Event Report

This book contains the refereed proceedings of the First International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management in Mediterranean Countries, ISCRAM-med 2014, held in Toulouse, France, in October 2014.The aim of ISCRAM-med was to gather researchers and practitioners working in the area of Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management, with a special but not limited focus on Mediterranean crises. These include political crises, economic crises, natural hazards, and fatal industrial incidents.The 15 full papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 44 submissions. The contributions are organized in topical sections on supply chain and distribution; modeling and training; human interactions in the crisis field; coordination and agility; and social aspects in crisis management.

The unique affordances of Action Research, including flexibility, playfulness, accessibility, and a focus on practical problem solving provided crucial strategies for generating knowledge and developing solutions to the challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic. The move to online research settings, in particular, required action researchers to find ways to adapt existing research methods and to devise new approaches. This article describes the work of a group of doctoral students in an Educational Leadership program and their instructor in carrying out action research methods in both synchronous and asynchronous online settings. If the months of the pandemic have taught us nothing else, it is that flexibility and willingness to innovate, which are central to action research, are valuable assets in times of uncertainty. The unique affordances of Action Research include creativity, playfulness, accessibility to multiple participants and audiences, transferability of findings, and a focus on the generation of knowledge designed to be pragmatic and problem-focused. These qualities can be harnessed to address the multiple challenges we have encountered during the pandemic including health equity and access, poverty and unemployment, and the interruption of education for vulnerable student populations. They also offer us hope that action research can continue to contribute to addressing the challenges we are sure to face in the future. As students in an educational leadership doctoral program, we focus on examining problems of practice in our schools and districts through action research. As we adapted to online learning in our own schools, we were able to bring these skills to bear in our doctoral studies by developing strategies for conducting these action research methods in both synchronous and asynchronous online settings. This paper describes some of the approaches we developed in the hope that this will enable other action researchers to implement these methods in their own schools, organizations, and communities. The specific action research methods described in this paper are Future Creating Workshops, Citizens’ Juries, World Café, Nominal Group Technique, and Digital Storytelling.

Mixed methods research has the capacity to intersect with other approaches, such as action research, by adding a solid methodological foundation and creating an integrated approach for addressing complex practical problems. Conceptual, philosophical, and procedural similarities between mixed methods and action research make integration possible and justifiable. Combining the two approaches can produce more scientifically sound and transferable results by synergistically integrating qualitative stakeholder engagement with quantitative outcomes to inform action/intervention planning, implementation, evaluation, and monitoring. We describe similarities between the two approaches, discuss advantages of applying mixed methods in action research, and illustrate applications using a methodological framework that captures their synergistic combination. Using this framework, we describe how two studies employed mixed methods in various phases of the action research cycle.

Foreword As I write this foreword, the news reaches us of the death of Heinz Klein, a founding father of the critical approach to information systems and contributor to this volume. The number of projects his death leaves us to complete is testimony not only to the generous way he worked with so many colleagues throughout the world, but also to his belief in extending and challenging the critical approach. This book is a further step in the process of extending, challenging and developing the critical approach to information systems. It takes seriously the need to acknowledge the historical roots of the subject in the socio-technical and critical management approaches and the contribution of work on Habermas and Foucault. However, it also takes seriously the call of Heinz Klein to diversify the approach, to bring in new voices and new ideas, and to revisit and extend older ideas. This book addresses these points in a number of important ways. Stahl’s attention to the ethical dimension of critical IS reminds us that ethics is at the heart of Habermas’s work, yet it is often overlooked as a subject of enquiry, both in mainstream IS and in critical IS. Semiotics and ethnography are two areas hitherto minimally addressed in critical IS. They receive welcome attention in this book, adding to the push for the exploration of new approaches. Critical IS research has, at times, been criticised for its lack of engagement with empirical issues. Thus, the chapters by Oliver and Romm on ERP systems and Doolin on healthcare systems are all the more welcome, especially as these are empirical areas subject to much discussion within mainstream IS. Two final chapters provide useful reflection. It is fitting that Heinz’s chapter closes the book. However, this does not mean that he has the last word and that his work is over. Rather, it serves as a reminder that his legacy is to leave us with questions to answer and work to do in the critical tradition which he did so much to form and shape. Professor Alison Adam Director of the Information Systems, Organisations and Society Research Centre University of Salford, U.K.

