Research notes

International

Journal of Information

Management

(19931, 13 (299-300)

Research Notes

Information systems: international perspective This issue’s research notes cover the research activities at the London School of Economics. The LSE, as it is popularly known, is part of the University of London and has been a pioneer of research into information systems. It is one of the leading research and teaching institutions in the UK. The distinctive feature of research at the LSE is that its focus is on the social and economic aspects of information systems rather than the technology. Dr Nimal Jayaratna Heriot- Watt University, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, UK e-mail [email protected].

Information systems as social systems: research at the LSE Background Information systems has been a focus of research at the LSE since the early 1970s when the combined efforts to bring computing into the social sciences and the social sciences into the use of computers defined our purpose. IS research appeared first in the guise of an expansion of the statistics research and teaching, later with the growth of operational research, and then in the separate development of the systems analysis group. The present name, ‘information systems’ was adopted in 1986. The use of computers in the School began very early. By 195.5 the School was regularly using off-peak time on the English Electric Company’s com-

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1993

puter in the Strand. We had our own computer installation in 196.5 and applications brought an awareness of information technology for social sciences to a new height. With the arrival of Frank Land in 1967 the group became distinctly Janus-faced, looking both at the applications of computers to social sciences and to the social analysis of information technology. The older face, that of computing for social scientists, has faded into a service division of the School, and research in information systems as social systems has come to characterize most of the subsequent work of the department.

Information studies

systems and social

For the past 20 years our consciousness as a research group within a social sciences institution has directed all our efforts. Research in information systems here is never seen as a spin off from management teaching, as it appears in many business schools, or as a tangent of engineering or mathematics, as it appears in some computer science departments. Our collaboration with scholars from throughout the LSE, from economics and social psychology to philosophy and anthropology, has been the source of our best inspirations. The organizing theme of the group is to maintain and develop a distinctive interpretation of management with and of information systems. It is especially distinctive in that it stresses scholarship about rather than promotion of information technology. It is also distinctive in that it focuses on the social and economic aspects of information systems and applied to the organizational, national and international levels. Specific themes include security, applicable computing (simulation, graphics), technology transfer, organizational theory,

Butterworth-Heinemann

Ltd

strategic information systems and public sector computing. The approach is to produce scholarly work to be used by a variety of people and institutions, and for that reason we emphasize not only scholarly journal articles, but also academic books, text books, publications for professionals and research based commercial products. Our current emphases can be summarized as ranging from research on application areas such as knowledge-based systems and networks, to organizational issues such as business strategy, to national and pannational policy analysis. A number of topics span all three realms, and the newly instituted Computer Security Centre is one example of a way to bring together a number of department members to consider everything from technical issues such as the design of secure systems, management issues including the implementation of security regimes in organizations, and policy issues associated with British and European Community legislation.

Research areas Information systems management has long been a focus and has been approached from a number of directions. The critical analysis of IS strategy has been especially important, as has an explicitly cultural view. The management of IT has also been assessed empirically and in the context of long term changes. Social control and the character of users’ requirements have been topics which have long characterized the department’s approach, since Frank Land opened up the area generally. Philosophical concerns underlie everyone’s work in the department, but it has been the explicit topic of much of the approach to both data analysis and expert systems. One of the main areas of concentration has long been the international

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Research

notes

context of information technology, including issues concerning the apphcation of systems to developing countries, the teaching of IS for development and the mobility of professionais. Related work on national contexts for IS in public administration have been particularly influential. Specific work on information technology in developing countries has been built at the LSE because of the strong links we have long had with students from throughout the world. These studies range from health informatics in developing countries to the particular concerns of African conditions for development. Studies of other countries are regularly encouraged as well as more general works. We have long had a concern with the critical analysis of artificial intelligence, and of more reasonable designs for expert systems and other forms of knowledge based systems. Much of this work has focused especially on tutoring systems, an especially fruitful area of intersection between social goals, cognitive styles, and expert systems research. Similarly, knowledge acquisition research, especially in relation to organizational problem solving has been a fruitful area. We expect that further developments in knowledge acquisition research will bring about significant changes in the foundation of expert systems work. Other work on expert systems has led to new tools and to new critical analysis. One technical area which has been explored from a variety of approaches is computer graphics. The programming aspects have been covered in a number of recent books and papers. More narrowly mathematical papers in the area have also appeared, although they no longer constitute a research focus. This has also been applied in the department to multimedia environments, an area which is being taken further by new members of staff. The study of particular application areas, and of end-user computing, has been of great influence not only in our teaching but, in the conduct of IS teaching in other institutions. Related work in the area of IS evaluation has focused on subjective assessments,

