Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
(Mitchell, 2000). Framing through the lens of an information system affects the perspectives
of the people in the organization. Over time, framing organizational information will signifi-
cantly affect the organization's culture. How can systems developers be better prepared to
handle such an important role?
SOLUTIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Education for prospective systems developers should provide students with leader-
ship theory and leadership opportunities. They need to learn about the effects and potential
effects of information technology on people in organizations:
Finally, in today's complex, uncertain, global environment IS/IT leadership requires
sophisticated conceptual and analytical skills since concept formation and idea generation
play a critical role in the design of IT for competitive advantage. To this date, leadership
training, education and development have yet to be incorporated into management informa-
tion systems (MIS) curricula to prepare today's MIS graduates for their roles as…leaders.
I have yet to encounter a graduate program in IS/IT that prepares students to become change
agents, motivators,…that teaches them how to craft, articulate, and communicate a vision,
and how to build an organizational culture in which IT and leadership are interdependent and
mutually reinforcing (Klenke, 1998).
Information system programs often address functional areas, such as accounting or
marketing, and students may even build applications to facilitate problem solving in these
areas. However, students should understand the leadership potential in computer systems
and build applications that help managers lead subordinates. They need to understand what
leadership is.
Perhaps the best class in which this understanding should occur is in a course that mixes
students who plan to be managers with those who plan to develop information systems. Some
4-year programs in computer information systems, such as the one the authors are involved
with at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colorado, include a senior-level project-based
policies course that might be ideal for this purpose.
Another option might be to bring two or more classes together at particular points
during a semester to initiate the development of parallel projects in differing areas. Framing
theory might be presented to all of the groups as a whole. Then, for instance, management
majors might have a project assigned requiring them to find methods to influence subordi-
nates on a particular issue through framing using computer systems. Computer system majors
may have a project in which they are required to create the systems that the management
majors have envisioned. They could be required to show how they implemented feedback
from the students with other majors.
If such projects are not feasible, framing theory should at least be covered in lecture
or readings. Its potential applicability to information systems should be emphasized. This
coverage could happen in a sophomore class, such as “Fundamentals of Information
Systems”; a junior class, such as “Theories of Information Systems”; or a “Current Topics”
course at the senior level.
Among the topics to discuss in whichever course is chosen would be organizational
politics as they specifically relate to technology. Robert Thomas, in his 1994 topic titled
What
Machines Can't Do
, explains that:
