PhD course May 23, 2011: Work Systems Theory: A Theory Base for Information Systems
Work Systems Theory: A Theory Base for Information Systems
Professor Steve Alter, San Francisco University
Title: Work Systems Theory: A Theory Base for Information Systems
Description: Work system theory (WST) is an evolving, multi-faceted body of theory for describing, understanding, analyzing, and designing systems in organizations.
This presentation will cover the following topics:
-the two basic frameworks in WST, the work system framework for summarizing a work system at a point in time and the work system life cycle model for describing how a work system evolves over time,
-basic premises underlying WST, and why those premises point in unique directions
-recent extensions of WST and directions for the future
The presentation will be designed to encourage discussion of the following issues:
-Does WST make sense?
-What are the benefits and shortcomings of WST?
-How can researchers, practitioners, and instructors use WST?
-How is WST related to other theories, such as activity theory, actor network theory, chaos theory, coordination theory, decision theory, evolutionary theory, general systems theory, and so on?
After the course there is an option of individual consultation based on a 1-page abstract of your PhD project.
Organizer: Head of Doctoral Scool Keld Bødker, Department of Communication, Business and Information Technologies, Roskilde University
Teacher: Professor Steve Alter, San Francisco University.
Steven Alter is Professor of Information Systems at the University of San Francisco. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. at MIT. His research for the last decade has concerned developing systems analysis concepts and methods that can be used by typical business professionals and can support communication with IT professionals. His 2006 book,The Work System Method: Connecting People, Processes, and IT for Business Results, is a distillation and extension of ideas in 1992, 1996, 1999, and 2002 editions of his information system textbook. His articles have been published in Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, MIS Quarterly, IBM Systems Journal, European Journal of Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, Interfaces, Communications of the ACM, Communications of the Association for Information Systems, CIO Insight, and many refereed conference proceedings.
ECTS: 1 ECTS
Time: Monday 23. May 10 am to 3 pm.
Participants: Participation is limited to 15.
Preference is given to PhD students from the DaRSIS network (http://www.darsis.dk/)
Price: Participation is free to PhD students from the DaRSIS network. Other PhD students pay 1200 DKK.
Prerequisites: no particular; participants are expected to have read some material including a recent manuscript by Steve Alter (approx. 100 pages) and a few other papers before the course. The reading material is distributed to participants shortly after the registration deadline.
Registration: Send an email to phd-admin(at)cbit.ruc.dk before May 9, 2011.