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On the Social Sustainability of Information Systems in Higher Education

Antonio Dias de Figueiredo
Antonio Dias de Figueiredo

This document discusses the social sustainability of information systems in higher education. It argues that while higher education has adopted practices from industry, it has done so with delay and outdated approaches. Information systems in higher education focus too much on efficiency and control rather than people. This has led to a "Weberian iron cage" that drives out creative academics. For information systems to be socially sustainable, they must be designed with people and partnerships in mind from the start. This includes understanding the values of all stakeholders to establish a sustainable value proposition. Information systems should make people's lives better by being sociable and socially sustainable.

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On the Social Sustainability of Information Systems in Higher Education June 20-22, 2012 EUNIS12 A 360尊 Perspective of IT/IS in Higher Education UTAD, Vlia Real, Portugal
1. THE MISSING DIMENSION OF IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION 3. THE WEBERIAN IRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION 4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES 6. CONCLUSIONS
1. THE MISSING DIMENSION OF IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION 3. THE WEBERIAN IRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION 4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES 6. CONCLUSIONS
1. THE MISSING DIMENSION OF IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION What is the Missing Dimension in Information Systems in Higher Education?
1. THE MISSING DIMENSION OF IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION What is the Missing Dimension in Information Systems in Higher Education? PEOPLE
1. THE MISSING DIMENSION OF IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION 3. THE WEBERIAN IRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION 4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES 6. CONCLUSIONS
2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION Higher Education has been adopting the key management practices of the corporate world: ≒ Management ≒ Strategy ≒ Quality Management ≒ Information Systems ≒ IT Governance
2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION In many cases, however, it has been doing it with: ≒ much delay ≒ out-dated practices CORPORATE WORLD 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s 00s 10s HIGHER EDUCATION 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s 00s 10s
2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION Higher Education Corporate World classical management: modern management: Management control, repeatability, culture, commitment, people as replaceable parts people as knowledge workers analytical, centralized projective, collective, Strategy and reactive and transformative Higher Education has moved directly The corporate world has moved from from ad hoc management to bureaucratic and mechanistic bureaucratic management management to organic and ecological It is increasingly emphasizing management, and sees people control, and forgetting people as the most valuable asset
2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION Higher Education Corporate World quality control, quality quality management, Quality assurance, accountability quality as transformation (mechanistic process) (social process) Information Systems IT Governance Quality as reaction to audits, Quality by design, essentially summative closely linked to strategy
2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION THE QUALITY MOVEMENT IN INDUSTRY Before 1900 Quality as an integral element of the cra7 1900-足1920 Quality control by foreman 1920-足1940 Inspec>on-足based quality-足control 1940-足1960 Sta>s>cal process control Higher Education 2012 1960-足1980 Quality assurance (quality department) 1980-足1990 Total quality management (TQM) 1990-足Present Culture of con>nuous improvement, organiza>on-足wide TQM Involvement of (Adapted from Sallis, E. (1996). Total Quality Management in Education, 2nd Ed. London: Kogan Page) all personnel
2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION ISO 9000 - European Quality Award (EQA), 1992 European Foundation for Quality Management people satisfaction of management collaborators (9%) (9%) policy & results of the leadership processes satisfaction strategy whole activity (10%) (14%) of students (15%) (8%) (20%) resources impact on (9%) society (6%)
2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION ISO 9000 - European Quality Award (EQA), 1992 European Foundation for Quality Management people satisfaction of management collaborators (9%) (9%) policy & results of the leadership processes satisfaction strategy whole activity (10%) (14%) of students (15%) (8%) (20%) resources impact on (9%) society (6%)
2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION BALDRIGE CRITERIA (USA)
2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION Higher Education Corporate World quality control, quality quality management, Quality assurance, accountability quality as transformation (mechanistic process) (social process) Information information systems as information systems Systems bureaucratic systems as social systems lower maturity, higher maturity, increasing IT Governance ignores social nature sensitivity to social nature Quality as reaction to audits, Quality by design, essentially summative closely linked to strategy
1. THE MISSING DIMENSION OF IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION 3. THE WEBERIAN IRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION 4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES 6. CONCLUSIONS
3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION Max Weber introduced the sociological concept of iron cage to describe the rationalization of the industrial societies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that imprisoned people in bureaucracies of technical efficiency, rational calculation and control
3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION The promotion of quality and comparability across universities in the face of tightening budgets and increased competition has led to an identical bureaucratization of Higher Education: ≒ increased coordination ≒ growth of power of central administration
