Full Text Available
Note: Clicking the button above will open the full text document at the original institutional repository in a new window.
Information systems evaluation : a post-dualist interpretation
Dissertation (Phd (Information Technology))--University of Pretoria, 2003.
Saved in:
| Other Authors: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Thesis |
| Published: |
University of Pretoria
2013
|
| Subjects: | |
| Tags: |
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1867613590301704192 |
|---|---|
| access_status_str | Open Access |
| author2 | Introna, L. |
| author_browse | Introna, L. |
| author_facet | Introna, L. |
| collection | Thesis |
| dc_rights_str_mv | © 2001, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. |
| description | Dissertation (Phd (Information Technology))--University of Pretoria, 2003. |
| format | Thesis |
| id | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/25520 |
| institution | University of Pretoria (South Africa) |
| last_indexed | 2026-06-10T12:38:33.924Z |
| license_str | Other — see source repository |
| provenance_str_mv | Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| publishDate | 2013 |
| publishDateRange | 2013 |
| publishDateSort | 2013 |
| publisher | University of Pretoria |
| publisherStr | University of Pretoria |
| record_format | dspace |
| source_str | UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository |
| spelling | oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/25520 Information systems evaluation : a post-dualist interpretation Introna, L. whittaker.l@wbs.wits.ac.za Whittaker, Louise Interpretive view Dialectic view Regime of truth Power relations Organisational learning Functionalist Information systems evaluation UCTD Dissertation (Phd (Information Technology))--University of Pretoria, 2003. This thesis explores the problem of information systems evaluation by conceptualising it as a process in which the manager comes to an understanding about a system. In other words, information systems evaluation is a hermeneutic process. The thesis explicates this notion through an argument that is itself hermeneutic in its development, beginning with the mainstream functionalist view of information systems evaluation, and then considering an interpretive view of IS evaluation, each of which points to one of two stereotypes of IS evaluation and the manager engaged in this process: the objective/rational manager utilising objective/rational methods versus the subjective/political manager engaged in political manoeuvring, utilising objective/rational methods only as ritual or symbolism. Neither of these opposing stereotypes is satisfactory. Instead, this thesis proposes a dialectic view of information systems evaluation, in terms of which, rather than being a decision maker, the manager is in-the-world, evaluating systems in order to get the job done, on the basis of her thrownness in-the-world. This conceptualisation provides an intuitively appropriate account of evaluation on the part of an individual manager, but we must still consider how managers as members of the organisation, reach a common understanding about a system. This they do through a process of organisational learning as encultured knowing, in terms of which a narrative, situated, pragmatic knowledge is most useful in evaluation. Evaluation, in other words, happens in the course of skilful conversation. Such conversation is, however, not always skilful because the organisation is not just a collection of individuals but also a network of power relations. Conversations as generators of meaning are never held outside of power: systems evaluations as conversations cannot take place outside of a regime of truth. A post-dualist view of action as both constituted by and constituting structure, however, suggests that there is always the potential for genuinely hermeneutic and ethical conversation, provided it is both improvisatory and deconstructive. Having understood the requirement for improvisation and deconstruction, it is possible to suggest some heuristics for information systems evaluation based on these ideas. Informatics unrestricted 2013-09-06T22:05:08Z 2002-06-19 2013-09-06T22:05:08Z 2001-04-30 2003-06-19 2002-06-14 Dissertation Whittaker, L 2001, Information systems evaluation : a post-dualist interpretation, Phd dissertation, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, viewed yymmdd < http://hdl.handle.net/2263/25520 > http://hdl.handle.net/2263/25520 http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-06142002-121347/ © 2001, University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria |
| spellingShingle | Interpretive view Dialectic view Regime of truth Power relations Organisational learning Functionalist Information systems evaluation UCTD Information systems evaluation : a post-dualist interpretation |
| title | Information systems evaluation : a post-dualist interpretation |
| title_full | Information systems evaluation : a post-dualist interpretation |
| title_fullStr | Information systems evaluation : a post-dualist interpretation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Information systems evaluation : a post-dualist interpretation |
| title_short | Information systems evaluation : a post-dualist interpretation |
| title_sort | information systems evaluation a post dualist interpretation |
| topic | Interpretive view Dialectic view Regime of truth Power relations Organisational learning Functionalist Information systems evaluation UCTD |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/2263/25520 http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-06142002-121347/ |