The aestheticization of business processes: Visualizing their Gestalt for collective thinking

2023 | Journal of Information Technology | Citations: 0

Authors: Blattmeier, Monika

Abstract: Business processes, simply defined by Davenport as ‘structures for action’, orga ... Expand

Abstract: Business processes, simply defined by Davenport as ‘structures for action’, organize the creation of value in a company. In addition to being carried out visibly, processes also have an inner dimension which remains hidden in the existing mechanistic metaphor of process management models. Aesthetic business processes draw from systems theory and Gestalt theory in order to uncover this inner dimension. The aim of this phenomenological investigation presented here is to describe the super-summative nature of business processes, in other words, to understand them holistically as a Gestalt. Mechanical Engineering students at a university of applied sciences analyzed business processes at different companies to discover patterns which they then visualized with the process participants at those companies. They used Christopher Alexander’s pattern language as a paradigm to make implicit knowledge buried in those business processes explicit. Using this technique, aesthetic business processes were identified as patterns. The format of the patterns served as a tool for collective thinking and as a form of expression for the Gestalt of aesthetic business processes in their visualization. A pattern language as an overview of the many ways to combine business process patterns has yet to be reconstructed based on this investigation. The shared visualizations highlighted the nature of the business processes and made it possible to see, in a metaphorical way, their significant interactions. Collapse

Topics: business process management sensemaking manufacturing information system covid 19 pandemic

Methods: theory development qualitative interview experiment phenomenological method case study

Theories: gestalt principles of perception general systems theory

The Experience of Immersive Virtual Reality: A Phenomenology Inspired Inquiry

2023 | Communications of the Association for Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Haj-Bolouri, Amir

Abstract: Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) technology is becoming central for Information ... Expand

Abstract: Immersive Virtual Reality (IVR) technology is becoming central for Information Systems (IS) research. However, existing studies in IS fall short of providing insights into how the IVR experience becomes meaningful for end-users.To increase granularity and specificity in this regard, researchers have suggested that the IVR experience can become meaningful due to its fleeting feeling of escapism. In this paper, I explore and characterize how individuals use the IVR experience to create meaning in the context of meaningful escapism, by undertaking a phenomenology inspired inquiry, based on Heideggerian views on meaning, meaningfulness, and world. Interviews and analysis were conducted within an empirical case of IVR fire safety training. As a result, four characteristics of the IVR experience as a meaningful form of escapism were unveiled: a sense of content, a sense of familiarity, a sense of mood, and a sense of care. Throughout this study, I offer a nuanced perspective on how the characteristics contribute to clarifying the distinctions and relationship between meaning and meaningfulness, as well as how the IVR experience becomes a meaningful escapism that provides an alternative of individual's being-in-the-world, into a being-in-the-virtual-world, also known as Virtual Dasein. Further, this study contributes to the IS field by advancing the current discourse on IVR research and escapism, from a phenomenological perspective.which then might find its place into our lifeworld and thus makes the experience feel meaningful. It is against this background that this paper asks the following research question: RQ1: How do individuals use the IVR experience to create meaning in the context of meaningful escapism?This study deliberately asks 'how' rather than 'what', because how the IVR individuals use the IVR experience to create meaning is a subject matter for inquiring about the lifeworld of an individual (Van Manen, 2017), which deals with the sensory perception (also known as 'qualia') of the feeling of meaningfulness. In other words, the emphasis is on the meaningful user activity in the context of meaningful escapism rather than on the category of a 'meaningful way of escaping the world'.Meaningfulness is in such terms, as will be explicated in the latter parts of this paper, felt through a mood derived from how the IVR experience matters to the end-user's lifeworld , rather than being a fact that the experience is meaningful (Freeman & Elpidorou, 2015). Hence, the becoming part of the research question is central to exploring how the IVR experience can be perceived or felt as a meaningful escapism by end-users of IVR technology. As such, the research question motivates a phenomenological inquiry that helps this study to address the question, because phenomenology studies the lived experience of sensory perceptions and the phenomena that contribute to meaning and meaningfulness in our lifeworld (Van Manen, 2016.More specifically, this study employed a phenomenological inquiry based on Martin Heidegger's (1962) phenomenology with a particular focus on meaning, meaningfulness, and the notion of 'world'. Moreover, this study applied a phenomenological approach to interviewing and data analysis (Bevan, 2014). The phenomenological interviews were conducted together with participants of IVR fire safety training, participants who, on a daily basis, work as train operators and train drivers for Sweden's largest train operator company. In summary, the phenomenological inquiry helped this study to (i) identify situations where the participants of the fire safety training feel that the IVR experience urges them to escape the world; (ii) unveil and characterize how the IVR experience becomes an escapism; and (iii) provide a discussion about the IVR experience in IS, which goes beyond the ontological assumptions of representationalismbeing the ontological view that has dominated extant Collapse

Topics: virtual world virtual reality

Methods: qualitative interview phenomenological method qualitative coding case study grounded theory

Peering through the lens of high-reliability theory: A competencies driven security culture model of high-reliability organisations

2023 | Information Systems Journal | Citations: 0

Authors: Hassandoust, Farkhondeh; Johnston, Allen C.