3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION This is being described as: ≒ the neoliberal vision of higher education ≒ the market ideology informing higher education ≒ the replacement of innovation by accounting ≒ the short-sighted interpretation of comparisons between universities
3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION This Weberian pyramid of higher education, where everyone has a position to fill and a role to play is driving out of the academic ranks some of the more promising scientists and academic staff who do not want to work and live in an iron cage
3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
1. THE MISSING DIMENSION OF IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION 3. THE WEBERIAN IRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION 4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES 6. CONCLUSIONS
4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION The strategic analysis that underlies the specification of the information systems is conducted within this bureaucratic mind-set about higher education It concentrates on short term visions led by cost and efficiency factors and systematically ignores people
4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION This leads to: ≒ bureaucratic task models forced upon the users (namely faculty) ≒ poorly structured workflows for collecting data from the users (namely faculty) ≒ lack of concern with user experience ≒ unsatisfactory usability
4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION Information Systems are, thus, part of the problem
4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION Can Information Systems be part of the solution? YES by being conceived with PEOPLE in mind
1. THE MISSING DIMENSION OF IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION 3. THE WEBERIAN IRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION 4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES 6. CONCLUSIONS
5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES THE DESIGN CHALLENGES FOR IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION The social nature of IS/IT solutions in Higher Education must be taken into account from the very beginning and through all the stages of the IT/IS lifecycle
5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES DESIGN AS A PARTNERSHIP The design, management, and enhancement of the IS should be seen as a partnership between: ≒ stakeholders Traditional visions of IT Governance refer to business-IT alignment, ≒ business/management ignoring the existence of human stakeholders ≒ technology
5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES PRINCIPLE OF SUSTAINABLE PARTNERSHIP For a partnership to be sustainable it must fulfil in permanence the interests and motivations of all the parts. If one of the parts feels it is losing, the partnership breaks down. Each part must make sure that all the other parts are happy with the partnership.
5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES The common agreement that matches the interests of all the parts is known as the value proposition. The clarification of the value proposition requires that all the parts, and the relationships between them, be identified and the value for each part fully recognized.
5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES The sustainability of the value proposition can be established and monitored at all stages of the Information Systems lifecycle with the help of social theories such as ACTOR NETWORK THEORY
5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES Some important current dimensions of the IS/IT domain, such as: IT GOVERNANCE SERVICE SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND DESIGN which were mostly technical in their origins are now becoming increasingly sensitive to the social nature of IS/IT
5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES but some dark clouds could be looming in the horizon
ACADEMIC ANALYTICS which can be an invaluable tool at the service of strategy and management in higher education can also have catastrophic implications, if used against social values and expectations of people
1. THE MISSING DIMENSION OF IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION 3. THE WEBERIAN IRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION 4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES 6. CONCLUSIONS
6. CONCLUSIONS Information Systems in Higher Education can and should be ≒ sociable ≒ socially sustainable
6. CONCLUSIONS For that to happen they must be designed with the social nature of Higher Education in mind and make invisible to the users the bureaucratic needs of management They should make peoples lives better: not worse
6. CONCLUSIONS Finally, they should be audited for compliance with the original concerns of Quality in Higher Education: people satisfaction of management collaborators (9%) (9%) policy & results of the leadership processes satisfaction strategy whole activity (10%) (14%) of students (15%) (8%) (20%) resources impact on (9%) society (6%)
6. CONCLUSIONS Shouldnt information systems be up to the quality of the academic environment they are supposed to support?
THE END On the Social Sustainability of Information Systems in Higher Education The slides will be made available at: http://www.slideshare.net/ad鍖gueiredo June 20-22, 2012 EUNIS12 A 360尊 Perspective of IT/IS in Higher Education UTAD, Vlia Real, Portugal
On the Social Sustainability of Information Systems in Higher Education

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On the Social Sustainability of Information Systems in Higher Education

  • 1. On the Social Sustainability of Information Systems in Higher Education June 20-22, 2012 EUNIS12 A 360尊 Perspective of IT/IS in Higher Education UTAD, Vlia Real, Portugal
  • 2. 1. THE MISSING DIMENSION OF IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION 3. THE WEBERIAN IRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION 4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES 6. CONCLUSIONS
  • 3. 1. THE MISSING DIMENSION OF IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION 3. THE WEBERIAN IRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION 4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES 6. CONCLUSIONS
  • 4. 1. THE MISSING DIMENSION OF IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION What is the Missing Dimension in Information Systems in Higher Education?
