly abstract and stylized closed-boxed factor models of change, but go beyond the idiographic open box histories of singular change processes.     

Rethinking the role of social theory in socio-technical analysis: a critical realist approach to aircraft maintenance

Based on empirical research within the aviation industry we have come to some surprising and sometimes counterintuitive conclusions concerning aircraft maintenance that are relevant for the discussion of social theory and its application towards the explanation and management of socio-technical systems. In this article, the human role in the activity of aircraft maintenance is taken as an example to illustrate the need for critical discussions on social theory in order to better understand safety in socio-technical systems This challenges us to consider the theoretical basis related to how we currently approach the human factor in management of such systems. We propose in the article that Roy Bhaskars' book “The possibility of naturalism—a philosophical critique of the contemporary human sciences (1979)” delivers a compelling social theory from which follows a social ontology of the objects of socio-technical systems that is a necessary precursor to developing applied models and empirical accounts of socio-technical systems.     

RefModPM: A Conceptual Reference Model for Project Management Information Systems

Project management information systems have changed considerably in the last decade. Today they go far beyond traditional scheduling as well as resource management. These systems have become comprehensive information systems (IS) that support the entire life cycle of projects, project programmes and project portfolios. In this context, project-oriented organizations face a new challenge: the design, implementation and operation of such information systems has become increasingly complex, since numerous processes have to be considered, diverse stakeholder interests taken into account and corresponding software systems selected. The reference model for project management IS (RefMod^PM) presented here addresses these challenges and aims to support corresponding implementation projects. This article introduces RefMod^PM by discussing its construction process and evaluation, as well as providing an overview of its architecture and presenting one part of the reference model in detail.     

Blending bureaucratic and collaborative management styles to achieve control ambidexterity in IS projects

Managing information systems (IS) projects requires what we refer to as ‘control ambidexterity’, which is the use of different types of control to meet conflicting demands. This leads to the use of contrasting styles of IS project management and creates tensions in managerial practice, neither of which are well understood. We address this theoretical gap in our understanding based on an exploratory case study of an IS implementation project in the financial services industry. Adopting the lens of management styles as a meta-theoretical perspective, we sought to address two research questions: (1) Which management style(s) do IS project managers draw upon in practice and why? (2) What kinds of tensions result for IS project managers and team members from drawing upon contrasting management styles in combination – and how do IS project managers and team members deal with these tensions? Two contrasting styles of management emerged from our data – bureaucratic and collaborative – that are drawn upon by IS project managers to achieve control ambidexterity. Furthermore, drawing upon these two different styles in combination within the confines of a single project creates tensions. We explore these tensions and present an illustrative example of how IS project managers can deal with these tensions successfully in practice. Specifically, we find that they can be dealt with effectively by a tandem of two project managers who share responsibility for managing the IS project. The findings of this study have important implications for our understanding of control ambidexterity in IS projects.     

Socio-technical systems: From design methods to systems engineering

It is widely acknowledged that adopting a socio-technical approach to system development leads to systems that are more acceptable to end users and deliver better value to stakeholders. Despite this, such approaches are not widely practised. We analyse the reasons for this, highlighting some of the problems with the better known socio-technical design methods. Based on this analysis we propose a new pragmatic framework for socio-technical systems engineering (STSE) which builds on the (largely independent) research of groups investigating work design, information systems, computer-supported cooperative work, and cognitive systems engineering. STSE bridges the traditional gap between organisational change and system development using two main types of activity: sensitisation and awareness; and constructive engagement. From the framework, we identify an initial set of interdisciplinary research problems that address how to apply socio-technical approaches in a cost-effective way, and how to facilitate the integration of STSE with existing systems and software engineering approaches.     

