Learning Outcomes:
This module will provide students with novel insights from contemporary research about IT in the global context and aims at stimulating critical and creative thinking by questioning established approaches.
Curricular information is subject to change.
Information systems originated as internal organizational tools to fulfil management purposes. Now, stand-alone and task-oriented information systems are being substituted by global information infrastructures. Information systems spread far beyond industrialized economies while we tend to remain focused on traditional settings like formal organizations of Western societies. This oversight might have been justified by the assumption that IT innovation originates from advanced economies and trickle down to other ones. This assumption is nowadays questionable, innovations may originate from the diverse settings and develop in unpredictable ways.
So, global information systems pose new challenges to our understanding and managing businesses:
- Usual distinction between IT designers and users is becoming blurred as a) no designer is in full control of IT in use and b) users engage in production of information and technology increasingly
- Global distribution of activities through electronic networks spans widely diverse settings, and put different organizations and cultures in novel interplays
- The contemporary actual contexts of reference and consequences of IT in use require more careful consideration of ethics
This module relies on a variety of case studies of IT in use (based both on world recognized scholars’ works and first hand research) from very diverse settings (for example: telemedicine and e-health, spatial data infrastructures, digital photography, micro-payment platforms among others). In order to account for the variety of organizational forms and processes presented, contemporary practice-based research in organizational studies is brought in for theoretical framing.
So, global information systems pose new challenges to our understanding and managing businesses:
- Usual distinction between IT designers and users is becoming blurred as a) no designer is in full control of IT in use and b) users engage in production of information and technology increasingly
- Global distribution of activities through electronic networks spans widely diverse settings, and put different organizations and cultures in novel interplays
- The contemporary actual contexts of reference and consequences of IT in use require more careful consideration of ethics
This module relies on a variety of case studies of IT in use (based both on world recognized scholars’ works and first hand research) from very diverse settings (for example: telemedicine and e-health, spatial data infrastructures, digital photography, micro-payment platforms among others). In order to account for the variety of organizational forms and processes presented, contemporary practice-based research in organizational studies is brought in for theoretical framing.
About this Module
Student Effort Hours:
| Student Effort Type | Hours |
|---|---|
| Lectures | 24 |
| Total | 24 |
Approaches to Teaching and Learning:
Not yet recordedRequirements, Exclusions and Recommendations
Not applicable to this module.
Module Requisites and Incompatibles
Not applicable to this module.
Assessment Strategy
| Description | Timing | Component Scale | % of Final Grade | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Group Work Assignment: Randomly formed teams will pick topics from a list provided with the syllabus and write an essay about it | Week 7 | Graded | No | 50 |
No |
| Exam (In-person): Final exam based on open questions | Week 12 | Graded | No | 50 |
No |
| Resit In | Terminal Exam |
|---|---|
| Summer | No |
Not yet recorded