An Ethnographic Study of IS Investment Appraisal

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Author(s): Debra Howcroft (University of Manchester, UK)and Robert McDonald (University of Salford, UK)
Copyright: 2009
Pages: 19
Source title: Cross-Disciplinary Advances in Human Computer Interaction: User Modeling, Social Computing, and Adaptive Interfaces
Source Author(s)/Editor(s): Panayiotis Zaphiris (City University of London, UK)and Chee Siang Ang (City University of London, UK)
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-60566-142-1.ch019

Keywords: Human Aspects of Technology / Information Science Reference / Social Sciences & Humanities

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Abstract

Both academics and practitioners have invested considerably in the information systems evaluation arena, yet rewards remain elusive. The aim of this chapter is to provide rich insights into some particular political and social aspects of evaluation processes. An ethnographic study of a large international financial institution is used to compare the experience of observed practice with the rhetoric of company policy, and also to contrast these observations with the process of IS evaluation as portrayed within the literature. Our study shows that despite increasing acknowledgement within the IS evaluation literature of the limitations and flaws of the positivist approach, typified by quantitative, ‘objective’ assessments, this shift in focus towards understanding social and organisational issues has had little impact on organisational practice. In addition, our observations within the research site reveal that the veneer of rationality offered by formalised evaluation processes merely obscures issues of power and politics that are enmeshed within these processes.

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An Ethnographic Study of IS Investment Appraisal

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