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2010/2011  KAN-SADI  Social Analysis and Design of IT in Organizations

English Title
Social Analysis and Design of IT in Organizations

Course Information

Language English
Point 7,5 ECTS (225 SAT)
Type Mandatory
Level Full Degree Master
Duration One Quarter
Course Period Autumn . Second Quarter
Time Table Please see course schedule at e-Campus
Study Board
Study Board for BSc/MSc in Business Administration and Information Systems
Course Coordinator
Nikhil Srinivasan
Main Category of the Course
  • Information Systems

Taught under Open University-Taught under open university.
Last updated on 29 maj 2012
Learning Objectives
This course will develop the students’ skills in analyzing how information technology impact social relations and organizations in companies, and how social relations influence an IT systems ability to contribute to improve a company’s success.

By the end of the course, the students should be able to:
  • Explain the theory of actor network theory and discourse theory (the course’s theories).
  • Understand, combine and critically discuss the course’s theories, related analytic strategies and concepts.
  • Apply the course’s theories on IT cases and demonstrate skills at analyzing IT and its social and organizational context.
  • Evaluate and disseminate solutions to problems at an independent and reflected academic level.
Examination
20 min Individual oral exam based on group paper
Exam Period December/January
Examination
The examination is an individual oral examination based on a mini project written in groups of 2-4 students. The mini project should be 15 pages. One overall grade is given to each student on the basis of the whole written project and the individual oral performance.

The examination takes place in December/January. Make-up and re-examination take place in February.

The student’s performance is graded according to the 7 point grading scale.
Prerequisites for Attending the Exam
Course Content

IT design in organizations requires that you simultaneously can grasp technical, organizational and human factors. Many IT systems encounter problems and conflicts that contrast the objective for more than 20 years of user-friendliness in design and improvement of IT system. It is difficult designing good IT systems that also can serve its organization and staff. There is no simple theory handling IT systems’ many technical and organizational problems.

The course will introduce and discuss two or three strong theories for handling this complexity, Actor Network Theory according to Bruno Latour og Michael Callon and Discourse Analysis according to Ernesto Laclau and Chantal Mouffe. We will discuss strength and weakness of these theories and apply them to real cases of IT systems in organizations. Subsequently, the students will write mini projects in groups or individually. This process will be supervised and the projects will be presented and discussed in class. The mini projects will be analysis of information technology in organizations. For example, analyses of cases from of the course’s recommended literature, information collected by students by use of the theory of the social construction of technological systems and the actor network theory.

Teaching Methods
The main teaching methods will be discussions in class. Theories will be presented in lectures and we will discuss their application to real cases. Students will have individual project supervision and will present and discuss draft projects.