Exploring the Explanatory Power of Actability

This paper is an enquiry into the empirical grounding of actability. In the paper the operationalization and application of an analytic framework based on actability and organisational semiotics is described. The analytic framework has been used as a tool in a qualitative analysis of the Internet-based software artefact. The results show that actability and organisational semiotics can effectively be used to gain understanding of specific information systems phenomena.

[1]  J.L.G. Dietz,et al.  Business modelling for business redesign , 1994, 1994 Proceedings of the Twenty-Seventh Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences.

[2]  J. Habermas.  The Theory of Communicative Action: Reason and the Rationalization of Society , 1986 .

[3]  Jim Conallen,et al.  Building Web applications with UML , 1999 .

[4]  J. Searle.  The Construction of Social Reality , 1997 .

[5]  J. Habermas.  Theory of Communicative Action , 1981 .

[6]  Ronald K. Stamper,et al.  Organisational Semiotics: Informatics without the Computer? , 2001 .

[7]  M. Alvesson,et al.  Reflexive Methodology: New Vistas for Qualitative Research , 2000, QMiP Bulletin.

[8]  R. Stamper.  Signs, Information, Norms and Systems , 1996 .

[9]  Pär J. Ågerfalk,et al.  From Usability to Actability , 1999, HCI.

[10]  Kalle Lyytinen,et al.  A speech-act-based office modeling approach , 1988, TOIS.

[11]  Anselm L. Strauss,et al.  Basics of qualitative research : techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory , 1998 .

[12]  Pär J. Ågerfalk,et al.  Action Within Information Systems: Outline of a Requirements Engineering Method , 1998, REFSQ.

[13]  Batya Friedman,et al.  Trust online , 2000, CACM.

[14]  P. Berger,et al.  Social Construction of Reality , 1991, The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society.

[15]  Geoff Walsham,et al.  Interpreting Information Systems in Organizations , 1993 .

[16]  Debra Howcroft,et al.  Interpreting Information Systems in Organisations , 1995, Inf. Syst. J..

[17]  Peter J. Denning,et al.  Completing the Loops , 1995 .

[18]  A. Strauss,et al.  Basics of Qualitative Research , 1992 .

[19]  A. Koller,et al.  Speech Acts: An Essay in the Philosophy of Language , 1969 .

[20]  Pär J. Ågerfalk.  Who's the User in User-centred Design? , 2001 .

[21]  Pär J. Ågerfalk,et al.  Actability: a Way to Understand Information Systems Pragmatics , 2002 .

[22]  Pär J. Ågerfalk,et al.  The Ability to Act Secure - A Key Success Factor for Local Internet-based Marketplaces , 2000 .

[23]  Pär J. Ågerfalk.  Researching the Applicability of Actability – Towards an Improved Understanding of Information Systems as Tools for Business Action and Communication , 2001 .