IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/tjisxx/v17y2008i5p448-469.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Defining information systems as work systems: implications for the IS field

Author

Listed:
  • Steven Alter

Abstract

The lack of an agreed upon definition of information system (IS) is one of many obstacles troubling the academic IS discipline. After listing a number of definitions of IS, this paper defines IS as a special case of work system as defined in Alter (1999a). This definition has many desirable characteristics: it is easy to understand; differentiates IS from information technology (IT); covers totally manual, partially automated, and totally automated ISs; links to a life cycle model that generates many insights about development and implementation problems; provides a simple guideline that helps in interpreting common IS/IT jargon; and has other useful implications related to IS concepts, IS terminology, and the analysis and design of ISs. The paper presents the proposed IS definition and evaluates the definition in terms of simplicity, clarity, scope, systematic power, explanatory power, validity, reliability, and fruitfulness. An Appendix summarizes previously published concepts and two frameworks that flow from the proposed definition and are useful for appreciating many points in the evaluation section.

Suggested Citation

  • Steven Alter, 2008. "Defining information systems as work systems: implications for the IS field," European Journal of Information Systems, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(5), pages 448-469, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:tjisxx:v:17:y:2008:i:5:p:448-469
    DOI: 10.1057/ejis.2008.37
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1057/ejis.2008.37
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1057/ejis.2008.37?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lysann Gebauer & Michael Marcin Gierczak & Matthias Söllner & Jan Marco Leimeister, 2015. "Einflussfaktoren auf die Nutzung von Cloud-Speicherdiensten," Schmalenbach Journal of Business Research, Springer, vol. 67(3), pages 367-407, September.
    2. Monideepa Tarafdar & Cary L Cooper & Jean‐françois Stich, 2018. "The technostress trifecta - techno eustress, techno distress and design: Theoretical directions and an agenda for research," Post-Print hal-01689038, HAL.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:tjisxx:v:17:y:2008:i:5:p:448-469. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/tjis .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.