A Consideration for Researcher Career Retrospectives in Information Systems and Organization Studies

This essay considers the researcher career retrospective (RCR) as an emerging publication genre in information systems (IS) and organization studies (OS). I assess two recent career texts, by/of Daniel Robey and John Van Maanen, as representative exemplars of this genre. I outline the genre, and identify resemblance between this and three genres of academic writing – namely career studies, IS history, and tribute. RCR fills an important niche within IS/OS publishing, and is especially needed in the Scandinavian IS research, in which it is currently absent. The 38 years of the IRIS conference, and 27 years of the SJIS journal, coincide with the careers of dozens of researchers. Reflection on these careers would provide much value for younger researchers and for the whole research community.

[1]  J. V. Maanen,et al.  Ethnography as Work: Some Rules of Engagement , 2011 .

[2]  Daniel Robey,et al.  Information Technology, Materiality, and Organizational Change: A Professional Odyssey , 2013, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[3]  Harri Oinas-Kukkonen,et al.  What Every Information Systems (IS) Researcher Should Know About IS History (ISH) Research , 2014, ICIS.

[4]  Jeffrey Pfeffer,et al.  Mortality, Reproducibility, and the Persistence of Styles of Theory , 1995 .

[5]  Hugh P. Gunz,et al.  Career studies in search of theory: the rise and rise of concepts , 2015 .

[6]  Karl E. Weick,et al.  The Poetics of Process: Theorizing the Ineffable in Organization Studies , 2010 .

[7]  J. Pfeffer.  Barriers to the Advance of Organizational Science: Paradigm Development as a Dependent Variable , 1993 .

[8]  Richard Baskerville,et al.  The Contributions of Alessandro D'Atri to Organization and Information Systems Studies , 2013 .

[9]  René Riedl,et al.  Understanding the dominance and advocacy of the design-oriented research approach in the business informatics community: a history-based examination , 2013, J. Inf. Technol..

[10]  John Van Maanen,et al.  Ethnography then and now , 2006 .

[11]  Rudy Hirschheim,et al.  The Historical Research Method and Information Systems Research , 2014, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[12]  Frantz Rowe,et al.  Toward a richer diversity of genres in information systems research: new categorization and guidelines , 2012, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[13]  John,et al.  Reclaiming Qualitative Methods for Organizational Research: A Preface. , 1979 .

[14]  Alan R. Hevner,et al.  Design Science in Information Systems Research , 2004, MIS Q..

[15]  Suprateek Sarker,et al.  Guest editorial: qualitative studies in information systems: a critical review and some guiding principles , 2013 .

[16]  John Van Maanen,et al.  Style As Theory , 2006 .

[17]  M. Lynne Markus,et al.  Special Issue on Intensive Research in Information Systems: Using Qualitative, Interpretive, and Case Methods to Study Information Technology-Third Installment; Foreword , 2000, MIS Q..

[18]  Juhani Iivari,et al.  A paradigmatic analysis of contemporary schools of IS development , 1991 .

[19]  E. C. Hughes,et al.  Institutional Office and the Person , 1937, American Journal of Sociology.

[20]  Celia Moore,et al.  Tracing the Historical Roots of Career Theory in Management and Organization Studies , 2007 .

[21]  Pär J. Ågerfalk.  Insufficient theoretical contribution: a conclusive rationale for rejection? , 2014, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[22]  Kristin Braa,et al.  Our Antenna in the South is Gone , 2005, Scand. J. Inf. Syst..

[23]  K. Weick.  FROM SENSEMAKING IN ORGANIZATIONS , 2021, The New Economic Sociology.

[24]  J. V. Maanen,et al.  Fear and Loathing in Organization Studies , 1995 .

[25]  François-Xavier de Vaujany,et al.  Materiality and Time. Historical Perspectives on Organizations, Artefacts and Practices , 2014 .

[26]  D. Hall,et al.  Handbook of Career Theory , 1989 .

[27]  Hugh Gunz,et al.  Handbook of Career Studies , 2007 .

[28]  Dennis A. Gioia,et al.  On Weick: An Appreciation , 2006 .

[29]  M. Lynne Markus,et al.  Special issue on intensive research in information systems: using qualitative, interpretive, and case methods to study information technology—foreword , 1999 .

[30]  J. V. Maanen,et al.  Crossroads Style as Theory , 1995 .

[31]  J. V. Maanen.  Tales of the Field: On Writing Ethnography , 1989 .

[32]  Stephen R. Barley,et al.  When I Write My Masterpiece: Thoughts On What Makes A Paper Interesting , 2006 .

[33]  François-Xavier de Vaujany,et al.  Materiality and Time , 2014 .

[34]  R. Hogan,et al.  Employability and Career Success: Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Reality , 2013, Industrial and Organizational Psychology.

[35]  Richard Baskerville,et al.  Fashion Waves in Information Systems Research and Practice , 2009, MIS Q..

[36]  Juhani Iivari,et al.  A Paradigmatic Analysis of Information Systems As a Design Science , 2007, Scand. J. Inf. Syst..

[37]  Craig Fox,et al.  Wittgenstein: Wittgenstein on family resemblance , 2010 .

[38]  K. Weick.  Drop Your Tools: An Allegory for Organizational Studies. , 1996 .

[39]  Daniel Robey,et al.  Research Commentary: Diversity in Information Systems Research: Threat, Promise, and Responsibility , 1996, Inf. Syst. Res..

[40]  Jukka Paakki.  Opista tieteeksi - Suomen tietojenkäsittelytieteiden historia , 2014 .

[41]  John Van Maanen,et al.  A Song for My Supper: More Tales of the Field , 2010 .

[42]  T. Watson.  Ethnography, Reality, and Truth: The Vital Need for Studies of How Things Work in Organizations and Management , 2010 .

[43]  Richard Vidgen,et al.  The scholarly influence of Heinz Klein: ideational and social measures of his impact on IS research and IS scholars , 2011, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[44]  Robert I. Sutton,et al.  Crossroads—The Virtues of Closet Qualitative Research , 1997 .

[45]  Stacy Holman Jones,et al.  Handbook of Autoethnography , 2021 .

[46]  John Van Maanen,et al.  The present of things past: Ethnography and career studies , 2015 .

[47]  David E. Avison,et al.  Is theory king?: questioning the theory fetish in information systems , 2014, J. Inf. Technol..

[48]  Juhani Iivari,et al.  Distinguishing and contrasting two strategies for design science research , 2015, Eur. J. Inf. Syst..

[49]  Mats Alvesson,et al.  The closing of critique, pluralism and reflexivity: A response to Hardy and Grant and some wider reflections , 2013 .

[50]  Juhani Iivari,et al.  How to Improve the Quality of Peer Reviews? Three Suggestions for System-level Changes , 2016, Commun. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[51]  Sandeep Purao,et al.  Action Design Research , 2011, MIS Q..

[52]  Laura B. Cardinal,et al.  Making a life in the field of organization science , 2007 .

[53]  Niamh O. Riordan,et al.  Autoethnography: proposing a New Research Method for Information Systems Research , 2014, ECIS.

[54]  Rudy Hirschheim,et al.  A Glorious and Not-So-Short History of the Information Systems Field , 2012, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[55]  K. Lyytinen,et al.  Research on information systems development in Scandinavia—unity in plurality , 1998 .