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Critical Issues in Information Systems

Explore how Genre Theory reveals shifts in system features and work practices in Contextual Configuration, and apply this theory to identify negotiation and elements adaptability in actual IS cases. Discover the impact of negotiable genre elements on genres and implications for genre sequences and species in IS environments.

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Critical Issues in Information Systems

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  1. Critical Issues in Information Systems BUSS 951 Lecture 12 Evolution of Systems

  2. Recall • Last week we claimed that you could analyse a system using Systemic Functional Linguistics • we can use texts associated with workpractices to analyse what is being done, by whom to whom, and how this is being done

  3. Agenda • this week we will describe • describe several theories of one useful strata- genre and apply it to SFL to an actual IS in its workplace- ALABS • use our substantive knowledge of IS to alter the theory • apply this theory to some features of the ALABS system

  4. Agenda • overtime we can see shifts in the genre structure of texts associated with these workpractices and a system features... • NOTE: case studies conducted over time are referred to as longitudinal studies, or diachronic studies • we can do this because we can study systems features using texts, remembering that there is a relationship between text and context! • we can ask question why did this change to take place?

  5. Readings • Kress (1985) “The linguistic expression of social meaning: discourse, genre and text” #22 • Eggins (1994) “Context of culture: genre” #23 • Hasan (1985) “The structure of a text” #24 • Clarke (1996) “The Persistence of Systems in Organisations: Genre Analysis of Systems Commissioning” #25

  6. Genre Theory Revisited

  7. Social Context and Language Genre: Several Theories • now it so happens that there are two major views on genre • the first is that genre is simply the unique instance of field, tenor and mode (also called Contextual Configuration) • this is the model of genre theorised by Hasan(this tutorial)

  8. Social Context and Language Genre: Several Theories • in your reading, the ALABS system is looked at from this point of view initially- but it has some problems when looking at IS in organisations • the alternative way of looking at genre is to treat it in exactly the same way as the rest of the SFL model ie/ as its own strata

  9. Genre (Martin) • obligatory/optional element distinction developed by Hasan is also used by Martin, but • field evidence: the absence of an obligatory element (ALABS Identification Given element renegotiated into a Value Retained Item) • consequence: abandoning the system to perform the loan, ad hoc development of a manual workaround to complete the loan

  10. Negotiable Genre ElementsImplications for Elements... • genre elements are negotiated entities: • a genre is more likely to fail to complete when both parties cannot come to an agreement • IG may ‘fail’ for Labstaff member but may under certain circumstances be renegotiated by a ‘pushy’ Student • a student who fails to negotiate will not complete a loan by any means

  11. Negotiable Genre Elements...Implications for Elements • if genre elements are negotiable categories • can’t use a crisp obligatory-not obligatory (i.e. optional) distinction • have to use something more like conditional probabilistic occurrence • elements can be arranged somewhere on a continuum of occurrence; where, 0 = never found (i.e. absent) or 1 = always found

  12. Negotiable Genre ElementsImplications for Genres • if genre elements are negotiable categories, then the following consequences apply • some genres will have renegotiated obligatory elements (Clarke) or missing obligatory elements (Ventola) • therefore, a larger range of genre sequences, can find themselves as members of specific genres- genres become fuzzy not crisp classifications

  13. Quasispecies Field Tenor Mode M:M:M Other Genre Other Genre most dissimilar most dissimilar identical Quasispecies

  14. Comparison Genre Species (Hasan 1985) Genre Quasispecies Other Genre Other Genre

  15. Social Context and Language Genre: Several Theories • for various reasons genre as a strata(after Martin) is much better way of looking at IS • like everything is SFL: linguistic resources form systems available to language users- • genre should also be treated in this way • IS appear to have some strange characteristics- they are multigeneric by nature

  16. Genre and ALABS

  17. Genre AnalysisApplied to IS • Genre Analysis is applied bottom-up: provides a very detailed view of work practices which then need to be integrated across various sites • need to look at many actual textsin a social context in order to find out about work practices

  18. Genre Analysis Data Collection 1. Multiple texts gathered in a particular Material Settingassociated with a particular Context of Situation(ie. Register) 2. Texts are transcribed if involving spoken language. All texts are analysed for genre elements 3. Individual Schematic Structures (SS)(after Martin) or Genre Sequences(GS)(after Clarke) are analysed Data Analysis/Results 3. A single Generic StructurePotential (GSP) (after Hasan) or a single Genre Digraphis formed (after Clarke) eg/ Buying Bread

  19. ALABS Study (1) • Automated Library And Borrowing System at the Microcomputer Laboratories, UOW • noweffectively decommissionedas a consequence of networking • developed by staff who then used the system (end-user developed system) • study looked at parts of system which used speech only referred to as service encounters • longitudinal study of these service encounters over 12 years of operation, four versions and three platforms

