In this issue

Citation

Whitley, E. and Wynn, E. (2007), "In this issue", Information Technology & People, Vol. 20 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/itp.2007.16120aaa.001

In this issue

This year, IT & People publishes its twentieth volume, making it one of the most long-standing journals in the field. As can be seen by the papers in this issue, ITP has developed a distinctive identity in the area of scholarly study of information and communications technologies.

This issue of IT & People contains four excellent papers. The first two papers explore, in different ways, organizational issues associated with systems development practice. The first paper, by Jacqueline Day, “Strangers on the Train: the Relationship of the IT Department with the Rest of the Business” explores the often fraught relationship that the IT Department faces with other parts of the organization. The paper uses a grounded theory approach to analyse interview data from IT professionals and customers from five medium-large UK firms. The paper shows how the organisational setting, the attitudes of individuals, social processes and outcomes all affect the formation of work group beliefs sustaining working relationships. These can then be used for management interventions to strengthen the bonds between these different work groups.

The second paper, by Marcel Veenswijk and Cristina Chisalita “The Importance of Power and Ideology in Communities of Practice. The case of a De-marginalized User Interface Design Team in a failing multi-national Design Company” presents and develops ideas about communities of practice through a case study of a large Dutch organization. In their study, the authors propose enhancing the theory by including power, conflict, and ideology in the theory and show how these concepts can help account for the internal and external development of communities within an organizational setting.

The third paper, by Terry Nolan, Ray Brizland and Linda Macaulay is on “Individual Trust and Development of Online Business Communities”. This presents the results of a three-year action research study into online participation in an online business community. In particular, the paper approaches the question of trust and provides practical implications for the development of and participation in online communities. ITP has a long history of supporting action research studies, with Vol. 14 No. 1 (2001) devoted to this topic, as well as a number of papers since. This excellent piece of work continues this tradition.

The final paper, by Karin Hedström looks at “The values of IT in elderly care”. This paper draws on actor-network theory and the social construction of technology more generally, to look at how various social groups influenced the development and use of IT in elderly care. Its conclusions, however, are potentially more widely applicable. The topic of actor-network theory was also the focus of a recent special issue (Vol. 17 No. 2, 2004).

We have also recently launched a call for papers on “Living and functioning in the e-society: Issues of inclusion and exclusion” (www.itandpeople.org/inclusionexclusion.pdf). This special issue specifically targets researchers studying those groups not covered by more traditional research approaches, such as the elderly.

Update on the editorial board

Over the year, we have also been working to broaden the editorial board for Information Technology & People and we are pleased to welcome the following colleagues to ITP.

The following colleagues join as associate editors who will help manage the reviews of papers:

Mark Ackerman, University of MichiganGeoff Bowker, Santa Clara UniversityEdoardo Jacucci, Accenture, NorwayShirin Madon, LSE, UKNancy Pouloudi, Athens University of Economics and Business, GreecewhilstPaul Dourish, UC IrvineMei Lu, Intel CorporationAnn Majchrzak, USCJeffrey J.Y. Kim, University of WashingtonSuprateek Sarker, Washington State UniversityTom McMaster, University of Salfordall join us as members of the editorial advisory board.

As we were finalising the editorial for this issue, we learned the sad news that Roberta Lamb died.

Roberta had been an active member of the ITP editorial board for a number of years – together with Steve Sawyer, she organised the Festschrift commemorating the life and work of Rob Kling (Vol. 18 No. 1, 2005). More recently, Roberta had been acting as an associate editor (review manager) for the journal.

The last email I received from Roberta in relation to the journal was so typical of her – she mentioned that she had a personal health issue that would affect her reviewing work, but hoped that it would be resolved by the end of the year, when she would come back online.

She ended: “Sorry for this ‘performance glitch’: Roberta”.

At this time our thoughts are with her family and friends

Edgar A. Whitley, Eleanor WynnCo-editors