Australian Computer Society: ACS Digital Library
Not a member yet
884 research outputs found
Sort by
The Alignment of Business and Information Technology Strategy in Australia
Get PDFThe alignment of business and information technology strategy has long been recognised as a key issue for managers and has grown in importance as IT has become strategically significant. Previous studies have noted the elusiveness of alignment of business and information technology strategy and identified a number of factors that promote alignment. This study builds on previous work and categorises the factors as either people, process or organisational. A cross industry survey of Australian organisations is then used to determine the perceived benefits of alignment and the perceived importance of each factor and how successful it was in promoting alignment. The findings of the study show that Australian organisations perceive that alignment is important and can bring considerable benefits. Furthermore the study highlights the relative importance of the factors and indicates where organisations should focus their attention in order to successfully achieve alignment
Understanding Quality in Process Modelling: Towards a Holistic Perspective
No full textQuality is one of the main topics in current conceptual modelling research, as is the field of business process modelling. Yet, widely acknowledged academic contributions towards an understanding or measurement of business process model quality are limited at best. In this paper I argue that the development of methodical theories concerning the measurement or establishment of process model quality must be preceded by methodological elaborations on business process modelling. I further argue that existing epistemological foundations of process modelling are insufficient for describing all extrinsic and intrinsic traits of model quality. This in turn has led to a lack of holistic understanding of process modelling.
Taking into account the inherent social and purpose-oriented character of process modelling in contemporary organizations I present a socio-pragmatic constructionist methodology of business process modelling and sketch out implications of this perspective towards an understanding of process model quality. I anticipate that, based on this research, theories can be developed that facilitate the evaluation of the ’goodness’ of a business process model
Information Technology and Aesthetics: Passive and Active Dimensions
Get PDFThis paper is concerned with examining and recognizing aesthetics in an Information System (an organization incorporating both humans and information technology). Aesthetics emerge from the wholeness of things, not from specific parts or components. As such, aesthetics may naturally be considered in “systems”, and we propose that an effective manner of thinking of aesthetics is to think in terms of “themes”. Humans have an extraordinary capacity to capture events thematically. In other words, human beings have a natural sense of aesthetics. To examine aesthetics in an information systems context, we argue that one must consider not only aesthetics that may be perceived by the senses (a passive dimension), but also aesthetics that may be conceived in the mind (an active dimension). This paper draws the conclusion that the benefits of aesthetics in relation to the study of Information Systems, has characteristics similar to the nature and importance of ethics in IS. Also, the study of aesthetics in IS has greater implications than simply recognizing and appreciating beauty and art. The very human capacity for recognizing and appreciating beauty and art is also the same capacity for effective creativity and happiness: the active aesthetic dimension. It follows that if an information system encouraged and provided the enabling circumstances for the human capacity of thematic recognition (as found in the human appreciation of art and beauty) it thereby also provides the ground and the necessary thematically recognizable stimulus for effective creative and visionary organizational management
A Study of Journal Publication Diversity within the Australian Information Systems Sphere
Get PDFThis study reports on research that examined DEST data from 14 Australian universities to identify the diversity of journal outlets in the information systems (IS) area. Across a total of 60 years of academic publishing output, 1449 journal articles were evaluated to identify 649 different journals in which IS-related articles were published. The most popular journals used by Australian academics to publish IS-related articles were the Lecture Notes in Computer Science (N=94) in the computer science area, with the Australasian Journal of Information Systems (N=25) being the most popular journal in the pure and business IS sphere. The study also examined publishing output against a set of 50 previously highly rated IS journals and concluded that the average annual publication of articles in these highly rated journals occurred at a very low rate. The research appears to be one of the first studies to use historical DEST data to report journal diversity in the Australian IS-sphere
Culture as an Explanation of Technology Acceptance Differences: An Empirical Investigation of Chinese and US Users
Get PDFThis article examines the issue of the acceptance of technology across two cultures. To do this an extended technology acceptance model was tested in China and the US. Over one hundred participants, across both cultures, were surveyed as to their perceptions regarding technology acceptance. Cultural values were also measured for each group. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the research model. In general, the model explained a more than adequate amount of variance and achieved acceptable levels of significance. Differences across the two cultures were explained utilizing the cultural values of the participants. Implications for both research and practice were provide
The Information Systems Discipline in Australian Universities: A Contextual Framework
Get PDFThis paper presents the contextual framework for a multi-method, multi-study of the State of the Information Systems Academic Discipline in Australia, and relates the genesis of the Australian study as preliminary to a larger Pacific-Asia study. Analysis of prior literature on the state of IS and on relevant theory, underpins a series of individual Australian state case studies that are combined with several conceptual analyses and a research issues survey. The paper outlines the methodological approach employed, with emphasis on the case study method of the multiple state studies. The process of multiple peer review of the studies is described. Importantly, this paper summarises and analyses each of the related sub-studies, also outlining ongoing work, beyond the overarching study reported herein
Evading Technological Determinism in ERP Implementation: towards a consultative social approach
Get PDFEnterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are implemented in business in the hope of obtaining benefits in the form of improved communications and increased efficiency through the standardization of information technology (IT) across functional business areas. The benefits, and in some cases problems, associated with implementation have been well documented, however there is little information available on their effectiveness in a different form of organization. This paper looks at ERP implementations in Government Owned Corporations (GOC) and discusses implementation issues by looking at the way we perceive such organisations. A GOC case study is presented and explored in terms of the ERP and GOC literature in the context of existing social research approaches. This paper examines why end users in a GOC appear to be neither complying with, nor fully exploiting the potential of the ERP. The paper contends that discourses by staff at the operational level are different to that of staff at the managerial level. The paper also confirms previous research stating the importance of end user input for effective IT systems and ERP implementation processes
The Information Systems Discipline in Australian Universities
Get PDFThis AJIS Featured Theme comprises 12 research papers that present a portrait of The Information Systems Academic Discipline in Australian Universities. This Australian study is part of a broader study - 'The State of the Information Systems Academic Discipline in Pacific Asia’, the results of which are forthcoming in a similarly titled special issue of Communications of the AIS
Case Study: The State of Information Systems in Australian Capital Territory Universities
Get PDFThis paper describes the Information Systems Groups at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA), The Australian National University (ANU), and the University of Canberra (UC). Each group has a distinctive background that reflects its position in Canberra, Australia’s seat of federal government. ADFA is essentially a private university for the Australian Defence Organization; ANU was set up to be a national research institution; and the UC group for many years focused on meeting the training needs for computing professionals for the federal government. Despite these distinguishing characteristics, the subject matter taught and researched in the three groups has a large degree of commonality and each group regards itself as ‘vibrant’ and happy with what it does. A low degree of professionalisation is perceived, however, relative to older disciplines, as there is a disjunct between what is taught as core knowledge and what is taught as research methods, a lack of social prestige, and a lack of acceptance as a discipline with a unique symbol system