Politics and Pain in Managing Information Technology: A Case Study from Insurance

1992 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Knights ◽  
Fergus Murray

Drawing on case study material, this paper explores the politics of career and resource competition that is a medium and outcome of IT investment strategies and system development priorities. This is achieved by examining the manner in which different managers and operating divisions in the case study organization perceive and pursue distinct IT priorities. This they do by involving particular constructions of 'markets', 'technology', and 'organization'. The paper argues that the difficulties encountered around the development of IT systems in the case study company are symptomatic of tensions which are a condition and conse quence of struggles over resource allocation and career advancement within management. These activities necessarily generate considerable political activity which has potentially painful consequences for actors tied into power/identity relations in the modem organization.

Author(s):  
Bamidele Ola ◽  
Iyobor Egho-Promise

The emergence of ecommerce almost three decades ago has completely transformed the approach to purchasing goods and services across various countries in the world. Almost every country in the globe, now have some form of ecommerce operations, this has further been enhanced by the stay at home COVID-19 induced lockdowns. The value and volume of transactions has also increased in transactions. However, there has been security concerns impacting ecommerce operations, which has in part, led to increasing adoption of hosting ecommerce systems in the public cloud. Threat modelling offer mechanisms to enhance the security of information technology (IT) systems. In this paper, we apply different threat modelling techniques to decompose the migration of an on-premise hosted ecommerce system to the public cloud and also evaluate these threat modelling techniques.


1996 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-77 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Poulson ◽  
Neil Waddell

Traditional methods of systems design have tended to concentrate on capturing functional requirements and from them develop a system that will provide users with a technical solution to a problem they may have. However, there is a growing understanding, with historical origins in sociotechnical systems theory, that technical solutions alone, regardless of how well designed, may not succeed fully unless there is a concomitant understanding of the organization into which the technical solution is to be introduced. Organizational requirements, therefore, should become considerations of equal importance to systems designers. The ESPRIT Project ORDIT (organizational requirements definition for information technology) has developed a methodology which identifies and operationalizes organizational requirements for IT systems. This paper presents a case study in which the ORDIT concepts are applied to the process of introducing an IT system into a courtroom.


2007 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 257-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ken Eason

The National Programme for Information Technology is implementing standard electronic healthcare systems across the National Health Service Trusts in England. This paper reports the responses of the Trusts and their healthcare teams to the applications in the programme as they are being implemented. It concludes that, on the basis of the data available, it is likely that the emergent behaviour of healthcare staff will serve to minimise the impact of the systems. The paper looks at the opportunities within the programme to undertake local sociotechnical system design to help staff exploit the opportunities of the new electronic systems. It concludes that there are opportunities and offers one case study example in a Mental Health Trust. However, it concludes that there are many aspects of the technical systems themselves and also of the approach to implementation, that limit the opportunities for local sociotechnical systems design work.


Author(s):  
Gil-Ad Ariely

This article explores the boundaries of socio-technical IT systems for knowledge development, using military environments in a case study approach. The need to examine the effects of socio-technical convergence of human systems and computer systems is emerging in many fields. The article examines both the risks and the potential in military critical-environments for early adoption of socio-technical systems. The author addresses risks for creative knowledge creation by too-early adoption of information technology and the effects on socio-technical systems and sense-making. Such risks are more easily highlighted in a critical, stressful environment (stressful for man, machine, and their co-operation) with high-stakes. However, examined military environments are proposed as point of reference leading to further research in other sectors. The author argues for a socio-technical analysis before, during, and after adoption of new systems, especially those relating to knowledge development, reviewing boundaries created. Finally, the author discusses the future promise of socio-technical convergence of man-machine for knowledge development.


1992 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 299-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georgina Waylen

Much of women's political activity cannot be accommodated within traditional political science so new ways of analysing it are needed. In order to create a new framework, using case study material from Chile, some of the concepts employed by socialist feminists, particularly the patriarchal bargain and strategic and practical gender interests, are explored. These shed light on why women mobilize, both for conservative and for more ‘progressive’ causes. However, this framework alone cannot provide answers about the form and representation of these activities. An attempt is made to use the insights of post-modernism to do this. The conclusion is that it is possible to unite the most helpful aspects of the two perspectives.


2016 ◽  
Vol 25 (01) ◽  
pp. 120-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Nohr ◽  
E. Borycki ◽  
A. Kushniruk

SummaryA wide range of human factors approaches have been developed and adapted to healthcare for detecting and mitigating negative unexpected consequences associated with technology in healthcare (i.e. technology-induced errors). However, greater knowledge and wider dissemination of human factors methods is needed to ensure more usable and safer health information technology (IT) systems. Objective: This paper reports on work done by the IMIA Human Factors Working Group and discusses some successful approaches that have been applied in using human factors to mitigate negative unintended consequences of health IT. The paper addresses challenges in bringing human factors approaches into mainstream health IT development. Results: A framework for bringing human factors into the improvement of health IT is described that involves a multi-layered systematic approach to detecting technology-induced errors at all stages of a IT system development life cycle (SDLC). Such an approach has been shown to be needed and can lead to reduced risks associated with the release of health IT systems into live use with mitigation of risks of negative unintended consequences. Conclusion: Negative unintended consequences of the introduction of IT into healthcare (i.e. potential for technology-induced errors) continue to be reported. It is concluded that methods and approaches from the human factors and usability engineering literatures need to be more widely applied, both in the vendor community and in local and regional hospital and healthcare settings. This will require greater efforts at dissemination and knowledge translation, as well as greater interaction between the academic and vendor communities.


Author(s):  
Arfan Sansprayada ◽  
Kartika Mariskhana

Abstract—The need for information system development in a company is a basic requirement that must be met by each company in order to run its business processes properly. This is the basic key in a company in order to provide maximum results to find as many profits or profits. Application development or requirements in the application also provide speed for employees to carry out their activities to work properly and optimally. The development of the era requires that companies must be productive and have innovations so that the business wheel of the company can run well. This is based on the development of technology that is so fast that it requires special expertise in its application. This research is expected to be able to help some problems that exist in a company. Where its application can make it easier for employees to carry out their respective duties and roles in order to maximize their potential. For companies, the application of this application can accommodate the company's business wheels so that they can be properly and correctly documented .   Keywords : Systems, Information, Applications


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