This book is concerned with the ways in which organizations design, build and use information technology systems. In particular it looks at the interaction between these IT-centred activities and the broader management processes within organizations. The authors adopt a critical social science perspective on these issues, and are primarily concerned with advancing theoretical debates on how best to understand the related processes of technological and organizational change. To this end, the book examines and deploys recent work on power/knowledge, actor-network theory and critical organization theory. The result is an account of the nature and significance of information systems in organizations which is an alternative perspective to pragmatic and recipe-based approaches to this topic which dominate much contemporary management literature on IT.

The advent of the Information Society is marked by the explosive penetration of information technologies in all aspects of life and by a related fundamental transformation in every form of the organization. Researchers, business people and policy makers have recognized the importance of addressing technological, economic and social impacts in conjunction. For example, the rise and fall of the dot-com hype depended a lot on the strength of the business model, on the technological capabilities available to firms and on the readiness of the society and economy at large sustain a new breed of business activity. However, it is notoriously difficult to examine the cross-impacts of social, economic and technological aspects of the Information Society. This kind of work requires multidisciplinary work and collaboration on a wide range of skills. Social and Economic Transformation in the Digital Era addresses this challenge by assembling the latest thinking of leading researchers and policy makers. The book covers all key subject areas of the Information Society an presents innovative business models, case studies, normative theories and social explanations

This edited three volume edition brings together significant papers previously published in the Journal of information Technology (JIT) over its 30 year publication history. The three volumes of Enacting Research Methods in Information Systems celebrate the methodological pluralism used to advance our understanding of information technology's role in the world today. In addition to quantitative methods from the positivist tradition, JIT also values methodological articles from critical research perspectives, interpretive traditions, historical perspectives, grounded theory, and action research and design science approaches. Volume 1 covers Critical Research, Grounded Theory, and Historical Approaches. Volume 2 deals with Interpretive Approaches and also explores Action Research. Volume 3 focuses on Design Science Approaches and discusses Alternative Approaches including Semiotics Research, Complexity Theory and Gender in IS Research. The Journal of Information Technology (JIT) was started in 1986 by Professors Frank Land and Igor Aleksander with the aim of bringing technology and management together and bridging the ‘great divide’ between the two disciplines. The Journal was created with the vision of making the impact of complex interactions and developments in technology more accessible to a wider audience. Retaining this initial focus, the JIT has gone on to extend into new and innovative areas of research such as the launch of JITTC in 2010. A high impact journal, JIT shall continue to publish leading trends based on significant research in the field.

This wide-ranging volume presents in-depth research into the effect of new information technologies on organizational structure, assesses their progress towards transformation and describes the changes they are making to long-established business process roles, cultures and working practices. The book is based upon a series of rolling surveys carried out between 1989 and the present day, and funded by leading organizations such as IBM and KPMG. It provides a detailed picture of a sector in transition during a period of anxiety and doubt dominated by restructuring, downsizing and experimentation with re-engineering. As the 'lean and mean' emerge, they must now ask themselves if their competencies will enable them to survive into the next decade as competitors, such as Sainsburys, Virgin, Microsoft and Ford position themselves to become major players in the sector. This book is a major contribution to the debate on the growth of knowledge work, the need for core organizational competencies in the information age and the need for evolutionary, or radical, change.

Shaping Organization Form considers the role of new communication technologies in shaping organizations today and in the future. Four key themes are considered in depth: changes in technology, changes in organizational form, and their mutual influence on one another; evolutionary processes in organizations and the ways in which technology can influence these processes; the development of organizational communities and inter-organizational relationships that are mediated by electronic communication systems; and major controversies surrounding electronically mediated organizations and directions for future research that flow out of these controversies.

"The book analyzes the development of global business-to-business electronic markets, and whether these markets are becoming a way of improving trust between organizations"--Provided by publisher.

Financial organizations, like many others, are undergoing radical change. This is affecting both their organizational processes and the technology that supports those processes. This book reports on the use of sociological ethnography in helping guide these changes, both in terms of helping better understanding and redraw work processes and through providing more accurate and flexible understanding of the role technology plays. It places the reported research in context by contrasting it with those approaches more commonly associated with change, including business process engineering, participative design and soft systems methodologies. The book explains what are the benefits of ethnography, as well as the potential it has in helping achieve more desirable change in any and all organizations, financial services included. The book will be of interest to all international researchers concerned with organizational and technological change, as well as managers of organisational development. It will also interest advanced students in sociology, anthropology, management science and organizational studies The authors have published widely in the various disciplines associated with organizational life and technology design, and have built a considerable reputation for bringing new sociological insights into the organizational change literature