  20. Student Loans • By taking transcripts of Students borrowing s/w, manuals and h/w (especially s/w) a number of stages were found in texts • a genre sequence was identified which accounted for most Student Loans

  21. Student Loans Greetings, Service Request, Identification Sought, Regulations, Enrolment, Materials Out, Finis ALABS Student Loan RE E G IS MO SR F SR

  22. Conditions of Use form • ALABS Example: Conditions of Use form (written text) is associated with the Regulations (RE) element in Student Loans genre. • the Conditions of Use form describes what students can borrow, when to return it and what can happen if they don’t • By inference once a student signs this form, all subsequent Student Loans in a session will operate by these conditions- it’s a contract

  23. Student Returns • Student Returns are of course much simpler because the student does not need proof of identity (student card was retained at the office during the Student Loan). • None-the-less the Conditions of Use form relates Loans and Returns together!

  24. Student Returns Greetings, Request Completion, Materials In Identification Returned, Finis ALABS Student Return G IR MI F RC

  25. Systems Evolution

  26. Cutting, Pasting, Elaboration • ALABS provides evidence for the wholesale, purposeful manipulation of individual genres • the manipulation is of three types: • the removal of genre elements • the addition of new genre elements • both of the above

  27. ALABS Version 1 ALABS Student Loan RE E G IS MO F SR SR ALABS Student Return IR MI F MI IR G RC

  28. ALABS Version 2 & 3Pasting ALABS Student Loan RE E LO G IS MO F SR SR ALABS Student Return IR MI LI F MI IR LI G RC

  29. ALABS Version 4Cutting ALABS Student Loan RE E LO G IS MO F SR SR ALABS Student Return IR MI LI F MI IR LI G RC

  30. Cutting, Pasting, Elaboration • the evidence for purposeful manipulation of genres: • is that changes are ‘optimal’ and • genres which form assemblages get changed together • Is this how non-IS related genres change? Is it just that IS speed up these changes? • wrt IS, genre re-use appears to be preferred to genre reinvention

  31. Cutting, Pasting, Elaboration • implications for end-user programming practices: • was the programmer so intimately familiar with the code that they knew exactly which lines to add/remove • or was the programmer so intimately familiar with the workpractice that they knew which code implemented which genre element

  32. Cutting, Pasting, Elaboration • the programmer was very aware of the ‘staging’ of the workpractice • there is further evidence to suggest this- the addition of a Student Append Feature in Version 2 of ALABS • the code was copied from the Student Loan and then ‘crippled’ in order to implement the Student Append

  33. ALABS Version 2 & 3Elaboration ALABS Student Loan RE E LO G IS MO F SR SR ALABS Student Append RE E LO G IS FI MO F SR SR

  34. Genre Assemblages

  35. Genre Assemblages (1)Summary • we have a new theory of genre (as a quasispecies), and we also have a new way of representing them (as a directed cyclical graph- digraph) • one of the other advantages of using a digraph is that we can represent something the linguists haven’t seen...

  36. ALABS Student Return G IR MI F RC Conditions of Use ALABS Student Loan RE E G IS MO SR F SR

  37. Cond of Use Genre Assemblages • which we can simplify as: Student Return Student Loan

  38. Genre Assemblages • and also include the social subjects affected: Student Student Return Student Loan Cond of Use Labstaff

  39. Genre Assemblages (2) • we know from tutorials that IS produce many texts • we know that a genre defines a single set of text types • linguists typically look at single genres... but IS always have multiple genres

  40. Genre Assemblages (3) • for example in ALABS, the Student Loan Genreis related to the Student Return Genre(each there own genre) • also the Student Loan Genreis related to Conditions of Use Form(a regulatory genre)

  41. Genre Assemblages (4) • these relationships between genres characterise IS • Clarke (1995) gives these phenomena a name, related genres are collectively called a Genre Assemblage • the formal relationships which relate genres together are called Genre Associations

  42. Genre Assemblages (5)Project Management Implications • genre assemblages can be used as a basis for organising the process of analysis of a system in its organisational context • such efforts are usually referred to as project management within the information systems literature

  43. Genre Assemblages (6)Project Management Implications • however, project management (especially during analysis) generally presupposes a formalised relationship between analysts exploring the organisation and its management

  44. Material Setting Genre 1 Genre Assemblages

  45. Genre 2 Material Setting Genre 1 Genre Assemblages

  46. Genre 2 Material Setting Genre 1 Genre Assemblages

  47. Genre 2 Material Setting Genre 1 Genre Assemblages A

  48. Genre Assemblages A B

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