School of Management

is associate professor and associate dean of the School of Management at the University of San Francisco. Her research focuses on energy policy implementation, specifi cally the network of stakeholders infl uencing government interventions on the choice of fuels or forces that are harnessed to produce electricity. Derivative of this work, she has investigated the consequences of our societal dependence on complex systems and mediating technologies.

"Rethink the theoretical foundations of the IS discipline" is one of the grand challenges for IS research identified in a Delphi study in Business Information Systems Engineering (Becker et al., 2015). This draft addresses that challenge directly through an integrated approach to the operation and evolution of systems. Almost any attempt to articulate a theoretical foundation for IS (a TFIS) would need to cover that topic although other attempts might emphasize other topics and other viewpoints.

This document is designed like a slide presentation (one main idea on many pages, many diagrams, and use of bullet points for brevity) to allow relatively quick understanding of the overall approach and of how and why separate parts fit together as an integrated whole.

The proposed TFIS has three main goals:
1) Integration: Build outward from an integrated core. 
2) Usefulness: Contribute to describing, analyzing, designing, and evaluating systems, developing new tools and methods, and supporting empirical IS research.
3) Near-symmetry: Treat sociotechnical systems (with human participants) and totally automated systems as similarly as possible.

This conceptual contribution introduces the idea of “facets of work” and explains how it can be applied to challenges in today’s IS discipline. The notion of facets of work emerged from earlier attempts to bring more knowledge and richer, more evocative ideas to SA&D. Focusing on facets of work during initial discussions of requirements could provide guidance without jumping prematurely to details, precision, and formal notation needed for producing testable software. The introduction explains the paper’s goal and organization. The next section defines facet of work, identifies underlying assumptions and criteria, and explains how 18 facets of work were identified. Three examples amplify the initial understanding of facets of work by showing how all 18 facets could be applied to specific situations. The next two sections discuss consolidating basic knowledge about facets of work, making that knowledge more accessible, and applying it in SA&D and in future research. The Appendix explains the disconnected steps that led to the current facets of work. It also presents six lengthy tables that each cover one aspect or another of the 18 facets. Some of those tables form the basis of the tools, methods, and future research mentioned in earlier in the paper.

This paper presents a current, accessible, and overarching view of work system theory. WST is the core of an integrated body of theory that emerged from a long-term research project to develop a systems analysis and design method for business professionals called the work system method (WSM). After discussing WST's basic premises and its two central frameworks, this paper summarizes the relationship between WST and WSM. It shows how experience with early versions of WSM led to three extensions of WST that addressed limitations-inuse in one of the central frameworks in WST. After comparisons with related theories, this paper closes with an evaluation of progress to date, new directions for research related to WST, and implications for the IS discipline. The two appendices summarize the long term research from which WST emerged and use a positioning map to show how WST is related to other topics in the IS discipline.

This paper uses work system theory (WST) and two of its extensions to provide an integrated perspective on engineering enterprises for emergent change. This paper starts by explaining six basic assumptions and distinctions related to emergent change. It introduces four frameworks or models related to WST including the work system framework, work system life cycle model, a theory of workarounds, and a work system metamodel. It shows how each framework or model can help in identifying different aspects of engineering for emergent change and also can be the basis of guidelines for that purpose. Overall, this paper provides a unique way to think about the engineering of enterprises. In addition, it explains a combination of concepts and frameworks that provide a path toward engineering for emergent change.

The" IT artifact" and debates about the core of the IS field received a lot of attention in the last several years. This paper is a response to Benbasat and Zmud's June 2003 MISQ paper" The Identity Crisis within the IS Discipline: Defining and Communicating the ...

This paper combines ideas from separate research streams to identify high-level design choices related to the scope and content of enterprise models. It summarizes the work system modeling method (WSMM), an extension of a long research stream related to seeing enterprises as interacting work systems. It applies a recently developed framework for describing theoretical perspectives to articulate numerous aspects of a work system perspective on enterprise modeling (EM). This paper’s main contributions include its approach for exploring conceptual or theoretical starting points for enterprise modeling and its expanded view of a work system perspective on enterprise modeling.

This essay presents a new approach for visualizing and organizing IS-related knowledge and expanding that knowledge. It mentions several approaches that might seem relevant before proposing a new approach that combines ideas from two sources, a taxonomy of "knowledge objects" (KOs) and the work system perspective (WSP), including several new extensions of work system theory (WST). Its contribution is the rationale and structure of a work system knowledge model (WSKM) that is potentially useful for organizing a significant fraction of knowledge related to IS.

