Qualitative Research in IS?

NSF released a report from the workshop on Interdisciplinary Standards for Systematic Qualitative Research, and it contains some ideas on promising areas of research in law, anthropology, political science, and sociology. We use qualitative research methods as well; what are our promising areas of research? I’m interested to hear your thoughts. I’m also interested in your take on the workshop report if you’ve read it.

Strengthsfinder

I’ve recently been going through a book based on Gallup data on identifying individual strengths and putting them to work in your career.  It was very interesting to see what kinds of roles and tasks are suited for different individuals, as well as the process (psychometric, cluster analysis, etc.) Gallup went through to identify these strengths.  I can now see why it so difficult to identify strong PhD candidates because any number of these combinations could lead to a strong researcher.  My top two were Input (enjoys gathering information) and Learner (I’ll let you guess), but I imagine many other strengths would be handy to have as a PhD student, such as Communicator, Focus and EnjoysWorkingVeryHardForLittlePay (ok, I made that one up).  Has anyone else taken this profile, and if so, have you been able to leverage your strenghts better for research?

What I’ve been reading – The Long Tail

This post is in response to Rachel’s inquiry of a book to recommend. Good idea for suggesting this as a forum for sharing interesting books!

I read The Long Tail  by Christopher Anderson last year and found it to offer many insights into the shape of the current economy, which is mostly a result of the vast increase of supply as a result of the internet. This and other situations, like the decrease in price of production equipment, has caused the economy to be less hit driven and more niche focused.

Take the music industry for example. Hit songs are no longer grossing the same amount of sales as in the past. More amateurs are creating music with high-quality results due to relatively inexpensive production tools like Garage Band. They are using avenues on the Web, such as myspace.com, another cost-effective a way to promote their music to a large audience. Due to the increase of the selection of music available, listeners have gravitated from the top 10% of the hit industry to more of the niche markets, or the long tail. This phenomena is affecting a variety of areas in the current market.

Anyone have other books to share?

–Valerie

OCIS – Call for Reviewers for 2009 Annual Meeting

The Organizational Communication and Information Systems

(OCIS) Division needs your help to build another outstanding program of scholarly activities for the 2009 Academy of Management Annual Meeting in Chicago.  The OCIS Division typically attracts 200+ submissions (and this year we expect more), and reviewers play a critical role in transforming these submissions into the high quality program that OCIS offers. 

We need reviewers across a wide range of topics and methods related to communications, management, and information technology.  We need you.

 

As a reviewer you will be asked to review up to three submissions by February 13, 2009 (Review Deadline).

Papers will be distributed as they arrive and all paper assignments will be made by January 23, 2009.

 

* If you have already signed up to review for the 2009 meeting, THANK YOU!.

* If you have reviewed in the past, you will need to re-sign up to be able to review for the 2009 Annual Meeting.

* If you can help out in 2009, please signup to review for OCIS at the Academy of Management Reviewing System (it’s easy and won’t take more than 5 minutes).

1. Go to http://review.aomonline.org/;

2. Click the ‘Sign Up Now’ button;

3. Create a short profile indicating your areas of expertise and your willingness to review for OCIS

 

Please pass this message on to colleagues and/or PhD students who you think would be interested in and willing to review for OCIS. 

(Being an OCIS reviewer is a great opportunity to learn about the work that is submitted to and presented at OCIS and the Academy of Management meeting.)

 

Thank you for your willingness to help,

 

Brian Butler

OCIS 2009 Program Chair

Katz Graduate School of Business

University of Pittsburgh

E-mail: ocis2009@katz.pitt.edu

 

OCIS Call for Papers for AOM 2009 Annual Meeting

CALL FOR PAPERS

 

ACADEMY OF MANAGEMENT

Organizational Communication and Information Systems (OCIS)

 

2009 Academy of Management Annual Meeting
August 7-11, 2009 – Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A 

http://ocis.aomonline.org

http://meeting.aomonline.org/2009/

 

Important Dates:

Submission Deadline: January 15, 2009 at 5:00 PM EST

Review Deadline: February 13, 2009

Status Notification: April 10, 2009

 

Program Chair:

Brian Butler, Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh

ocis2009@katz.pitt.edu

 

Submission Website: http://submissions.aomonline.org/2009/

 

Information about the New Meeting Design: http://meeting.aomonline.org/2009/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=32:newschedule&catid=13:submission

 

What to Submit:

OCIS invites the submission of innovative empirical or conceptual papers and symposia on all themes of interest to the Academy that touch on organizational communications and/or information systems.  Topics that are specifically oriented to the 2009 all-Academy theme of “Green Management Matters” are especially encouraged.  This year’s theme encourages reflection on the role that communication and information technology plays in shaping the way individuals, organizations, and society interact with the environment. 

 

OCIS focuses on the study of behavioral, economic, and social aspects of communication and information systems within and among organizations or institutions. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

 

·         Interpersonal communication;

·         Verbal, nonverbal, and electronic communication;

·         Vertical, horizontal and diagonal communication;

·         Inter-group and intra-group communication;

·         Communication networks;

·         Applications of information technology in business and society;

·         Organizational adoption of communication and information technology;

·         Communication and information strategy and policy;

·         Communication and organizational culture;

·         Communication and information research methodology;

·         Managing information technology services;

·         Virtual teams, virtual work, and virtual organizations;

·         The management of information systems professionals;

·         E-communications; information systems development;

·         Managing IT-related organizational change;

·         E-business, e-commerce, and e-markets;

·         Electronic value systems, value chains, and value webs;

·         Privacy and ethics;

·         Knowledge work, knowledge workers, and knowledge networks;

·         IT infrastructure; governance of IT services;

·         Organizational networks.

 

Submission Guidelines:

The entire paper (title page, abstract, main text, figures, tables, references, etc.) must be in ONE document using one of the following formats: Portable Document Format (.PDF), Microsoft Word 2003 or later (.DOC) , and Rich Text Format (.RTF) and should not exceed 40 pages. The format for tables and figures, references, and appendices should follow the Academy of Management Journal’s Style Guide.  Additional information is available at the meeting website, http://meeting.aomonline.org/2009/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=91&Itemid=86 .

 

For more information, please contact:

Brian Butler

OCIS Program Chair

Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business

University of Pittsburgh

ocis2009@katz.pitt.edu

 

 

 

What I’ve been reading – Made to Stick

How do you tell a good story? What makes people listen to your ideas? Researchers, teachers, parents, and managers are constantly trying to get people (big or little) to listen to them. What makes people listen?

This is one of the best books I’ve read recently about communication. The authors make a compelling case that principles of a good movie or commercial ad can be usefully applied to selling research ideas, or getting kids or employees to do what you want them to do.

As a researcher and teacher of business management, these messages come close to heart. As soon as I finished reading the book, I wanted to read it again!