In this information age, serious concerns with unethical behaviour in information technology (e.g... more In this information age, serious concerns with unethical behaviour in information technology (e.g., software piracy, deception, plagiarism, etc.) have cast doubts on the claims of the unmitigated success of rapid adoption of information technology. Surprisingly, there have been very few studies in information systems (IS) that have tried to understand the general rise in such unethical behaviours with respect to information technology. Especially, the question that remains to be understood is: Are these problems of unethical behaviour representative of the human nature at large, or are they related to characteristics of technology in any way? This article tries to partly answer this question. It looks at dyadic communicative behaviour using technology-mediated communication and proposes a conceptual model of unethical communicative behaviour.
IS research is increasingly interested in well-being-oriented impacts of information systems (IS)... more IS research is increasingly interested in well-being-oriented impacts of information systems (IS). Compassion is an underlying prosocial behavior that arguably empowers such well-being-oriented IS impacts. The overall purpose of this panel is to ask: Should IS research pursue research on compassion as a serious stream of inquiry? To address this core purpose, we raise two questions regarding the controversial roles of IS in a) raising suffering and b) facilitating versus hindering the expression of compassion. Our panel of junior, senior, and mid-career IS researchers take on positions for and against the core motion of including Compassion research in IS research as they argue each controversial question. We offer considerations/recommendations on issues salient to conducting and publishing IS-Compassion research. Audience participation is baked into the structure of the panel as an integral component. Our panel will appeal to a global IS audience interested in using IS research to impact positive change
Given the growing concerns about unethical usage of Information Technology (IT) becoming a major ... more Given the growing concerns about unethical usage of Information Technology (IT) becoming a major security concern, this research-in-progress paper conceptually models IS practitioner (professional) attitude toward unethical IT use. Based on the ethical notions of universalism and particularism, it argues for a two-dimensional analysis to judge development of attitude toward using IT unethically: understand the IS professional as a human being subscribing to universal principles and understand the IS professional as rooted to an organizational community of practice. Through its articulation of two powerful lenses of universalism and particularism, this paper contributes by understanding how philosophical perspectives of ethics can inform our understanding of IS security. Finally, the paper discusses future research and practice implications arising out of this conceptual treatment
The changes in the IT industry have diversified the role of an analyst. Analysts play an influent... more The changes in the IT industry have diversified the role of an analyst. Analysts play an influential role in Information System Development (ISD) projects. Previous research indicates that the skill requirements of an analyst are both behavioral and knowledge based. Even though behavioral skills are critical, IS curriculum has typically focused on technological and domain knowledge skills. This research suggests an important focus of IS education should be at providing students with means to hone behavioral skills critical for systems analysts. The paper proposes that such interventions could be achieved in the form of behavioral module injection and demonstrates how such a module may be designed using existing theoretical perspectives from pedagogical research.
Information Systems (IS) have become critical for healthcare organizations. However implementatio... more Information Systems (IS) have become critical for healthcare organizations. However implementation and adoption of integrated healthcare IS continues to be a non-trivial task. This research suggests that insights into this phenomenon may be achieved using theoretical perspectives related to boundary spanning amongst distinct fields of practice. It further argues that successful use of IS within a healthcare organization requires its IT-practice to act as the boundary-spanning agent for the diverse fields of practice. Using an interpretive case research approach the research examines the nature of the boundaryspanning role played by an organizational IT-practice in Saudi-Arabia. The primary conclusion of the investigation is that successful IS implementation and use requires the organization’s IT-practices to act as effective boundary-spanners. Further it is suggested that such boundary-spanning activities have different modes for development and the maintenance phases.
We present a sociomaterial conception of organizational compassion. We are inspired by the emerge... more We present a sociomaterial conception of organizational compassion. We are inspired by the emergence of the positive psychology literature in management as well as the paradigm of positive computing (http://www.positivecomputing.org/) which aims to design and use IT for human well-being (Calvo and Peters 2014). Compassion is fundamental to supporting human well-being (Tsui 2013). From an IS perspective, organizational compassion is the phenomenon where social and technological elements of an organization synergistically combine with one another such that the organizational system collectively notices, feels, makes sense of, and responds to suffering experienced by that system’s internal and external stakeholders. We leverage the notions of affordances, imbrications, routines, and human agency within the critical realist view of sociomateriality (Leonardi 2011) to develop our conception (Figure 1 & Table 1). Through our sociomaterial formulation of organizational compassion, we hope ...
