Information, systems, and information systems : making sense of the field

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Title:

Author:

Checkland, Peter.

ISBN:

9780471958208

Personal Author:

Checkland, Peter.

Publication Information:

Chichester ; New York : Wiley, c1998.

Physical Description:

xv, 262 p. : ill. ; 24 cm.

Contents:

Pt. 1. The Field of Information Systems and its Problems. 1. The Field of Information Systems: Crucial but Confused. 2. Information Systems: The Anatomy of a Confusion -- Pt. 2. Basic Thinking: Information in Support of Purposeful Action. 3. Organizations: The Main Context of Work on Information Systems. 4. Information in Support of Action -- Pt. 3. Rhetoric and Reality in the IS Field. 5. The Information System which Won the War. 6. Soft Systems Methodology in Action Research. 7. Experiences in the Field -- Pt. 4. A Concept of the Field. 8. The Field of Information Systems.

Subject Term:

Management information systems.

Information technology.

Added Author:

Holwell, Sue.

Electronic Access:

Table of Contents http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/onix02/97034187.html

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168015713064	303.4833 C514.I 1998	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Science-based technology helps to shape our lives, and no technology is more powerful in this respect than that associated with information. But the emerging linked fields of information systems and information technology are still in a very confused state. There is a torrent of technical developments but the concepts which bring structure to the field and make sense of it lag behind. This book seeks to dispel that confusion, and aims to make sense of IS and IT as a whole. Conventional theory bears little relation to the experience most people have with computer-based systems in organizations. Based on real-world experiences in both the private and public sectors, this book from Peter Checkland and Sue Holwell tackles the subject afresh. Information, Systems and Information Systems provides a practice-based approach to the thinking needed to underpin provision of information support in organizations. Starting from fundamentals, the book develops a coherent account of the field. The book is thus a work of conceptual cleansing. It presents a well-argued and tested account of IS and IT which is both holistic and coherent. The sense-making models which emerge can encompass any particular assumptions about the nature of organizational reality and management, whether 'hard' functionalist or 'soft' interpretive ones, though the authors' sympathies are with the latter.