Information System. Information systems have changed the way we Essay

Information System. Information systems have changed the way we collaborate and work in significant ways. Critically discuss th - Essay Example It has been far too long since people have acknowledged that the wired or networked world is revolutionizing business. This phenomenon has paved the way for organisations to better communicate with their market and all the stakeholders involved in the production and selling of goods and services. In a nutshell, companies use technology and electronic mediation not just to reach out to its consumers and suppliers but also to automate back-office tasks and industrial operations while pushing ahead with research and development. An important product of this technological development is the design of information systems or knowledge management systems where information are collected and stored to be used in decision making for overall organisational improvement (Stahl, p. 113). The efficacy of these systems is underpinned by the argument that they play a significant role in social processes and influences people, institutions and groups. Theoretical Framework Information system is not a novel concept. As a matter of fact, theorists cite it as an inherent feature of human development. More specifically, it is considered as one of the driving factors why societies develop. Wright (2007, pp.46) pointed out that information systems are already in existence even before the stylus or the clay tablet was invented. There is supposedly a mutually reinforcing relationship between society and culture, where the former creates the latter and the latter creates the former in the process (Wright, p.46). As human beings formed social bonds, a steady stream of symbols representing relationships, interactions, and ideas among other cultural and social artefacts emerge. These are the information systems of old. Wright identified folk taxonomies, mythological systems and preliterate symbolisms as examples of ancient information systems that led us to the brink of literate culture (p.46). Indeed, Headrick (2000, pp.32) argued that without it, Charles Darwin’s Origin of the Spec ies could not have been conceived because IS, as an organisational system, depicted society with its mediated information culture. The general theory is that information systems are formed when they organize themselves as new information emerge and assimilated (Wildermuth, 2008, pp.42). As demonstrated by Wright and the works of theorists such as Darwin, IS is inextricably linked to social development. It evolves with it as information flows, created and assimilated. Brown and Duguid (2000) stressed that information technology today would never be effective if it is not grounded on social life. Otherwise, IS, as an information-driven technology, is expected to lead in a so-called â€Å"tunnel vision†. The idea is that knowledge emerges out of numerous and interlinked variables such as those forces of content, context and community (Stahl, pp.113). These underpin the position that an information system has a sociological character, hence, must be treated as such. Based on the theories, it is easy to understand how modern information systems efficiently work in conditions that feature social processes. This is true in the case of organisations. In a bureaucracy, for instance, which is typified by rules and its unbending and rigid orientation, system orientation adapt and come to reflect the type of bureaucratic