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This paper investigates the idea of organization transformation appropriate to the advent of information technologies (IT). Specifically, we describe a traceable framework of transformation, which accommodates the shift of information system (IS) support from automating to informating to knowledging. The paper intends to clarify the context of IT/IS-based organization transformation through the contextualization of IS support and its relation to organizational design. This is done by elaborating the design issue of IS support that help structure and facilitate knowledge interconnectivity, through the exposition of the social processes in which, in a specific organizational context, a particular group of people can conceptualize their world and hence the purposeful action they wish to undertake. That provides the basis for ascertaining what information support is needed by those who undertake that action. Only then does it become appropriate to ask how modern IT can help to provide that support. We conclude by reiterating the challenge of designing IS's as meaning attribution systems in which people select certain resources out of the mass potentially available and get them processed by means of IT, to make them meaningful in order to support their purposeful actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Failed Information Technology (IT) projects are common in organisations, as IT solutions often do not meet the expectations of business clients. Business experts often have a negative perception of the people working in the IT function. There seems to be a proverbial "chicken-and-egg situation": the relationship between business and IT suffers because IT projects fail to solve the real business need and, on the other hand, many IT projects fail because of existing interpersonal relationship problems between business- and IT employees. Research was done to identify categories of issues in the business-IT interface and rank them in order of significance. The term "fusion" is used in this paper, to refer to the process by which the elements of the IT function and the rest of the business work together to achieve a common goal. This paper reports on the categories of issues and draws a conclusion of what would constitute fusion in the business-IT interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The IS professional is a person endowed with certain professional skills and attributes usually formally obtained through an education process. The IS professional may also have formal skills in peripheral, non technical areas that may too be obtained through a formal education process. This is typical now in the education of IS students who are aspiring IS professional. In addition they come with a range of soft skills that may be attitudinal and influenced by life and work experiences. This paper suggests that these skills, attributes and work environment do not sit in isolation from each other, but interact in an as yet unmeasured way. How this happens with students studying towards an IS qualification is discussed here and a structural model is developed to explain the interactions. The value of this research is that a picture is presented that shows the interactions between these important elements in a quantitative way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To succeed in the global marketplace, companies must reposition themselves to tap the sources of sustainable growth. After failing to connect information technology investments with business performance, successful senior managers today know that 'effective use of information' does not equal merely a new IT solution. Instead, business performance can only be improved with an excellence at using information proactively, sensing and processing information appropriately, and deploying IT for management support. The knowledge workers, on whom every company depends since the success depends on how fast they utilize proper information, should be the focus of information use in organizations. The paper presents three information capabilities that form information orientation, a high-level idea of senior managers, which embraces expectations of the business community regarding business-information systems professionals. Based on that presentation, a framework of topics for MScIS/MBA educational programs is developed. Findings can serve as a guideline when building, revising and endorsing contemporary and relevant curricula for mentioned programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The career paths of students are influenced and shaped by the subject choices that are made in the final years of secondary schooling. This paper presents the findings of an empirical study that identified the key factors influencing the decision of rural / regional Australian students to choose or not choose to study Information Processing and Technology. The findings revealed that career oriented, extrinsic factors play an important role in motivating the selection of I.P.T. at school and, by implication, information technology at university. There are few apparent gender differences but there is limited evidence to suggest that males may be more influenced by extrinsic motivators and females by intrinsic motivators. Although the factors used in the study were initially identified largely via informal processes, they all appear to influence the decision to take I.P.T. The focus on career-related factors and the instrumentality of taking I.P.T. could explain the drop-off in students taking the subject. This has potentially significant implications as regards the future supply of good information technology professionals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]