This paper advocates for the use of Action Research (AR) approaches in the designing of Information Systems (IS). Following a brief overview of the history of AR as a research methodology and it's use in IS research a framework for describing the AR process is developed. This framework is then used to describe the AR process involved in the design and development of a paper based and orally communicated child health IS. A common criticism of AR in IS design is the focus on the output of the design and the lack of rigour in the description of AR projects. This paper addresses this gap by focusing on the process of the design and development of the IS in the case study, but also contributes to AR by outlining a number of concerns which should be addressed by the IS researcher if AR is to viewed as rigourous. The concerns which need to be addressed are the need: to make explicit the epistemology of the researcher(s) or practitioner(s) in any AR project; to adopt a participatory AR and longitudinal approach to avoid the conflict of 'serving two masters'; to develop networks of action, and; to develop and disseminate generalisations and learnings from the research.

Action research writing is essential for educators as they adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic hence the survey's 76 instructors' answers from PARQ were utilized to generate capacity building programs. The needs assessment was used in qualitative AR analysis. Maceda High School?s leading innovators created and developed the capability program. The project was carried out in District IV-Manila with the help of coordinators and school heads. There are 74% female participants in capacity development (new teachers). Predominance of Teacher IIIs in the last 20 years, most (70%) had never done action research. Participants (50%) agree with action research's philosophies and methods. Their skills and ability to execute the action research project were assessed. The program's relevancy, knowledge acquisition, and timeliness of information are its strengths. Their overall and conversational averages are near perfection. No treatment was given to the technical committee. Participation of those who will conduct and record the study is required in the action research plan. Thus, the capacity program should focus on master teachers. Administrators may benefit from teachers' insights on classroom activities. This will enable them to fill in any gaps left by previous webinars, like issues experienced by action research writers and frequent writing process misunderstandings.

This paper addresses practical approaches and models, based on the paradigm of the 'interpretivist school', to operationalise research in information systems. The study overviews research paradigms and some current issues in IS research, then describes, discusses and illustrates three approaches, namely, development research, action research, and grounded theory, advocating them as proposed pillars for interpretive IS research. With the present emphasis on user-centricity and empowerment of previously technologically-disenfranchised domains, inquiry processes emanating from the social sciences and humanities are relevant to IS, particularly with relation to interactive systems to bridge the digital divide and for the design and development of emerging technology. Each of the approaches suggested has an underlying theoretical framework and reflective methods, and can serve as a model to guide the research process, offering a unifying thread, cohesion and internal consistency to a research study.

The action research cycle reloaded: Conducting action research across buyer-supplier relationships

Despite the growing interest in information systems research, empirical studies on IS research and researchers are few. This study reports the findings from an exploratory survey of IS faculty on professional research concerns (e.g., the quality of IS research and the relevance of IS research to IS practice) and personal research concerns (e.g., research burnout and extrinsic pressure to do research). Issues for this study were identified based upon available literature and current opinions of IS faculty. Among other findings, it appears that the quality of IS research as perceived by IS faculty is still relatively low and seems to be linked to the “fragmented” or “diverse” state of the IS field as well as to research burnout among the faculty. Issues and hypotheses for further research are suggested along with recommendations for reducing research burnout.

Since last two decades an Action research has been exensively increasing ultimatum in English language teaching by Burns A (2019). Action research is developing the measures for language instructors/ teachers who involves in classroom observation for a upbring change. i.e demnads fruitful outcomes. Burns A. (2019) calls Action research is a general movement towards ’teacher research’. This study is a contribution of an action research project. The study is a critical attempt for learners and instructors who involves in EFL/ESL process. And aims to rectifie specific issues associated with teaching and learningin more organizing and effective manners. A classroom with peer observation, teacher diary notes, interviews, feedback to learners are action research methods. In this study, the font of data collection is class observation where we set some activities in order to collect data we observe xi class. And Freire (1972) banking modal of education is applied in sense to enhance the active learning process in English language class. Freire focuses on practical knowledge along with theory that can be achieved by students in natural environment as well. The reflections are the outcomes of the study that are posting after the three activities conducted in class.