Rethink the theoretical foundations of the IS discipline" is one of the grand challenges for IS research identified in a Delphi study in Business Information Systems Engineering (Becker et al., 2015). This draft addresses that challenge directly through an integrated approach to the operation and evolution of systems. Almost any attempt to articulate a theoretical foundation for IS (a TFIS) would need to cover that topic although other attempts might emphasize other topics and other viewpoints. Version 1.0 went to colleagues who provided early feedback at conferences or at university visits. It also went to co-authors and others who might find it useful. Feel free to forward the current version to anyone who might be interested. This document is long -50 pages -but it is designed like a slide presentation (one main idea on many pages, many diagrams, and use of bullet points for brevity) to allow relatively quick understanding of the overall approach and of how and why separate parts fit together as an integrated whole.

Rethink the theoretical foundations of the IS discipline" is one of the grand challenges for IS research identified in a Delphi study in Business Information Systems Engineering (Becker et al., 2015). This draft addresses that challenge directly through an integrated approach to the operation and evolution of systems. Almost any attempt to articulate a theoretical foundation for IS (a TFIS) would need to cover that topic although other attempts might emphasize other topics and other viewpoints. Version 1.0 went to colleagues who provided early feedback at conferences or at university visits. It also went to co-authors and others who might find it useful. Feel free to forward the current version to anyone who might be interested. This document is long-50 pages-but it is designed like a slide presentation (one main idea on many pages, many diagrams, and use of bullet points for brevity) to allow relatively quick understanding of the overall approach and of how and why separate parts fit together as an integrated whole. Quick scan. The outline on page 3 summarizes how the main ideas are organized. Scrolling page by page provides a deeper overview in the sequence of headings and figures or tables. Concise bullet points identify key insights or issues. Integration is based on consistent use of a work system perspective that is summarized briefly. Many pages are understandable independent of surrounding pages. Deeper consideration. You might find value in deeper consideration of how some of this paper's ideas are related to your research interests, such as relevant ideas that you had not considered. Your insights about limitations of this approach might help in identifying future directions for your research. Goals. The proposed Theoretical Foundation for IS (TFIS) has three main goals: 1) Integration. Build outward from an integrated core. Do not accept the excuse that the IS field is not ready for a serious attempt at integration. 2) Usefulness. Contribute to describing, analyzing, designing, and evaluating systems, developing new tools and methods, and supporting empirical IS research. 3) Near-symmetry. Treat sociotechnical systems (with human participants) and totally automated systems as similarly as possible. Trends toward digitalization, automation, AI, and robotics imply benefits from that type of near-symmetry for understanding changes in the "division of labor." I hope you have time to consider whether this overall approach is plausible and might have useful implications for your research or teaching. I would appreciate any comments you might have even though I recognize that many who see this are too busy to spend time on it. Again, feel free to forward this DRAFT to anyone who might be interested.

This paper summarizes a framework for describing theoretical perspectives (an FDTP) and uses it to describe the work system perspective (WSP) in a way that integrates ideas that often had been discussed in isolation from each other. It also illustrates how the FDTP can support application of the WSP to the idea of digital transformation (DT). It discusses the general value of the FDTP along with potential applications.

This paper explores linkages between work system theory (WST) and central concerns of the SIGPrag community related to theorizing the IT artifact and its organizational and societal context. The first part of the paper provides background about the development, basic ideas, and underlying premises of WST. In addition to summarizing older facets of WST, it summarizes three new extensions of WST, a service value chain framework for looking at service systems in terms of service concepts, a metamodel (Alter, 2010a) for looking at work systems in more depth than is supported easily by the work system framework, and a concept classification matrix (Alter, 2010e) that can support analysis and design activities and that might provide a way to organize a body of knowledge for the IS field. The second part of the paper returns to the questions about the fit and synergy between WST and the interests of the SIGPrag community. While it is clear that WST fits with central themes in pragmatist IS interests and research, such as usefulness, action, change, and knowledge, the potential synergy between WST and existing research topics in the SIGPrag community is not obvious.

Work system theory (WST) provides a bridge between managerial and technical perspectives on BPM that often seem distant from each other. In combination, the work system framework, underlying work system metamodel, and the work system life cycle model provide a number of bridges between those perspectives. In relation to managerial BPM, the work system framework treats "business process" as one of nine elements in a basic understanding of a work system. The others are participants, information, technology, products/services, customers, environment, infrastructure, and strategies. The underlying metamodel outlines a precise structure for analysis and design of work systems and for links to technical aspects of BPM. It provides details that are omitted from the work system framework, which has proven useful for initial high level summaries but is not granular enough to support detailed design and documentation. The work system life cycle model combines planned and unplanned (emergent) change through which work systems evolve. This paper explains where WST fits in the general realm of BPM-related topics and how WST might help in developing BPM further. It also identifies challenges and next steps related to using WST to expand the scope of BPM.

