Conference presentation
A cognitive perspective on boundary-spanning IS design
Drexel University. College of Information Science and Technology. Faculty Publications and Research.
03 Dec 2007
Abstract
This paper examines social cognition processes in IS design teams that span organizational boundaries. We question the relevance of goal-driven process models of IS design, exploring evidence for a model based on convergence between the problem-space and the solution-space. We then develop concepts of design "framing", based on three different perspectives on social cognition: socially-situated cognition, socially-shared cognition and distributed cognition. These three perspectives are often conflated in studies of IS framing. The separation permits insights that are not possible with a combined perspective. Findings are presented from a longitudinal, ethnographic study of boundary-spanning design in a midsize engineering company. These findings provide unique insights into the interior processes of boundary-spanning design. This study has significant implications for both the research and management of boundary-spanning design. We conclude that we may need a very different management process to the decompositional process employed for IT system design, that focuses on inquiry into organizational problems in a much more sustained way than is currently the case. We may also need to develop new models for assessing design progress, based not on the development of a "common vision" of the target system, but on the extent to which design group members share a common vision of organizational problems and the levels of trust that ensue.
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Details
- Title
- A cognitive perspective on boundary-spanning IS design
- Creators
- Susan Gasson (Author) - Drexel University (1970-)
- Publication Details
- Drexel University. College of Information Science and Technology. Faculty Publications and Research.
- Resource Type
- Conference presentation
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- DU; College of Information Science and Technology (1995-2013)
- Identifiers
- 991014632508504721