Abstract
This paper focuses on the relationship between information systems (IS) and organizational processes from the perspective of the rationality of actors and their actions. The terms rational and rationality that are used in theoretical writings and in everyday life denote a multiplicity of meanings. The idea of reason has been connected with the disposition of actors to give rational grounds for or logical explanations of their beliefs and actions. Similarly, the actions by which actors achieve desired ends are regarded as rational. Furthermore, organizational processes that embody and are governed by rational actions are considered rational. More generally, an increase in the rationality that characterizes modern organizations and society is called rationalization. This paper explores the relationship between IS and organizations within the light of the progressive rationalization of organizational processes.
Access provided by Autonomous University of Puebla. Download to read the full chapter text
Chapter PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
References
Adele, B., Martens, A., Tordeur, G., Van der Smissen, B. and Muelenaer, G. (1984) Dossier Colruyt (EPO, Antwerp).
Adorno, T.W. and Horkheimer, M. (1944) Dialectic of Enlightenment (Herder and Herder, New York) (translated by J. Cumming).
Ang, J. and Pavry, F. (1994) A survey and critique of the impacts of information technology. International Journal of Information Management, 14, 122–33.
Attewell, P. and Rule, J. (1984) Computing and organisations: what we know and what we don’t know. Communications of the ACM, 27, 1184–92.
Avison, D.E. and Myers, M.D. (1995) Information systems and anthropology: an anthropological perspective on IT and organisational culture. Information Technology and People, 8, 43–56.
Bjorn-Andersen, N. and Eason, K. (1980) Myths and realities of information systems contributing to organisational rationality. In Human Choice and Computers, Mowshowitz, A. (ed.) (North Holland, Amsterdam), pp. 92–110.
Boland, R. (1985) Phenomenology: a preferred approach to research on information systems. In Research Methods in Information Systems, Mumford, E., Hirschheim, R., Fitzgerald, G. and Wood-Harper, A.T. (eds) (North Holland, Amsterdam), pp. 193–203.
Brubaker, R. (1987) The Limits of Rationality — An Essay on the Social and Moral Thought of Max Weber (Routledge, London).
Cecez-Kecmanovic, D. (2001) Doing critical IS research: the question of methodology. In Qualitative Research in Information Systems: Issues and Trends, Trauth, E. (ed.) (Idea Group Publishing, Hershey, PA), pp. 142–63.
Cecez-Kecmanovic, D. and Janson, M. (1999) Communicative action theory: an approach to understanding the application of information systems. In Proceedings of the Tenth Australasian Conference on Information Systems ACIS’99, Wellington, New Zealand, pp. 183–95.
Colruyt, J. (1984) What is different at Colruyt? In There are no Gentlemen Here, Sir, Penneman, T. (ed.) (Druco, Halle) (in Flemish), pp. 53–6.
DeSanctis, G. and Poole, M.S. (1994) Capturing the complexity of advance technology use: adaptive structuration theory. Organization Science, 5(2), 121–47.
Galliers, R.D. and Baets, W.R.J. (1998) Information Technology and Organisational Transformation (John Wiley & Sons, Chichester).
Gephart Jr, R.P., Boje, D.M. and Thatchenkery, T.J. (1996) Postmodern management and the coming crises of organisational analysis. In Postmodern Management and Organization Theory, Boje, D.M., Gephart Jr, R.P. and Thatchenkery, T.J. (ed.) (Sage, London), pp. 1–18.
Gopal, A. and Prasad, P. (2000) Understanding GDSS in symbolic context: shifting the focus from technology to interaction. MIS Quarterly, 24(3), 509–44.
Habermas, J. (1971) Knowledge and Human Interests (Beacon Press, Boston, MA).
Habermas, J. (1984) The Theory of Communicative Action — Reason and the Rationalisation of Society, Vol. I (Beacon Press, Boston, MA).
Habermas, J. (1987) The Theory of Communicative Action — The Critique of Functionalist Reason, Vol II (Beacon Press, Boston, MA).
Habermas, J. (1990) Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action (The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA).
Habermas, J. (1993) The Philosophical Discourse of Modernity (The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA).
Hirschheim, R., Klain, H. and Lyytinen, L. (1996) Exploring the intellectual structures of information systems development: a social action theoretic analysis. Accounting, Management and Information Technology, 6(1/2), 1–64.