I recently received a savage review of an article I co-wrote and submitted to a journal that refe... more I recently received a savage review of an article I co-wrote and submitted to a journal that referred to the submitted article as sounding like it was written by a "charlatan attorney" and that referred to parts of the article as "absurd" and as "gibberish." It compared the argumentation to that in "freshman-level term papers," and recommended that the author, who is "seriously out of his/her element with this topic … refrain from venturing into areas that exceed his/her professional competence." –Robert J. Sternberg Many scholars, ourselves among them, can relate to the opening quote. While many, if not most, reviews are politely composed with helpful suggestions, the reviews we tend to remember are the ones that hurt us, that seem to attack us, that feel as though they discredit not just the specific work but our professional competency. Rarely, one hopes, will that have been the reviewer's intention, but their words can be pai...
This study examines relationships between the location of supply chain disruptions (SCDs) within ... more This study examines relationships between the location of supply chain disruptions (SCDs) within the supply chain, a firm’s experience with SCDs, and the disruption severity. Using organisational l...
In this information age, serious concerns with unethical behaviour in information technology (e.g... more In this information age, serious concerns with unethical behaviour in information technology (e.g., software piracy, deception, plagiarism, etc.) have cast doubts on the claims of the unmitigated success of rapid adoption of information technology. Surprisingly, there have been very few studies in information systems (IS) that have tried to understand the general rise in such unethical behaviours with respect to information technology. Especially, the question that remains to be understood is: Are these problems of unethical behaviour representative of the human nature at large, or are they related to characteristics of technology in any way? This article tries to partly answer this question. It looks at dyadic communicative behaviour using technology-mediated communication and proposes a conceptual model of unethical communicative behaviour.
IS research is increasingly interested in well-being-oriented impacts of information systems (IS)... more IS research is increasingly interested in well-being-oriented impacts of information systems (IS). Compassion is an underlying prosocial behavior that arguably empowers such well-being-oriented IS impacts. The overall purpose of this panel is to ask: Should IS research pursue research on compassion as a serious stream of inquiry? To address this core purpose, we raise two questions regarding the controversial roles of IS in a) raising suffering and b) facilitating versus hindering the expression of compassion. Our panel of junior, senior, and mid-career IS researchers take on positions for and against the core motion of including Compassion research in IS research as they argue each controversial question. We offer considerations/recommendations on issues salient to conducting and publishing IS-Compassion research. Audience participation is baked into the structure of the panel as an integral component. Our panel will appeal to a global IS audience interested in using IS research to impact positive change
Given the growing concerns about unethical usage of Information Technology (IT) becoming a major ... more Given the growing concerns about unethical usage of Information Technology (IT) becoming a major security concern, this research-in-progress paper conceptually models IS practitioner (professional) attitude toward unethical IT use. Based on the ethical notions of universalism and particularism, it argues for a two-dimensional analysis to judge development of attitude toward using IT unethically: understand the IS professional as a human being subscribing to universal principles and understand the IS professional as rooted to an organizational community of practice. Through its articulation of two powerful lenses of universalism and particularism, this paper contributes by understanding how philosophical perspectives of ethics can inform our understanding of IS security. Finally, the paper discusses future research and practice implications arising out of this conceptual treatment
The changes in the IT industry have diversified the role of an analyst. Analysts play an influent... more The changes in the IT industry have diversified the role of an analyst. Analysts play an influential role in Information System Development (ISD) projects. Previous research indicates that the skill requirements of an analyst are both behavioral and knowledge based. Even though behavioral skills are critical, IS curriculum has typically focused on technological and domain knowledge skills. This research suggests an important focus of IS education should be at providing students with means to hone behavioral skills critical for systems analysts. The paper proposes that such interventions could be achieved in the form of behavioral module injection and demonstrates how such a module may be designed using existing theoretical perspectives from pedagogical research.
Information Systems (IS) have become critical for healthcare organizations. However implementatio... more Information Systems (IS) have become critical for healthcare organizations. However implementation and adoption of integrated healthcare IS continues to be a non-trivial task. This research suggests that insights into this phenomenon may be achieved using theoretical perspectives related to boundary spanning amongst distinct fields of practice. It further argues that successful use of IS within a healthcare organization requires its IT-practice to act as the boundary-spanning agent for the diverse fields of practice. Using an interpretive case research approach the research examines the nature of the boundaryspanning role played by an organizational IT-practice in Saudi-Arabia. The primary conclusion of the investigation is that successful IS implementation and use requires the organization’s IT-practices to act as effective boundary-spanners. Further it is suggested that such boundary-spanning activities have different modes for development and the maintenance phases.
