on the social sustainability of information systems in higher education

On the Social

Sustainability of Information

Systems in Higher Education

June 20-22, 2012 EUNIS’12 – A 360º Perspective of IT/IS in Higher Education UTAD, Vlia Real, Portugal

2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION

3. THE WEBERIAN IRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION

1. THE MISSING DIMENSION OF IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION

5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES 6. CONCLUSIONS

What is the Missing Dimension in Information Systems in Higher Education?


What is the Missing Dimension in Information Systems in Higher Education?

PEOPLE


Higher Education has been adopting the key management practices

of the corporate world:

•  Strategy •  Quality Management •  Information Systems

•  IT Governance

•  Management


In many cases, however, it has been doing it with:

•  much delay •  out-dated practices

50s 60s 80s 70s 90s 00s 10s

CORPORATE WORLD

50s 60s 80s 70s 90s 00s 10s

HIGHER EDUCATION



Higher Education Corporate World

Management

Strategy

Higher Education has moved directly from ad hoc management to

bureaucratic management It is increasingly emphasizing control, and forgetting people

The corporate world has moved from bureaucratic and mechanistic

management to organic and ecological management, and sees people

as the most valuable asset

classical management: control, repeatability,

people as replaceable parts

modern management: culture, commitment,

people as knowledge workers

analytical, centralized and reactive

projective, collective, and transformative


Quality

Information Systems

IT Governance

quality control, quality assurance, accountability

(mechanistic process)

quality management, quality as transformation

(social process)

Quality by design, closely linked to strategy

Quality as reaction to audits, essentially summative


THE QUALITY MOVEMENT IN INDUSTRY

Before 1900 Quality as an integral element of the cra7

1900-‐1920 Quality control by foreman

1920-‐1940 Inspec>on-‐based quality-‐control

1940-‐1960 Sta>s>cal process control

1960-‐1980 Quality assurance (quality department)

1980-‐1990 Total quality management (TQM)

1990-‐Present Culture of con>nuous improvement, organiza>on-‐wide TQM

(Adapted from Sallis, E. (1996). Total Quality Management in Education, 2nd Ed. London: Kogan Page) Involvement of

all personnel

Higher Education 2012


leadership (10%)

people management

(9%)

policy & strategy

(8%)

resources (9%)

processes (14%)

satisfaction of collaborators

(9%)

satisfaction of students

(20%)

impact on society

(6%)

results of the whole activity

(15%)

ISO 9000 - European Quality Award (EQA), 1992 European Foundation for Quality Management


BALDRIGE CRITERIA (USA)



Quality

Information Systems

IT Governance

quality control, quality assurance, accountability

(mechanistic process)

quality management, quality as transformation

(social process)

information systems as bureaucratic systems

information systems as social systems

lower maturity, ignores social nature

higher maturity, increasing sensitivity to social nature

Quality by design, closely linked to strategy

Quality as reaction to audits, essentially summative


Max Weber introduced the sociological concept of ‘iron cage’ to describe

the rationalization of the industrial societies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries

that imprisoned people in bureaucracies of technical efficiency,

rational calculation and control

3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION

The promotion of quality and comparability across universities in the face of tightening budgets

and increased competition has led to an identical

bureaucratization of Higher Education:

•  increased coordination •  growth of power of central administration


This is being described as:

•  the market ideology informing higher education

•  the replacement of innovation by accounting

•  the neoliberal vision of higher education

•  the short-sighted interpretation of comparisons between universities


This Weberian pyramid of higher education, where everyone has

a position to fill and a role to play

is driving out of the academic ranks some of the more promising

scientists and academic staff

who do not want to work and live in an ‘iron cage’


The strategic analysis that underlies the specification of the information systems

is conducted within this bureaucratic mind-set about higher education

It concentrates on short term visions led by cost and efficiency factors

and systematically ignores people


This leads to:

•  bureaucratic task models forced upon the users (namely faculty)

•  poorly structured workflows for collecting data from the users (namely faculty)

•  lack of concern with user experience

•  unsatisfactory usability


Information Systems are, thus, part of the problem


Can Information Systems be part of the solution?

YES by being conceived with

PEOPLE in mind


THE DESIGN CHALLENGES FOR IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION

The social nature of IS/IT solutions in Higher Education

must be taken into account from the very beginning and through all

the stages of the IT/IS lifecycle

5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES

The design, management, and enhancement of the IS should be

seen as a partnership between:


•  stakeholders

DESIGN AS A PARTNERSHIP

•  business/management •  technology

Traditional visions of IT Governance refer to business-IT alignment,

ignoring the existence of human stakeholders

If one of the parts feels it is losing, the partnership breaks down.

For a partnership to be sustainable it must fulfil in permanence the interests

and motivations of all the parts.

PRINCIPLE OF SUSTAINABLE PARTNERSHIP

Each part must make sure that all the other parts are happy with the partnership.


The common agreement that matches the interests of all the parts is

known as the value proposition.

The clarification of the value proposition requires that all the parts, and the

relationships between them, be identified and the value for each part fully recognized.


The sustainability of the value proposition can be established and monitored at all

stages of the Information System’s lifecycle with the help of social theories such as

ACTOR NETWORK THEORY


Some important current dimensions of the IS/IT domain, such as:


IT GOVERNANCE SERVICE SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND DESIGN

which were mostly technical in their origins are now becoming increasingly

sensitive to the social nature of IS/IT

but some dark clouds could be looming in the horizon


ACADEMIC ANALYTICS

which can be an invaluable tool at the service of strategy and management in higher education

can also have catastrophic implications, if used against social

values and expectations of

people

Information Systems in Higher Education can and should be

6. CONCLUSIONS

•  sociable

•  socially sustainable

6. CONCLUSIONS

They should make people’s lives better: not worse

they must be designed with the social nature of Higher Education in mind

and make invisible to the users the bureaucratic needs of management

For that to happen

Finally, they should be audited for compliance with the original concerns of Quality in Higher Education:

6. CONCLUSIONS

leadership (10%)

people management

(9%)

policy & strategy

(8%)

resources (9%)

processes (14%)

satisfaction of collaborators

(9%)

satisfaction of students

(20%)

impact on society

(6%)

results of the whole activity

(15%)

6. CONCLUSIONS

Shouldn’t information systems be up to the

quality of the academic environment they are

supposed to support?

On the Social

Sustainability of Information

Systems in Higher Education

June 20-22, 2012 EUNIS’12 – A 360º Perspective of IT/IS in Higher Education UTAD, Vlia Real, Portugal

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