Janson, M., Brown, A. and Taillieu, T. (1997a) Colruyt: an organization committed to communication. Information Systems Journal, 7, 175–99.
Janson, M., Guimaraes, T., Brown, A. and Taillieu, T. (1997b) Exploring a chairman of the board’s construction of organisational reality: the Colruyt case. In Information Systems and Qualitative Research, Lee, A., Liebenau, J. and Degross, J.I. (eds) (IFIP, Chapman & Hall, London), pp. 303–32.
Klein, H.K. (1999) Knowledge and methods in IS research: from beginnings to the future. In New Information Technologies in Organization Processes — Field Studies and Theoretical Reflections on the Future of Work, Ngwenyama, O., Introna, L., Myers, M.D. and DeGross, J.I. (eds) (IFIP, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston), pp. 13–25.
Klein, H. and Alvarez, R. (1987) The collective resource approach to systems design. In Computers and Democracy: A Scandinavian Challenge, Bjerknes, G., Ehn, P. and King, M. (eds) (Avery, Brookfield, VT), pp. 97–116.
Klein, H.K. and Hirschheim, R. (1991) Rationality concepts in information system development methodologies. Accounting, Management and Information Technology, 1(2), 157–87.
Koningsveld, H. and Mertens, J. (1992) Communicatief and Strategisch Handelen (Muiderberg, Coutinho, The Netherlands) (in Dutch).
Lyytinen, K. (1992) Information systems and critical theory. In Critical Management Studies, Alvesson, M. and Willmott, H. (eds) (Sage, London), pp. 159–80.
Lyytinen, K. and Hirschheim, R. (1988) Information systems as rational discourse: an application of Habermas’s theory of communicative action. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 4(1/2), 19–30.
Lyytinen, K. and Klein, H.K. (1985) The critical theory of Jurgen Habermas as a basis for a theory of information systems. In Research Methods in Information Systems, Mumford, E., Hirschheim, R., Fitzgerald, G. and Wood-Harper, A.T. (eds) (North Holland, Amsterdam), pp. 219–36.
Myers, M.D. and Young, L.W. (1997) Hidden agendas, power and managerial assumptions in information systems development. Information Technology & People, 10(3), 224–40.
Ngwenyama, O.K. (1991) The critical social theory approach to information systems: problems and challenges. In Information Systems Research: Contemporary Approaches and Emergent Traditions, Nissen, H.E., Klein, H.K. and Hirschheim, R. (eds) (Elsevier Science Publishers, New York), pp. 267–80.
Orlikowski, W.J. and Robey, D. (1991) Information technology and the structuring of organizations. Information Systems Research, 2(2), 143–69.
Robey, D. and Bourdeau, M.-C. (1999) Accounting for contradictory organisational consequences of information technology: theoretical directions and methodology implications. Information Systems Research, 10(2), 167–85.
Walsham, G. (1993) Interpreting Information Systems in Organisations (Wiley, Chicester).
Walsham, G. (1995) The emergence of interpretivism in IS research. Information Systems Research, 6(4), 376–94.
Weber, M. (1958) The Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism (Scribner’s, New York) (translated by T. Parsons).
Weber, M. (1964) Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft, Studienausgabe, 4th edn, Winckelmann, J. (ed.) (Kiepenheurer & Witsch, Koln) (in German).
Weber, M. (1978) Economy and Society, Roth, G. and Wittich, C. (eds) (University of California Press, Berkeley, CA).
Wellmer, A. (1994) Reason, Utopia, and the dialectic of enlightenment. In Habermas and Modernity, Bernstein, J.R. (ed.) (The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA), pp. 35–66.
White, S. (1988) The Recent Work of Jürgen Habermas: Reason, Justice, and Modernity (Cambridge University Press, New York, NY).
Wilson, F.A. (1997) The truth is out there: the search for emancipatory principles in information systems design. Information, Technology and People, 10(3), 187–204.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Association for Information Technology Trust
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Cecez-Kecmanovic, D., Janson, M., Brown, A. (2016). The Rationality Framework for a Critical Study of Information Systems. In: Willcocks, L.P., Sauer, C., Lacity, M.C. (eds) Enacting Research Methods in Information Systems: Volume 1. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29266-3_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29266-3_6
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-29265-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-29266-3
eBook Packages: Business and ManagementBusiness and Management (R0)