  • 5. 1. THE MISSING DIMENSION OF IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION What is the Missing Dimension in Information Systems in Higher Education? PEOPLE
  • 6. 1. THE MISSING DIMENSION OF IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION 3. THE WEBERIAN IRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION 4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES 6. CONCLUSIONS
  • 7. 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION Higher Education has been adopting the key management practices of the corporate world: ≒ Management ≒ Strategy ≒ Quality Management ≒ Information Systems ≒ IT Governance
  • 8. 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION In many cases, however, it has been doing it with: ≒ much delay ≒ out-dated practices CORPORATE WORLD 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s 00s 10s HIGHER EDUCATION 50s 60s 70s 80s 90s 00s 10s
  • 9. 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION Higher Education Corporate World classical management: modern management: Management control, repeatability, culture, commitment, people as replaceable parts people as knowledge workers analytical, centralized projective, collective, Strategy and reactive and transformative Higher Education has moved directly The corporate world has moved from from ad hoc management to bureaucratic and mechanistic bureaucratic management management to organic and ecological It is increasingly emphasizing management, and sees people control, and forgetting people as the most valuable asset
  • 10. 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION Higher Education Corporate World quality control, quality quality management, Quality assurance, accountability quality as transformation (mechanistic process) (social process) Information Systems IT Governance Quality as reaction to audits, Quality by design, essentially summative closely linked to strategy
  • 11. 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION THE QUALITY MOVEMENT IN INDUSTRY Before 1900 Quality as an integral element of the cra7 1900-足1920 Quality control by foreman 1920-足1940 Inspec>on-足based quality-足control 1940-足1960 Sta>s>cal process control Higher Education 2012 1960-足1980 Quality assurance (quality department) 1980-足1990 Total quality management (TQM) 1990-足Present Culture of con>nuous improvement, organiza>on-足wide TQM Involvement of (Adapted from Sallis, E. (1996). Total Quality Management in Education, 2nd Ed. London: Kogan Page) all personnel
  • 12. 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION ISO 9000 - European Quality Award (EQA), 1992 European Foundation for Quality Management people satisfaction of management collaborators (9%) (9%) policy & results of the leadership processes satisfaction strategy whole activity (10%) (14%) of students (15%) (8%) (20%) resources impact on (9%) society (6%)
  • 13. 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION ISO 9000 - European Quality Award (EQA), 1992 European Foundation for Quality Management people satisfaction of management collaborators (9%) (9%) policy & results of the leadership processes satisfaction strategy whole activity (10%) (14%) of students (15%) (8%) (20%) resources impact on (9%) society (6%)
  • 14. 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION BALDRIGE CRITERIA (USA)
  • 15. 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION Higher Education Corporate World quality control, quality quality management, Quality assurance, accountability quality as transformation (mechanistic process) (social process) Information information systems as information systems Systems bureaucratic systems as social systems lower maturity, higher maturity, increasing IT Governance ignores social nature sensitivity to social nature Quality as reaction to audits, Quality by design, essentially summative closely linked to strategy
  • 16. 1. THE MISSING DIMENSION OF IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION 3. THE WEBERIAN IRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION 4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES 6. CONCLUSIONS
  • 17. 3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION Max Weber introduced the sociological concept of iron cage to describe the rationalization of the industrial societies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that imprisoned people in bureaucracies of technical efficiency, rational calculation and control
  • 18. 3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION The promotion of quality and comparability across universities in the face of tightening budgets and increased competition has led to an identical bureaucratization of Higher Education: ≒ increased coordination ≒ growth of power of central administration
  • 19. 3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION This is being described as: ≒ the neoliberal vision of higher education ≒ the market ideology informing higher education ≒ the replacement of innovation by accounting ≒ the short-sighted interpretation of comparisons between universities
  • 20. 3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
  • 21. 3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
  • 22. 3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
  • 23. 3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
  • 24. 3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