Abstract: To improve organisational safety and enhance security efficiency, organisations ... Expand

Abstract: To improve organisational safety and enhance security efficiency, organisations seek to establish a culture of security that provides a foundation for how employees should approach security. There are several frameworks and models that provide a set of requirements for forming security cultures; however, for many organisations, the requirements of the frameworks are difficult to meet, if not impossible. In this research, we take a different perspective and focus on the core underlying competencies that high-reliability organisations (HROs) have shown to be effective in achieving levels of risk tolerance consistent with the goals of a security culture. In doing so we draw on high-reliability theory to develop a Security Culture Model that explains how a firm's supportive and practical competencies form its organisational security culture. To refine and test the model, we conducted a developmental mixed-method study using interviews and survey data with professional managers involved in the information security (InfoSec) programs within their respective HROs. Our findings emphasise the importance of an organisation's supportive and practical competencies for developing a culture of security. Our results suggest that organisations' security cultures are a product of their InfoSec practices and that organisational mindfulness, top management involvement and organisational structure are key to the development of those practices. Collapse

Topics: mindfulness organization structure IT security absorptive capacity top management support

Methods: qualitative interview survey mixed method statistical hypothesis test conceptual modelling

That Birdie Feeling: Understanding the Role of LAN Organizers in Maintaining a Gaming Community

2023 | HICSS | Citations: 0

Authors: Mccauley, B.; Scholz, T.; Tierney, K.

Abstract: This paper presents the initial findings of a longitudinal study examining the ... Expand

Abstract: This paper presents the initial findings of a longitudinal study examining the role and experiences of LAN organizers in managing player communities pre, during and post the Covid 19 pandemic. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to analyze interviews with organizers of the Birdie LAN, Sweden's longest running LAN event. Five key themes were identified reflecting the roles of organizers and their experiences pre pandemic. (1) building and maintaining the culture, (2) encouraging inclusivity and community building, (3) negotiating professionalism, (4) learning, adapting and evolving, (5) creating sustainability through a future orientation. This paper presents the results of the first data collection to examine the impacts of the pandemic on grassroots gaming communities. The findings here represent a foundation in understanding the role of community leaders in maintaining a culture around gaming. These initial findings add value to our understanding of grassroots esports and player communities and the social practices of gaming in the modern era. Collapse

Topics: esport pandemic participatory design live streaming platform video game

Methods: qualitative interview qualitative coding longitudinal research theory development design methodology

Motivators of Knowledge Workers to Conduct Digital Detox

2022 | International Conference on Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Marx, Julian; Braun, Lea Marie; Mirbabaie, Milad

Abstract: A great deal of time spent with information and communication technologies (ICT ... Expand

Abstract: A great deal of time spent with information and communication technologies (ICT) makes knowledge workers especially susceptible to technostress. In this regard, the concept of digital detox has emerged to describe a strategic and periodic disengagement with ICT. Whereas extant research has put emphasis on untangling the characteristics and effects of digital detox, we do not know what motivators underly this practice other than the more general notion of technostress. Therefore, this study undertakes a qualitative approach with 10 phenomenological interviews to identify motivators of digital detox in knowledge work. The interview results culminate in a typology of individual digital detox motivators. We contribute to the theorization of digital detox by linking different types of motivators (prevention/coping/performance/physiological reboot) to digital detox and its effects on the experience of technostress. Implications for the design of digital detox policies that match with the motivations of knowledge workers can be derived. Collapse

Topics: knowledge work technostress information system use social media bring your own device

Methods: qualitative interview phenomenological method theoretical contribution

The Philosopher's Corner: The Duality of Heidegger in Information Systems Research

2022 | ACM SIGMIS Database | Citations: 0

Authors: Monod, Emmanuel; Boland, Richard; Santoro, Flavia; Joyce, Elisabeth

Abstract: Heidegger's philosophy has long been one of the core references for information ... Expand

Abstract: Heidegger's philosophy has long been one of the core references for information systems (IS) researchers, often drawing upon one of two distinct perspectives he employed in his writings. The first of these perspectives is found in Heidegger's work on presence, and the second in his work on relations. We refer to these two as his presence perspective and his relation perspective. The presence perspective builds on ideas developed in early sections of his major work, Being and Time (1927:1996), contrasting the presence of being-in-the-world with that of readiness-at-hand. The relation perspective builds on ideas developed in later sections of Being and Time, elaborating on the concept of being-with [Mitsein]. We discuss the ways these two key perspectives in his philosophy are intertwined and reinforce each other when we consider them together, and how they amplify and extend each other's scope of effect in human situated practice. We argue that Heidegger's philosophical perspective on human existence is a powerful theoretical lens for understanding both the subjective and the objective poles of our experience of being in the world. It provides an integrated framework for research on both poles that is useful across the IS field. Collapse

