RESEARCH INTERESTS

CRITICAL SOCIAL THEORY AND IS RESERACH

My research into information systems is informed by critical social theory (CST). There are many excellent discussions of critical social theory (CST) research in the information systems (Hirschheim and Klein, 1994; Lyytinen and Hirschheim, 1988; Lyytinen and Klein, 1985; Mumby, 1988; Ngwenyama, 1991; Ngwenyama and Lee, 1997; Ngwenyama and Lyytinen, 1997; Orlikowski & Baroudi, 1991). Whereas traditional information systems researchers see themselves as observers and describers of information systems and organizations, CST reserachers see themselves not only as observers but as transformers of information systems and organizations that use them. The CST program for research into information systems and organizations is grounded on the following basic assumptions (cf. Ngwenyama, 1991) : (1) Organizational structures and conditions are not predetermined and static, the are the result of social practices of organizational actors, and can be changed. (2) All scientific knowledge about information systems and organizations is socially constructed, because the objects of research are socially constructed and as such are value laden . (3) A primary task of the CST researcher is to reconcile knowledge development with the need for organizational and individual improvement. (4) Improvements in information systems and organizations are made by combining theoretical research and organizational praxis. (5) Critical analysis is necessary to reveal inherent contradictions and assumptions about material conditions that inhibit development and organizational change.

Critical social theorist are interested in advancing three basic types of knowledge about IT and organizations, technical, social and emancipatory (cf. Ngwenyama 1991 for details) The technical knowledge interest is concerned with how to build effective IT applications to support organizational processes. This knowledge interest has an engineering orientation (organizational and technological) and focuses is on developing theories, methods and practices that aid in improving organizations, information technology applications and the lives of the people who use them. The social knowledge interest is concerned with developing an understanding of the social relations that emerge around information technology appropriation and use in organizations. Here the focus is on interpreting and mapping the meanings that organizational actors construct around IT appropriating and use and the social relations they enact as a result of these meanings. The emancipatory knowledge interest is concerned with freeing individuals and organizations from false assumptions, inhibiting contradictions and social distortions around the implementation and use of information technology. Here the focus is on critical and dialectic analysis of theoretical assumptions, value ordinations and everyday assumptions about information technologies and their management and use in organizations.

Because of these diverse knowledge interest CST researchers adopt a pluralistic approach to research methodology, and often combine dialectic analysis, ethnography, and engineering methods. However, the programmatic strategy that most critical theorist follow is to (a) critically analyze current frameworks and assumptions, (b) develop a new framework or modify an old one, (c) validate its usefulness in practice, then back to (a), in a continuing cycle. Vogel and Wetherbe (1984) developed a taxonomy for classifying information systems that is relevant here (see also Wetherbe 1992). They classified all IS research into three main categories conceptual, empirical and engineering and drew distinctions between different types conceptual and empirical research. They identified two types of conceptual research, the building of theoretical frameworks and theorem proving; and two types of empirical research, behavioral studies and case studies. And described engineering research as concerned with the application of science and mathematics to the development software tools, IT applications and information systems development methods. While the link between theoretical frameworks and empirical work is acknowledged in IS research, the link between theorem proving and engineering research has not always been acknowledge. In my research both links are important, I move back and forth between theoretical frameworks and empirical research, and, theorem proving and engineering research to scientifically validate my work (see Figure 1). Further, my field work has yielded to insights into authentic work practices that have led to new theoretical foundations for recent engineering research (see Ngwenyama et al. 1994, 1996).

Conceptual Empirical Engineering(Technological) TheoremProving Developing and Testing Methods and Software Tools Organizational BuildingTheoreticalFrameworks Building andTesting Theories

REFERENCES

HIRSCHHEIM, R. AND KLEIN, K. "Realizing Emancipatory Principles in Information SystemsDevelopment: The Case for ETHICS." MIS Quarterly, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 83-109, 1994.

Klein, H. K. and Hirschheim, R. "Rationality Concepts in Information Systems Development Methodologies," Accounting, Management, and Information Technology, Vol. 1, No. 2, 1991, pp. 157-187.

Lyytinen, K. "Information Systems and Critical Theory," in Critical Management Studies, M. Alvesson and H. Willmott (eds.), Sage, London, 1992, pp. 159-180.

Lyytinen, K. and R. Hirschheim, "Information Systems as`Rational Discourse: An Application of Habermas’s Theory of Communicative Action," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Vol. 4, No. 2, 1988, pp. 19-30.

Lyytinen, K. and H. Klein, "The Critical Social Theory of Jurgen Habermas as a Basis for a Theory of Information Systems," in Research Methods in Information Systems, E. Mumford, R. Hirschheim, G. Fitzgerrald, and T. Wood-Harper (eds.), North Holland, Amsterdam, 1985, pp.219-232.

Ngwenyama, O. and A. Lee, "Communication Richness in Electronic Mail: Critical Social Theory and The Contextuality of Meaning," MIS Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 2, 1997, pp. 145-167.

Ngwenyama, O. and K. Lyytinen, "Groupware As Action Constitutive Rule-Resource Sets: A Social Action Analysis of Groupware Environments." Computer Supported Cooperative Work: The Journal of Collaborative Computing Vol. 6, No. 1, pp 71-93, 1997.

Ngwenyama, O. "The Critical Social Theory Approach to Information Systems: Problems and Challenges," in Information Systems Research: Contemporary Approaches And Emergent Traditions, H.E. Nissen, H. Klein, and R. Hirschheim (eds.) North Holland, Amsterdam, 1991, pp. 267-280.