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Doktorandenseminar - PhD-Seminar (SS '06)

Professor Marco de Marco with Professor Claudia Loebbecke

- IT and Organizations: Which Relationship? -

2 SWS

Formalities

Participation:	Open to all PhD students at the 'WiSo-Faculty' at the University of Cologne. It will be conducted in English language.
Date:	Tuesday, July 11, 2006, 10:00 - 16:00 o'clock.
Location:	To be announced

Participation Requirements

· Request via eMail (not phone) to claudia.loebbecke<at>uni-koeln.de with CV and statement covering (1) advisor, (2) internal / external, (3) PhD topic, and (4) since when you have been pursuing your PhD / current status.

· Commitment to participate.

· You will receive an eMail confirming your participation.

Content

· Presentation and discussion along the literature and the topics derived from the literature. Feel free to draw your lessons from the assigned articles to research fields you are most familiar with.

· Short discussion on designing research for publishing in scientific outlets, prestigious journals and conference proceedings (focus on IS, media, and strategy outlets).

Certificate - Leistungsnachweis (NICHT TEILNAHMENACHWEISE!) - Bestandteile der Note

· Each participant answers all questions (see below) on ONE ppt slide PER question.

· Participants are able to present their answer to any of those questions. Presentation time per question: MAX 3 minutes (skip the general introduction ...).

· The PPT-file should be eMailed to claudia.loebbecke<at>uni-koeln.de latest by Tuesday July 4, 2006, 10:00 o'clock: After that point in time it cannot be changed any more. We will bring the slides to the seminar. In case you mail the slides earlier, we may or may not comment on them.

· Contribution / discussion during the seminar, quantity gives an impression, but quality counts.

Readings

· Markus, L., Robey, D. (1988) Information Technology and Organizational Change: Causal Structure in Theory and Research, Management Science, 34(5), 583-598.

· Ciborra, C. (2004) Encountering Information Systems as a Phenomenon, in: The Social Study of Information and Communication Technology: Innovation, Actors, and Context, Avgerou, C., Ciborra, C., Land, F. (eds.), Oxford Press, Oxford, 17-37.

Questions / Tasks (ONE slide per question / task)

1	How do the three conceptions of causal agency in the Markus / Robey paper (technological imperative, organizational imperative and emergent) differ?
2	Which of the conceptions of causal agency in the Markus / Robey paper looks most convincing and why?
3	Provide one example of variance theory and one example of process theory.
4	Say whether variance theory or process theory is more convincing and why.
5	Does it make sense to use the same research methods for IT / IS and other technologies, why or why not?
6	Find one more important scientific reference relevant for studying any of the topics mentioned in the five questions above. The reference should NOT be by Markus, Robey, or Ciborra and should be published in the year 2000 or later. Summarize the main content relating to any of the above topics.
7	Consider the reference you choose for question '6' and position the author(s) in the field, say how the reference relates to any of your earlier statement (agreement / differentiation based on WHICH ARGUMENT).

Other

Participation without slides and active participation is not possible (Exception: MM PhD students).

We look forward to receiving your eMail expressing your interest,

Marco de Marco and Claudia Loebbecke