Topics: social media systems design individual productivity organizational transformation information system use

Methods: partial least squares path modeling case study phenomenological method

Theories: speech act theory information systems theory

Infrastructure as a Home for a Person: A Phenomenological Interpretation of Star and Ruhleder’s Relational View

2022 | Management Information Systems Quarterly | Citations: 0

Authors: Reimers, Kai; Schellhammer, Stefan; Johnston, Robert

Abstract: Star and Ruhleder’s (1996) influential “relational view” of infrastructure is us ... Expand

Abstract: Star and Ruhleder’s (1996) influential “relational view” of infrastructure is usually understood as a relation between technologies and organizational practices. However, a significant part of Star and Ruhleder’s original proposal has been overlooked—that infrastructure becomes a home for somebody. In this paper, we give an alternative interpretation of this relational view by focusing on the relation between a person and their infrastructure, rather than on the relation between technologies and practices. We use Heidegger’s (1927/1962) phenomenology in Being and Time to theorize what such a home might entail and a novel data collection method to study infrastructuring empirically from the perspective of a person. On this basis, we offer new theoretically grounded interpretations of infrastructure and infrastructuring. Empirically, we identify two modes of infrastructuring not previously distinguished. The perspective sheds new light on a number of key themes and debates in the literature and on infrastructuring in practice. Collapse

Topics: unintended consequence knowledge representation systems development IS discipline

Methods: narrative analysis phenomenological method theory development literature study design artifact

Cultivating Community: Presentation of Self among Women Game Streamers in Singapore and the Philippines

2021 | HICSS | Citations: 0

Authors: Alvarez, Katrina; Chen, Vivian Hsueh Hua

Abstract: This study explored how women game live streamers in Singapore and the Philippin ... Expand

Abstract: This study explored how women game live streamers in Singapore and the Philippines make sense of their presentation of self as performers and gamers in a medium dominated by Western games, performers, and platforms. We conducted six in-depth interviews guided by interpretive phenomenological analysis in order to understand their experiences, uncovering issues such as audience connection and maintenance, the difficulties of presenting their own femininity, and the influence of being Singaporean, Filipina, and Asian on their success as performers. We discuss directions for study that further explore gaming and streaming as a form of cultural labor in Asia. Collapse

Topics: Facebook internet technology electronic mail Twitch anonymity

Methods: phenomenological method personal interview qualitative interview

Smart Pay-As-You-Live Services in Healthcare: A Balance Theory Perspective

2021 | International Conference on Information Systems | Citations: 0

Authors: Hassandoust, Farkhondeh; Johnston, Allen; Singh, Tripti

Abstract: Using the massive data sets, some industries such as health-insurers have start ... Expand

Abstract: Using the massive data sets, some industries such as health-insurers have started to roll out smart services that have the potential to provide clear benefits to both themselves and their customers. Health-insurers are providing a service called Pay-As-You-Live (PAYL) to encourage healthy behaviors by rewarding customers' progress. When using a PAYL service, customers are expected to allow the insurer to collect current data about their lifestyle through existing and new data sources, such as wearables. The question, however, is -since PAYL services are inherently risky to their customers, will they adopt such a service? To answer this question, drawing on balance theory, this research-inprogress provides a conceptual framework to explore the underlying potential sources of contention consumers regarding their adoption of PAYL services. This study plans to apply the framework to the analysis of interviews with potential PAYL services participants in both the United States and New Zealand. Collapse

Topics: mobile system smart wearable device video conference privacy communication service infrastructure

Methods: qualitative interview phenomenological method

Theories: balance theory

Design of Goal-Oriented Artifacts from Morphological Taxonomies: Progression from Descriptive to Prescriptive Design Knowledge

2021 | International Conference on Business Informatics | Citations: 0

Authors: Möller, Frederik; Haße, Hendrik; Azkan, Can

Abstract: Morphological Taxonomies are a widely popular tool in Information Systems to sys ... Expand

Abstract: Morphological Taxonomies are a widely popular tool in Information Systems to systematically deconstruct an artifact into designable dimensions and characteristics. Subsequently, these taxonomies have engraved in them knowledge about the design of artifacts, i.e., descriptive design knowledge. Most studies producing morphological taxonomies refrain from giving prescriptive advice about the design, i.e., the specific morphological configuration of an artifact, but rather stay descriptive. The paper proposes a framework for knowledge and artifact transformation originating in morphological taxonomies and ending in design principles. We develop a framework that assists researchers and practitioners by showing clear paths on transforming descriptive design knowledge engraved in taxonomies to prescriptive knowledge as design principles. Collapse

Topics: quality management price management knowledge base

Methods: design principle design artifact design requirement theory development qualitative interview