We present a sociomaterial conception of organizational compassion. We are inspired by the emerge... more We present a sociomaterial conception of organizational compassion. We are inspired by the emergence of the positive psychology literature in management as well as the paradigm of positive computing (http://www.positivecomputing.org/) which aims to design and use IT for human well-being (Calvo and Peters 2014). Compassion is fundamental to supporting human well-being (Tsui 2013). From an IS perspective, organizational compassion is the phenomenon where social and technological elements of an organization synergistically combine with one another such that the organizational system collectively notices, feels, makes sense of, and responds to suffering experienced by that system’s internal and external stakeholders. We leverage the notions of affordances, imbrications, routines, and human agency within the critical realist view of sociomateriality (Leonardi 2011) to develop our conception (Figure 1 & Table 1). Through our sociomaterial formulation of organizational compassion, we hope ...
I recently received a savage review of an article I co-wrote and submitted to a journal that refe... more I recently received a savage review of an article I co-wrote and submitted to a journal that referred to the submitted article as sounding like it was written by a "charlatan attorney" and that referred to parts of the article as "absurd" and as "gibberish." It compared the argumentation to that in "freshman-level term papers," and recommended that the author, who is "seriously out of his/her element with this topic … refrain from venturing into areas that exceed his/her professional competence." –Robert J. Sternberg Many scholars, ourselves among them, can relate to the opening quote. While many, if not most, reviews are politely composed with helpful suggestions, the reviews we tend to remember are the ones that hurt us, that seem to attack us, that feel as though they discredit not just the specific work but our professional competency. Rarely, one hopes, will that have been the reviewer's intention, but their words can be pai...
This study examines relationships between the location of supply chain disruptions (SCDs) within ... more This study examines relationships between the location of supply chain disruptions (SCDs) within the supply chain, a firm’s experience with SCDs, and the disruption severity. Using organisational l...
International Journal of Production Research, 2021
This study examines relationships between the location of supply chain disruptions (SCDs) within ... more This study examines relationships between the location of supply chain disruptions (SCDs) within the supply chain, a firm’s experience with SCDs, and the disruption severity. Using organizational learning theory, we propose that an organization’s prior experience with SCDs will reduce the negative influence of future disruptions. However, the location of disruption occurrence (internal to the firm vs. external to the firm) also plays a vital role in the severity of future disruptions. We consider two measures of SCD severity to quantify the extent of negative influence on firms: (1) the initial loss of return on assets (ROA) and (2) the total loss of ROA over time. We empirically evaluate the performance of 262 publicly traded U.S. firms that experienced an SCD. Our study shows that the influence of internal and external SCDs on firms can be different when firms do and do not have experience with similar events. More specifically, the results show that when firms have not experienced a similar event in the past, internal SCDs are associated with a higher disruption severity than are external SCDs. The results also show that prior experience significantly decreases the disruption severity suffered by firms after internal SCDs.
Scholars are increasingly calling for a deeper understanding of cyberharassment (CH) with the goa... more Scholars are increasingly calling for a deeper understanding of cyberharassment (CH) with the goal of devising policies, procedures, and technologies to mitigate it. Accordingly, we conducted CH research that (1) integrated social learning theory (SLT) and self-control theory (SCT); (2) empirically studied this model with two contrasting samples, experienced cyberharassers and less experienced cyberharassers; and (3) conducted post hoc tests to tease out the differences between the two samples. We show that for less experienced cyberharassers, CH is largely a social-psychological-technological phenomenon whereas, for experienced cyberharassers, CH is primarily a psychological-technological phenomenon. Our study makes a threefold contribution: (1) it shows the value of integrating two theories in a holistic and parsimonious manner to explain CH; (2) it shows that SCT alone is a more relevant framework for experienced cyberharassers, whereas a combination of SCT and SLT better explains less experienced cyberharassers; and (3) it reveals that the role of technology in fostering CH is crucial, regardless of the sample. The differential, yet consistent, findings demonstrate that addressing CH is contingent upon not only identifying theoretical approaches but also identifying the particular samples to which these theoretical approaches will be more suitable. Of several implications for practice, the most important may be that anonymity, asynchronicity, and lack of monitoring are the technology choices that foster CH, and thus these should be mitigated in designing social media and other communication technologies.
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