Course Title: Action and Design in Engaged Research
Lecturer: Professor Richard L. Baskerville
Course number
Location/Room
Time
Credit Points
Type of course
Course Language
Pohligstr. 1, Ground Floor, Conference Room
June 29 - July 2, daily 10:00 - 17:00 (hours may vary
within that slot)
6 ECTS
Methods Course
English
1.Objectives
The purpose of this course is to introduce and orient doctoral students to research
methods and techniques that bridge both science and practice. Such research
methods simultaneously advance both science (theory) and practice. In particular,
students will learn basic principles, techniques and methods for action research
and design science research. The seminar will critically examine examples from
the presenter's own published research using these approaches.
2. Prerequisites
PhD students at the WiSo-Faculty; methodological focus on qualitative research /
engaged scholarship, topic focus IS and some org science topics
3. Relevance for study programs
The course is open to all PhD students at the WiSo-Faculty
4. Registration
Registration is required, first come-first serve. Please apply with CV and Research
Proposal
(if
available)
via
eMail
to
Prof.
Claudia
Loebbecke,
claudia.loebbecke<at>uni-koeln.de. Maximum 20 participants. Course teaching
hours, see above.
5. Contents
This course covers research methods and techniques that bridge both science and
practice. Such research methods simultaneously advance both science (theory)
and practice. Van de Ven refers to such research methods as “engaged
scholarship”. The scope of this course will include a brief survey of engaged
methods and will develop depth by comparing and contrasting two such research
methods: (1) Action Research, a social-technical, interventional technique for
organizational control research; and (2) Design Science, a process-system design
evaluation technique for organizational decision, policy and system design
research. These methods tightly link theory development and practice by using
intractable organizational problems.
Reading List
Participants should read before the seminar:
Baskerville, R. (1993). Semantic Database Prototypes. Journal of Information Systems,
3(2), 119-144.
Baskerville, R., & Wood-Harper, A. T. (1998). Diversity in Information Systems Action
Research Methods. European Journal of Information Systems, 7(2), 90-107.
Hevner, A. R., March, S. T., Park, J., & Ram, S. (2004). Design Science In Information
Systems Research. MIS Quarterly, 28(1), 75-105.
March, S. T., & Smith, G. F. (1995). Design and natural science research on information
technology. Decision Support Systems, 15(4), 251-266.
Pries-Heje, J., & Baskerville, R. (2008). The design theory nexus. MIS Quarterly, 32(4),
731-755.
van Aken, J. E. (2004). Management Research Based on the Paradigm of the Design
Sciences: The Quest for Field-Tested and Grounded Technological Rules. The
Journal of Management Studies, 41(2), 219-246.
Van de Ven, A. H., & Johnson, P. E. (2006). Knowledge for Theory and Practice.
Academy of Management Review, 31(4), 802-821.
Supplementary Readings:
Baskerville, R. (2008). What design science is not. European Journal of Information
Systems, 17(5), 441-443.
Baskerville, R., & Myers, M. (2004). Special issue on action research in information
systems: Making IS research relevant to practice--foreword. MIS Quarterly,
28(3), 329-335.
Baskerville, R. (1999). Investigating Information Systems with Action Research.
Communications of The Association for Information Systems, 19(Article 2).
Baskerville, R., & Stage, J. (1996). Controlling Prototype Development Through Risk
Analysis. MIS Quarterly, 20(4), 481-504.
Baskerville, R., Pries-Heje, J., & Venable, J. (2009). Soft Design Science Methodology
Paper presented at the Design Science Research in Information Systems and
Technology DESRIST 2009, Philadelphia, Pa.
Davison, R., Martinsons, M. G., & Kock, N. (2004). Principles of canonical action
research. Information Systems Journal, 14(1), 65-86.
Kohli, R., & Kettinger, W. J. (2004). Informating the clan: Controlling Physicians' costs
and outcomes. MIS Quarterly, 28(3), 363-394.
McKelvey, B. (2006). Van de Ven and Johnson's "Engaged Scholarship": Nice Try, But.
Academy of Management Review, 31(4), 822-829.
Pries-Heje, J., Baskerville, R., & Venable, J. (2008). Strategies for Design Science
Research Evaluation. In W. Golden, T. Acton, K. Conboy, H. van der Heijden &
V. K. Tuunainen (Eds.), Proceedings of the 16th European Conference on
Information Systems (ECIS 2008) (pp. 1-12). Galway, Ireland: National University
of Ireland.
Susman, G., & Evered, R. (1978). An Assessment of The Scientific Merits of Action
Research. Administrative Science Quarterly, 23(4), 582-603.
Van de Ven, A. H. (2007). Engaged Scholarship: A Guide for Organizational and Social
Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Walls, J. G., Widmeyer, G. R., & El Sawy, O. A. (1992). Building an information system
design theory for vigilant EIS. Information Systems Research, 3(1), 36-59.
6. Working requirements and assessment method
The assessment of course participants will be through examination of a structured
written essay delivered six weeks after completion of the course. The essay will
describe a proposal and plan for an original action research or design science
research project.
7. Teaching staff
Richard L. Baskerville is a Board of Advisors Professor of Information Systems
and past chairman in the Department of Computer Information Systems, Robinson
College of Business, Georgia State University (USA). His research specializes in
the interaction of information systems and organizations, and research methods
such as Action Research and Design Science Research. Baskerville is the author
of more than 100 articles in scholarly journals, professional magazines, and edited
books. He is Editor-in-Chief for The European Journal of Information Systems (A
Journal) and serves on the editorial board of Business & Information Systems
Engineering (English outlet for Wirtschaftsinformatik). A Chartered Engineer,
Baskerville holds MSc and PhD degrees from the London School of Economics.
8. Co-ordination/Contact
Prof. Claudia Loebbecke, claudia.loebbecke < at > uni-koeln.de