Information Systems’ Diverse Origins Coming Together

Abstract

Executive SummaryThe diversity of IS programs and research has been of interest to various professions. It has been argued that IS has developed to the extent where it does not have to rely on other reference disciplines, but should rather serve as a reference discipline for other disciplines. While IS may have developed its own discipline, its location in different academic units may influence the venue of faculty publications. The understanding of the relationships between venue of publication and location of IS programs will influence curriculum development especially at the doctoral level and inform faculty placement decisions. In this paper, we examine IS research that falls into the professional categories of business, engineering, education, and library science for faculty from information systems programs. We examined the research publications of the faculty from the twenty-four IS programs accredited by ABET Inc. The data shows that irrespective of the location of the IS program, over 50% of the faculty publications are in the Engineering venue. Further, the results indicate that the location of the IS program influences the publication venue. We also suggest that the tenure and promotion requirements also influence the venue of the publications of IS faculty. Our research contributes to both professional practice and scholarly research. In academia, we suggest that the interest of the faculty may influence their employment locations and research venues.Keywords: IS research, IS discipline, Education, IS programs, Research venues, ABET, program location IntroductionInformation, to be a useful organizational resource, must be structured for easy storage and retrieval. The information systems (IS) discipline deals withMaterial published as part of this publication, either on-line or in print, is copyrighted by the Informing Science Institute. Permission to make digital or paper copy of part or all of these works for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that the copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage AND that copies 1) bear this notice in full and 2) give the full citation on the first page. It is permissible to abstract these works so long as credit is given. To copy in all other cases or to republish or to post on a server or to redistribute to lists requires specific permission and payment of a fee. Contact Publisher@InformingScience.org to request redistribution permission. Information Systems Diverse Origins 194this resource and its related technology for the analysis, construction, deployment, use, evaluation, evolution, and management of computing artifacts in organizational settings (Madnick, 1992;Orlikowski & Barley, 2001). Long before information systems were automated, the realm of information collection, storage, and retrieval fell to librarians. The use of information in decision making is in the purview of business. Decisions are made, based on the information available, to move an organization closer to its goals. Often information needed t...

Making Information Systems less Scrugged: Reflecting on the Processes of Change in Teaching and Learning

“…In 2007, the course had become unpopular and resulted in what at the time a senior management Professor called the worst rated course in the entire management school, even falling behind Business Statistics! Others researching in the area have come across similar problems (see for example Scime, Andoh-Bandoo, Bush, & Osatuyi, 2009;Von Hellens, Neilsen, Clayton, & Beehuyzen, 2009) in regards to the massive scope of information systems teaching. A new team was formed and the resultant processes lead to a reconceptualisation of the subject into the current offering: Business Informatics.…”