615-328 Managing the Impact of IS

• This subject is regarded as a non-science subject for students enrolled in the BSc, BASc, and combined BSc courses.

615-251 Organisational Analysis and Change.

This subject integrates the learning undertaken in earlier information systems subjects. It encourages students to critically reflect upon the nature and consequences of information systems. Topics may include a critical examination of information systems as sociotechnical systems; human information behaviour; the characteristics of information, in particular its economic aspects; its transformational potential, and its organisational and social consequences. Particular emphasis will be placed on alternatives to the dominant information systems paradigm, such as the soft systems and postmodernist approaches.

At the completion of the subject, students should:

• understand the complexities of the relationships between people, information and technology in an information system;

• be familiar with a range of techniques for conceptualising organisational information systems;

• be able to manage the organisational consequences of developing and implementing information systems; and

• understand the potential social consequences of choices made in the development and implementation of information systems.

In addition to the subject-related skills, students should acquire or extend other valuable generic skills. These include:

• collaborative skills and the ability to participate productively in group-work;

• written and oral communication skills; and

• the ability to collect, synthesise and critique literature relevant to the implications of information systems for organisations and society.

One two-hour written examination (40%); written assignments and group projects submitted during the term equivalent to 3500 words and seminar presentations (60%).