Service-Systems-Engineering

Service systems engineering (SSE) focuses on the systematic design and development of service systems. Guided by a value proposition, service systems enable value co-creation through a configuration of actors and resources (often including a service architecture, technology, information, and physical artifacts), therefore constituting complex socio-technical systems. IS research can play a leading role in understanding and developing service systems. SSE calls for research leading to actionable design theories, methods and approaches for systematically designing, developing and piloting service systems, based upon understanding the underlying principles of service systems. Three major challenges have been identified: engineering service architectures, engineering service systems interactions, and engineering resource mobilization, i.e. extending the access to and use of resources by means of IT. Researching SSE is challenging. Assessing the models, methods, or artifacts of SSE often requires embedded research within existing or even novel service systems. Consequently, approaches such as piloting IT-based innovations, design research or action research are the most promising for SSE research. As an integrative discipline, IS is in a unique position to spearhead the efforts in advancing the architecture, interaction, and resource base of service systems with evidence-based design.     

Designing a shared freight service intelligence platform for transport stakeholders using mobile telematics

Internet of Things (IoT) technology transforms freight transport operations by adopting novel data-driven services and enables information sharing among actors involved in global transport chains. Mobile telematics represents emerging IoT technologies for global forwarding increasingly applied to full loads conveyed by freight transport assets (FTAs) (e.g., ISO containers) facilitating intelligent services. In this light, telematics-enabled FTAs support freight transport operations utilized by individual stakeholders in three overarching service dimensions: transport management, fleet management, and risk management. This topic is, however, understudied by information systems (IS) research and service science. For this reason, we establish a design science research project, conceptualize a shared Freight Service Intelligence Platform (FSIP), and introduce freight service intelligence as an interdisciplinary research field. To this aim, we first review related literature, interview 14 transport stakeholders, and theorize six meta-requirements. Second, we propose five design principles that indicate how the meta-requirements may be associated. Third, we develop a web-based prototype application to instantiate the proposed design principles comprising performance analytics, anomaly detection, risk assessment including prediction, data exchange, communication, and IS integration. Subsequently, we evaluate the application with six transport stakeholders and logistics software vendors. Finally, we conclude with a discussion on the implications of an emerging topic addressed by this paper.

     

Learning to acquire: how serial acquirers build organisational knowledge for information systems integration

This paper develops a knowledge-based model of information systems (IS) integration in acquisition-based growth programs. Previous research has found important differences in the acquirers’ abilities for acquisition IS integration, and that these differences play key roles in explaining the economic benefits of acquisition-based growth. A knowledge-based view of acquisition IS integration contributes explanation to how differences in abilities arise. Our knowledge-based model is developed by an analytic induction approach, comprising both deductive and inductive analysis of the industry group Trelleborg. The analyses yield five propositions that explain the building of knowledge for acquisition IS integration by the mechanisms of routine refinement, superstitious learning, expertise building, sub-activity refinement and related expertise building. Together, the five propositions form a knowledge-based model of acquisition IS integration. The model suggests that ‘serial acquirers’ form the knowledge necessary for attending to an IS integration challenge over a series of heterogeneous acquisitions. Differences in acquirers’ abilities for acquisition IS integration that depend on knowledge variations are therefore persistent and hard to overcome for the inexperienced acquirer.     

An incident information management framework based on data integration, data mining, and multi-criteria decision making

An effective incident information management system needs to deal with several challenges. It must support heterogeneous distributed incident data, allow decision makers (DMs) to detect anomalies and extract useful knowledge, assist DMs in evaluating the risks and selecting an appropriate alternative during an incident, and provide differentiated services to satisfy the requirements of different incident management phases. To address these challenges, this paper proposes an incident information management framework that consists of three major components. The first component is a high-level data integration module in which heterogeneous data sources are integrated and presented in a uniform format. The second component is a data mining module that uses data mining methods to identify useful patterns and presents a process to provide differentiated services for pre-incident and post-incident information management. The third component is a multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) module that utilizes MCDM methods to assess the current situation, find the satisfactory solutions, and take appropriate responses in a timely manner. To validate the proposed framework, this paper conducts a case study on agrometeorological disasters that occurred in China between 1997 and 2001. The case study demonstrates that the combination of data mining and MCDM methods can provide objective and comprehensive assessments of incident risks.