A realist social theory of information systems

Research output: Contribution to book or proceedingConference articlepeer-review

Abstract

Rose, Jones and Truex (2005) (RST) call for a re-examination of the relationship between the IT artefact and the organization. This paper responds to that call. It first recognizes that existing approaches such as structuration theory (ST) and actor-network theory (ANT) have difficulties accommodating information systems within organizations and thus create issues in analyzing the relationship between agencies and information systems. To address these deficiencies, this paper suggests that the realist Morphogenetic Social Theory (MST) be adopted. The paper summarizes Rose, Jones and Truex (2005), highlights issues with ST and ANT, then gives an introduction to MST. Then, it extends MST by adding a typology of technological artefacts and placing them within MST. Finally, the paper shows how MST explains information system development and implementation activities.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationAssociation for Information Systems - 13th Americas Conference on Information Systems, AMCIS 2007
Subtitle of host publicationReaching New Heights
Pages3829-3843
Number of pages15
StatePublished - 2007
Event13th Americas Conference on Information Systems, AMCIS 2007 - Keystone, CO, United States
Duration: Aug 10 2007Aug 12 2007

Publication series

NameAssociation for Information Systems - 13th Americas Conference on Information Systems, AMCIS 2007: Reaching New Heights
Volume6

Conference

Conference13th Americas Conference on Information Systems, AMCIS 2007
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CityKeystone, CO
Period08/10/0708/12/07

Keywords

  • Actor-network theory
  • Morphogenetic social theory
  • Structuration theory
  • Structure-agency controversy

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