Virginia
Commonwealth
University
School
of
Business
Department
of
Information
Systems
Professor
Allen
S.
Lee
office:
room
4146
AllenSLee@alum.mit.edu
Wednesdays, 2:00pm - 4:40pm, room 4149
One purpose of this doctoral seminar is to investigate behavioral and managerial issues in the field of information systems (IS). The substantive domain of the IS field is diverse, ranging from what computer scientists and engineers investigate to what social scientists investigate. In this seminar course, we will concentrate on the latter. The companion seminar course, INFO 765, will concentrate on the former.
Another purpose of the seminar course is to prepare you for your comprehensive examinations. The PhD committee in the Department of Information Systems recently decided on a list of 8 new doctoral seminar courses, from which a student (in consultation with his or her precommittee) would take 6 in order to satisfy the "major area" course requirements. Although this decision pertains to future students, the decision still provides guidance as to the topical areas in which the IS faculty expect IS PhD students to prepare themselves for their comprehensive exams. The topics of 6 of the 8 new doctoral seminars are:
The third purpose of the seminar course is to help you develop yourself into an independent scholar. As a PhD student, you are now an apprentice whose goal is to become a scholar. Therefore, like a scholar, you will (with support from your classmates and from myself in seminar discussions) conduct literature searches to identify articles, books (or book chapters), and conference papers that are relevant to your topic and that you should understand in order to master the topic. Your goal is to do research, someday, that exceeds the research of your professors – or else, knowledge would not grow and there would be no advances in theory. Updating and otherwise revising the "state of the art and critical bibliography" paper will help you achieve the independence you will need as a scholar.
Seminar format
Beginning on January 31, we will read and discuss a doctoral dissertation every other week. Five of the six dissertations were winners or runners-up in the International Conference on Information Systems best dissertation award competition. Seeing these dissertations as examples of the "finished product" of a doctoral program should serve to inspire the initiative you will need in order to develop yourself into a scholar.
On weeks when we are not discussing dissertations, we will be discussing two readings. These will be readings that you will nominate. Sufficient lead time is necessary for these nominations. An excellent source of papers to nominate is, of course, the "state of the art and critical bibliography" papers.
Niki Kunene, Boontaree Kositanurit, and Arinola Adebayo will each be responsible for (1) presenting two of the six dissertations and (2) writing two papers, each one on one of the nominated readings. William Sullivan and Lori Humm, who are auditing the seminar, will not present any of the dissertations, but will be asked to write three papers, each one on one of the nominated readings.
A dissertation presentation may involve (1) as assessment of the research in the dissertation (e.g., the quality of the literature review, the adequacy of the methodology, the significance of the research question, the clarity of the writing, and so forth) or (2) presenting the dissertation as if you were its author in an on-campus job interview. Use of Powerpoint is encouraged. Students who are not presenting the dissertation must still, of course, read the dissertation and also must come to the seminar with a prepared, written question that he or she will pose about the research in the dissertation.
A paper on a nominated reading may involve (1) writing a review on the nominated reading, as if it were a paper submitted to a journal for publication consideration or (2) writing a one-or-two page answer to a question that the student him/herself makes up. The completed papers will be due by noon on the day before class and must be sent, in the form of a word processing fiile, attached to an e-mail to AllenSLee@alum.mit.edu. They will then be forwarded to all the other students in the course.
A student's grade for the course will depend on:
Assignment for Week 1 (Wednesday, January 17)
The topic of the class will be "Process Theories versus Variance Theories." Read the following:Write a paper in which (1) you reproduce this sentence and place it at the top of your paper, (2) you provide your definitions of variance theory and of process theory, (3) you show how your definition of process theory applies to a reading you identify from the 700 seminar, and (4) you show how your definition of variance theory applies to another reading you identify from the 700 seminar. Your paper need not be long. Its purpose is to prepare everyone for a good seminar discussion. It will not be graded! E-mail your paper to AllenSLee@alum.mit.edu by noon on Tuesday, January 23; by 2pm, it will be forwarded to everyone else in the class.
- Markus, M. L. and Robey, D. (1988). "Information Technology and Organizational Change: Causal Structure in Theory and Research," Management Science, Volume 34, Number 5, pp. 583-598.
- Mohr, L. B. (1982). "Approaches to Explanation: Variance Theory and Process Theory," Chapter 2 in Explaining Organizational Behavior (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass), pp. 35-70.
| Readings | Student who presents the dissertation | Students who write papers on the nominated readings | |
| January 17 | Hirschheim, R. & Klein, H., "Four Paradigms of Information Systems Development," Communications of the ACM, Volume 32, Number 10, October 1989, pp. 1199-1216. | ||
| January 24 | Markus, M. L. and Robey, D., "Information Technology and Organizational
Change: Causal Structure in Theory and Research," Management Science,
Volume 34, Number 5, 1988, pp. 583-598. Mohr, L. B., "Approaches to Explanation: Variance Theory and Process Theory," Chapter 2 in Explaining Organizational Behavior (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1982), pp. 35-70. |
||
| January 31 | Doctoral dissertation by Suprateek Sarker:
"The Role of Information Technology and Social Enablers in Business Process Reengineering: An Empirical Investigation Integrating Positivist and Interpretivist Approaches," University of Cincinnati, 1997 |
NK | |
| February 7 | 2 articles that AA nominates | AA & WS | |
| February 14 | Doctoral dissertation by Sandra Slaughter:
"Software Development Practices and Software Maintenance Performance: A Field Study," University of Minnesota, 1995. |
BK | |
| February 21 | 2 articles that NK nominates | LH & NK | |
| February 28 | Doctoral dissertation by Mayuram S. Krishnan: "Cost and Quality Considerations in Software Product Management," Carnegie Mellon University, 1996. | AA | |
| March 7 | 2 articles that BK nominates | WS & BK | |
| March 14 |
spring break |
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| March 21 | 2 articles that LH nominates | LH & BK | |
| March 28 | Doctoral dissertation by Alain Pinsonneault:
"The Impact of Information Technology on the Middle Management Workforce: An Empirical Investigation," University of California, Irvine, 1990. |
NK | |
| April 4 | 2 articles that WS nominates | WS & AA | |
| April 11 | Doctoral dissertation by Yolande E. Chan:
"Business Strategy, Information Systems Strategy, and Strategic Fit: Measurement and Performance Impacts," University of Western Ontario, 1992. |
BK | |
| April 18 | 2 articles that LH nominates | LH & NK | |
| April 25 | Doctoral dissertation by Sabine Hirt: "Dynamics of Media Choice Behavior in Multinational Organizations (Communication Technology)," University of California, Los Angeles, 1999. | AA | |
| May 9 |
Due: updated and revised "state |
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