300

and on critical views of existing approaches. There has long been important work in simulation modelling, coordinated through the Computer Aided Simulation Modelling programmes. Spin-offs from this work has been especially fruitful.

Departmental

structure

Research management is usually via the research project or programme with the support, as appropriate, of the Department, Centres or School. The focus within the group on seminars and in the Centres on programmes is crucial in organi~ng resources productively and gaining the benefits of interaction and economies of scale (where relevant). Monitoring of the individual academic’s progression is a continuing, important exercise. Internationally we are in great demand to present our research and over the past five years we have delivered over IO0 invited lectures outside the UK. Although we value this attention and we intend to continue, the number of such requests has grown so fast that we can only satisfy a decreasing proportion. Examples of our international activity include: a founder member of the European Institute for East-West Cooperation of UNESCO; the UNESCO Working Party on Brain Drain in Europe; director of the Commonwealth Programme on Training of Information Systems Trainers at the Indian Institute of Management; and director of the annual British Council Conference on Information Technology for Developing Countries. We have research visitors from all over the world. We also carry out many research activities in these countries as well as editing a major international journal, the European Journal of Zn~or~u~ion Systems. The Ma~millan’s Information Systems book series is also edited by the group. Academic staff of the department are regular reviewers for the ESRC, SERC and foreign research applications, including those from the US National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Finally, our activities with other organizations include research collaboration or research presentations at major British and international companies including Glaxo, ICL, Unilever, and Barclays Bank. We also work with government bodies in Britain and abroad, including the Polish Health Service, the Czechoslovak Informatics Board, the Saudi Ministry of Education, HM Treasury, the Board of Trade, the Foreign Office, and the Home Office, advising, writing reports and collaborating on research tasks. For further information please contact DT Jonathan Liebenau, Department of Information Systems, The London School of Economics, ~Ioughton Street. London WC2A 2AE, UK. Tel: 071405 7686; Fax: 071 242 0392.

Selected publications ANGELIDES, GEORGIOS

MARIOS

C.

AND

DOUKIDIS

(1990). Is there a place in oper-

ational research for intelligent tutoring systems?, Journal of the Operational Research Society. (Special Issue on Artificial i~telligence~~~pert Systems in operational Research), 41 (No. 5), pp. 101-113. ANGELL, IAN o. (1990). Systems thinking about IS and strategies, Journal of Information Technology. BACKHOUSE,JAMES,ALTHUS,K.

ANDSTAM-

How fur towards a semantic normal form? In: ASLIB Conference Proceedings, ASLiB Conference March 1987. PER,

R. (1987)

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. CORNFORD,

TONY,

DOUKIDIS,

GEORGIOS

(1988). In search of the expert system product: IFIP Joint International Symposium on Information Systems, Sydney, March. AND

LAND,

CORNFORD,TONY

FRANK

AND

DOKJKIDIS,GEORGIOS

(1991). An investigation of the use of computers within operationai research. European Journal of Information Systems, 1 (No. 2), pp. 131-140. LAND, FRANK AND HIRSCHHEIM, R. (1983).

Participative systems design: rationale, tools and techniques. Journal of Applied Systems Analysis, It3. LI~~ENAU,JONATHAN (1992).Theinformation function and cartelisation in the Ger-

man and British fine chemicals industry. In: International cartels in business history. (Y. Kudo and T. Hara, eds), Tokyo: Fuji, University of Tokyo Press. SMITt_ISON,STEVEANDLAND,FKANK(lgX6).

Information velopment.

systems

education

for de-

Inforrnat~on Technology Development, I (No. 2), pp. 59-74.

for