How can action research be made more rigorous? We discuss in this paper action research, positivism and some major criticisms of action research by positivists. We then examine issues relating the conduct of IS research in organisations through multiple iterations in the action research cycle proposed by Susman and Evered. We argue that the progress through iterations allows the researcher to gradually broaden the research scope and in consequence add generality to the research findings. A brief illustrative case is provided with a study on groupware introduction in a large civil engineering company. In the light of this illustrative case we contend that effective application of the iterative approach to action research has the potential to bring research rigour up closer to standards acceptable by positivists and yet preserve the elements that characterise action research as such.

As a management information systems (MIS) project manager and an action researcher, the author examined, over time, the influence on information system development (ISD) of the informal sociopolitical organizational actions. The paper reports two cases of action research findings concerning the effect on ISD project implementation processes of power-based arbitrary decisional actions in bureaucratic environments. The research focused on the relationship of such unilateral actions to the interconnected subprocesses of deliberate and conscious attempts by the ISD project members to define and resolve system implementation issues. A suggested conceptual framework for the issue-resolution processes (IRP's) and obstacle-coping processes (OCP's) is based on the author's IRP/OCP-related behavioral constructs and theoretical models dealing with soft-systems issues, especially appreciative system theory and soft-systems methodology, and innovative flexible, "complementarist" (Sinn, 1998) or pluralist problem-solving approaches.

The methods of ethnography and action research have much to offer to the field of speech-language pathology, particularly as our clinical populations are becoming increasingly diverse. We suggest that practicing speech-language pathologists and students, as well as researchers, will benefit from strategies that use the methods of participatory action research and ethnography as guiding principles to their work. Ethnography seeks to discover meaningful structures in a culture from the perspective of those whose culture it is. Action research, which shares a methodological basis with ethnography, is undertaken with the aim of improving the functioning of the social institution, practice, or structure investigated for the benefit of those most closely involved with that institution or practice. By way of illustration, we use data collected during fieldwork in Louisiana, involving persons with dementia from linguistically and culturally diverse backgrounds.

The purpose of this chapter is to explore the IS field from a position where the individual is considered on par with the social and material in IS theorizing. The exploration is based on the foundational assumption that the individual and the social mutually constitute each other. The social realm is seen as a communal infrastructure, comprised of individual, neurobiological factors and communal, institutionalized factors. These factors enable and constrain individual actions, which in turn modify these factors; a process we refer to as communalization. In such a perspective, information is seen as constituted by the individual from integrating previous experiences and sensations emanating from the environment into an actionable percept. Communalization renders the IT artifact into a community-relevant Information System, comprised of individual factors and the artifact. Consequently, information, the IT artifact, and ISs are seen as dialectically related phenomena—one cannot be understood without the others. The practical relevance of the approach is demonstrated by the communalization of an IT artifact in the telecom industry. We discuss how mainstream IS research areas such as communication, sociomateriality, digitalization, and the essence of the IS discipline, can be advanced towards the dialectical position. In conclusion, we claim that a dialectical perspective opens up new avenues for advancing IS theorizing.KeywordsInformationInformation systemIT artifactDialecticsIndividualNeurobiologyActivity modalitiesCommunal anchorsDigitalizationCommunicationSociomaterialityMaterialityIntegrational linguisticsTelecom industryInformation systems discipline

This paper reports on an investigation of the nature of and interactions among the Information Systems academic research community in Australia. The 382 refereed papers from the two mainstream IS refereed publication outlets in Australia were analysed for the period 1990-1996 to determine the contributions of individual universities, departments and authors to the pattern of collaboration, and to examine the nature of the contributors. The study revealed that several institutions, departments and authors dominated the publication outlets and that the majority of the collaboration that occurred took place within university departments. Collaboration between and among different disciplines and nations, and between practitioners and academics was limited. It was found that although the Australian academic IS research community had only recently emerged, it was growing strongly.