MIS Professionals: Translators for the Modern Manager
Diverse groups facilitate creative thinking. MIS professionals are in a unique position to facilitate the creation of diverse groups by being the translators between computer scientists, databases, managers, and clients.
Kautz, K., Madsen, S., & Nørbjerg, J. (2007). Persistent problems and practices in information systems development. Information Systems Journal, 17(3), 217–239.
This article attempts to parse several challenges that arise frequently during the development of an information system. These challenges are diversity, knowledge, and structure. These problems are closely related and cannot be avoided. Modern information systems can and do interact with extremely diverse pools of users who may be in environments that the information systems’ designers are unfamiliar with. This article suggests that the best methods for dealing with these challenges are organization and specialization, constant verbal communication and negotiation, and pragmatic application of specific development methods and concepts. It suggests further research methods to be applied to these issues, as well. This article is relevant to our blog in that it elucidates how the development of an information system can uncover diversity (or a lack thereof) within an organization. It also expounds upon the issues that can arise when an organization isn’t handling diversity properly.
Milićević, A. L., Langović, Z., Cvetkovski, T, & Pažun, B. (2013). Necessity of Respect the Relationship between Culture and Information Technology in Management Business Systems. Acta Technica Corvininesis – Bulletin of Engineering, 6(4), 21–26. Retrieved from
This article draws attention to the way in which cultural differences within virtual teams can and does influence the activities, final results, as well as the possibilities of business development at the global level. It is extremely relevant to our research in talking to how managers need to become intimately familiar with multiple cultures as many businesses move to virtual teams. It will provide us information and examples on how to handle the intricacies of multi-cultural virtual teams from a management perspective.
Peng, J., Zhang, G., Fu, Z., & Tan, Y. (2014). An empirical investigation on organizational innovation and individual creativity. Information Systems & E-Business Management, 12(3), 465–489. C
This article emphasizes that innovation is a critical success for organizations because innovation is surfaced through creativity and the quality or business operations. Through careful analysis of individual creativity, organization creativity, and relationships at both levels we can determine that diversity amongst groups enhances innovation. This data will greatly support our blog in identifying key factors such as the importance of having diverse groups with vast knowledge to avoid potential pitfalls for work productivity. This article provides us with extensive research sourcing, 167 samples of firm level data which we can use for reinforcing our stance in our blog.
Posey, C., Roberts, T. L., Lowry, P. B., Bennett, R. J., & Courtney, J. F. (2013). Insiders’ Protection of Organizational Information Assets: Development of a Systematics-Based Taxonomy and Theory of Diversity for Protection-Motivated Behaviors. MIS Quarterly, 37(4), 1189–1210. doi: 10.25300/misq/2013/37.4.09
The article draws attention to the systematic studies of protection behaviors. The article also discusses the systematic approach for diversity and behavioral differences. The goal is to provide a theory of diversity and achieve protective information security behaviors by developing formal taxonomy and classification schema. Taxonomy refers to the differences among population members. This information will support our blog by developing unique base-level ideas that will guide us through how to overcome any gaps or conflicts caused by diverse backgrounds among team members.
Roberts N, Campbell DE, Vijayasarathy LR. Using Information Systems to Sense Opportunities for Innovation: Integrating Postadoptive Use Behaviors with the Dynamic Managerial Capability Perspective. Journal of Management Information Systems. 2016;33(1):45-69. doi:10.1080/07421222.2016.1172452.
This article provides insight on how innovation thrives on diversifying risk-taking. In order for the organization to grow, it must produce results. The only results that matter are ones that don’t conform to current norms. The article presses this point of creative diversity. A manager’s role in business technology is only beneficial through the help of dynamic capability to optimize his solutions, rather than through satisfice. The article will be relevant in helping us discover just how important an organization’s dynamic capability is to pool knowledge and cultural experience in achieving a sustained competitive advantage.
Jacob Martin, Amr Ismael, Austin Nettleton, David Carrion, Tai Nguyen