This article presents work system theory (WST) as a body of theory for analysis, explanation, prediction, and design and action (Gregor, 2006) related to systems in organizations. It provides background about how WST evolved, summarizes major components of WST, and explains that each of the five types of theory identified by Gregor (2006) appears in WST. The discussion of WST emphasizes its overall contribution to knowledge by emphasizing areas in which it differs from commonly used terminology, frameworks, and beliefs within the IS field. In a discipline in which even basic terms such as system, service, implementation, and user have many contradictory meanings, a key goal of WST is to demonstrate the possibility of using an internally consistent set of assumptions, concepts, frameworks, and principles as a basis for analysis, explanation, prediction, and design and action.

The work system method (WSM) is a systems analysis method for thinking about systems in organizations whether or not complete data and technical expertise are available. WSM's goal is to help business professionals understand and communicate about a system at whatever level of detail is appropriate. WSM treats systems as sociotechnical work systems with human participants rather than technical systems with users. It applies a static view of systems, the work system framework, and a dynamic view, the work system life cycle model. It combines those frameworks with conventional problem solving by defining the system in relation to problems and opportunities, drilling down to understand the situation in more detail, and producing a justified recommendation. Over 600 employed MBA and Executive MBA students have used various versions of WSM to produce management briefings including recommendations about IT-reliant work systems in their own organizations. While WSM can stand alone to help business professionals, it also can be used in conjunction with tools and methods from Six Sigma and software development wherever sufficient data can be collected and where technical expertise is available.

This document is relevant to both teaching and research. It explains how a "work system" perspective on systems in organizations illuminates many service topics in an understandable and broadly applicable way. It contributes to ISSIP (International Society of Service Innovation Professionals) by providing frameworks and concepts that can be used in describing, evaluating, analyzing, designing, and improving services and service systems. Work systems. This work system perspective was developed over many years based on the following goals: 1) conceptual clarity, 2) applicability by typical business professionals while analyzing typical system-related business situations and making decisions about those situations, such as proposing system improvements, 3) support for thinking about a system at different levels of detail and conceptual sophistication, depending on the analyst's goals, 4) support of communication between business and IT professionals. The clearest and most current explanation of the basic ideas is in the first 15 pages of:

This paper explains a type of knowledge-supported design thinking related to systems in organizations. It shows how work system theory (WST) provides the basis for the work system method (WSM), various versions of which have been used by many hundreds of MBA and Executive MBA students. Design thinking occurs throughout WSM and is especially prominent at the point where WST/WSM users apply their analysis and develop recommendations for improving an existing work system or creating a new work system. Knowledge support for that design thinking has been provided through the knowledge built into WSM, and can be provided in a more complete form through extensions of WST/WSM that include a series of design spaces based on knowledge about work systems and also a work system metamodel that expands on ideas in the core of WST. In contrast to systems analysis and design methods for IT professionals, this approach to design thinking for systems in organizations is equally applicable regardless of whether IT plays an important role.

This paper explores how work system theory (WST) and related core ideas in various versions of the work system method (WSM) overlap with enterprise engineering and with the DEMO methodology. Based on the definition of work system, an enterprise can be viewed as a set of interacting work systems. A work system can be summarized at various levels of detail. The simplest level is basically a verb phrase. The next level is a "work system snapshot." More detailed descriptions are based on a work system metamodel. This paper's contribution is in two areas, 1) establishing links between WST/WSM and enterprise engineering in general and 2) comparing aspects of WST/WSM and DEMO and demonstrating similarities, thereby implying the possibility of converting DEMO models into work system models that can be developed further using other methods and tools designed around WST. Those synergies might support combining theoretical underpinnings of DEMO with the intuitive simplicity of the work system perspective, which has been applied by many hundreds of employed MBA and Executive MBA students who produced management briefings recommending improvements in work systems in their own organizations. The overlap between WST/WSM and DEMO is demonstrated using a DEMO representation of the OMG's EU Rent example [1], which illustrated OMG's Semantics of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR) [2] and Business Motivation Model (BMM) [3]. A tabular summary called a work system snapshot captures much of a DEMO essential model of the EU Rent example. A more extensive summary based on a work system metamodel adds information for going from construction to implementation. The example illustrates how a work system perspective on a sociotechnical system fits with 7 postulates of an enterprise engineering manifesto [4] and with 7 enterprise engineering fundamentals [5], thereby suggesting the potential value of deeper exploration of those relationships.