  • 25. 3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
  • 26. 3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION This Weberian pyramid of higher education, where everyone has a position to fill and a role to play is driving out of the academic ranks some of the more promising scientists and academic staff who do not want to work and live in an iron cage
  • 27. 3. THE WEBERIAN iRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION
  • 28. 1. THE MISSING DIMENSION OF IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION 3. THE WEBERIAN IRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION 4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES 6. CONCLUSIONS
  • 29. 4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION The strategic analysis that underlies the specification of the information systems is conducted within this bureaucratic mind-set about higher education It concentrates on short term visions led by cost and efficiency factors and systematically ignores people
  • 30. 4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION This leads to: ≒ bureaucratic task models forced upon the users (namely faculty) ≒ poorly structured workflows for collecting data from the users (namely faculty) ≒ lack of concern with user experience ≒ unsatisfactory usability
  • 31. 4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION Information Systems are, thus, part of the problem
  • 32. 4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION Can Information Systems be part of the solution? YES by being conceived with PEOPLE in mind
  • 33. 1. THE MISSING DIMENSION OF IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION 3. THE WEBERIAN IRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION 4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES 6. CONCLUSIONS
  • 34. 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES THE DESIGN CHALLENGES FOR IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION The social nature of IS/IT solutions in Higher Education must be taken into account from the very beginning and through all the stages of the IT/IS lifecycle
  • 35. 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES DESIGN AS A PARTNERSHIP The design, management, and enhancement of the IS should be seen as a partnership between: ≒ stakeholders Traditional visions of IT Governance refer to business-IT alignment, ≒ business/management ignoring the existence of human stakeholders ≒ technology
  • 36. 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES PRINCIPLE OF SUSTAINABLE PARTNERSHIP For a partnership to be sustainable it must fulfil in permanence the interests and motivations of all the parts. If one of the parts feels it is losing, the partnership breaks down. Each part must make sure that all the other parts are happy with the partnership.
  • 37. 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES The common agreement that matches the interests of all the parts is known as the value proposition. The clarification of the value proposition requires that all the parts, and the relationships between them, be identified and the value for each part fully recognized.
  • 38. 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES The sustainability of the value proposition can be established and monitored at all stages of the Information Systems lifecycle with the help of social theories such as ACTOR NETWORK THEORY
  • 39. 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES Some important current dimensions of the IS/IT domain, such as: IT GOVERNANCE SERVICE SCIENCE, ENGINEERING AND DESIGN which were mostly technical in their origins are now becoming increasingly sensitive to the social nature of IS/IT
  • 40. 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES but some dark clouds could be looming in the horizon
  • 41. ACADEMIC ANALYTICS which can be an invaluable tool at the service of strategy and management in higher education can also have catastrophic implications, if used against social values and expectations of people
  • 42. 1. THE MISSING DIMENSION OF IS/IT IN HIGHER EDUCATION 2. FROM INDUSTRY TO HIGHER EDUCATION 3. THE WEBERIAN IRON CAGE OF HIGHER EDUCATION 4. BACK TO THE MISSING DIMENSION 5. THE DESIGN CHALLENGES 6. CONCLUSIONS
  • 43. 6. CONCLUSIONS Information Systems in Higher Education can and should be ≒ sociable ≒ socially sustainable
  • 44. 6. CONCLUSIONS For that to happen they must be designed with the social nature of Higher Education in mind and make invisible to the users the bureaucratic needs of management They should make peoples lives better: not worse
  • 45. 6. CONCLUSIONS Finally, they should be audited for compliance with the original concerns of Quality in Higher Education: people satisfaction of management collaborators (9%) (9%) policy & results of the leadership processes satisfaction strategy whole activity (10%) (14%) of students (15%) (8%) (20%) resources impact on (9%) society (6%)
  • 46. 6. CONCLUSIONS Shouldnt information systems be up to the quality of the academic environment they are supposed to support?
  • 47. THE END On the Social Sustainability of Information Systems in Higher Education The slides will be made available at: http://www.slideshare.net/ad鍖gueiredo June 20-22, 2012 EUNIS12 A 360尊 Perspective of IT/IS in Higher Education UTAD, Vlia Real, Portugal