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The Work System Theory (WST) is a foundation theory that enables analysis of systems in organizations. It encompasses a set of concepts that help describing, analyzing, designing and evaluating purposeful systems that perform work. A WST-based method guides a work system's analysis through the identification of problems/opportunities, summarizing the As-Is and To-Be versions of a system. Motivated by a Design Science project running in an academic institution, we explore in this paper the application of graph-based semantic technologies to specify and analyze work systems and to bridge their design-time view with run-time data found in legacy systems. Our contribution is twofold (1) we propose an ontological schema that informs RDF-based knowledge graph building with a Work System perspective; (2) we demonstrate some benefits of having work systems represented as Knowledge Graphs that are linked to operational data and further subjected to semantic queries and deductive reasoning. The Design Science artifact is iteratively developed in the host institution of the first authors and builds on previous development of a knowledge graph that has been lifted from legacy databases. The graph-based approach is viable to bridge an inherent conceptual gap between the work systems conceptualization and operational data schemas, thus adding value both to decision-making and to run-time systems that will be later built to benefit from the semantic distinctions present in the resulting graph. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent research in conceptual modeling and enterprise modeling calls for relaxing common assumptions about the nature of modeling methods and related modeling languages and metamodels. This paper pursues that goal by proposing a new vision of modeling methods that overcomes some of the limitations identified in the literature by satisfying four requirements for more flexible modeling methods. That vision builds upon the integration of multiple modeling techniques that are related to an overarching metaphor. Those techniques may address heterogeneous purposes such as specifying a system's capabilities or specifying which resources are used by specific activities. This paper presents design characteristics and metamodel design options to guide method engineers in adopting this broader notion of modeling methods, integrating multiple modeling techniques, and using appropriate modeling languages. To demonstrate feasibility, an extended version of the work system method (WSM) is presented in the form of a Work System Modeling Method (WSMM) that encompasses seven purposes of modeling that call for successively more formal approaches. A final section summarizes how WSMM addresses the issues and requirements from the introduction, explains how coherence is maintained within WSMM, and identifies areas for future research, with emphasis on ways to make WSMM and similar modeling methods as valuable as possible. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research commentary proposes a way to make progress in the IS discipline's inconclusive discussion about the nature and role of theory. In some ways, the creation and testing of theory seems to be the primary goal of IS research. Despite that, there are persistent questions whether theory has become a fetish in the IS discipline and whether the routinized production and testing of mid-range theories is little more than an uninspired script that reduces the value and interest of IS research. This paper reframes the discussion around the idea of 'conceptual artifact' that has been discussed widely in educational psychology for over a decade. Conceptual artifacts are abstract knowledge objects that can be produced, tested and improved. This paper recognizes the value of both abstract knowledge (conceptual artifacts) and non-abstract knowledge. It explains that theorizing produces, evaluates or improves useful conceptual artifacts that may or may not be theories. It validates four premises related to conceptual artifacts by showing that theorizing related to work system theory created or used many different types of conceptual artifacts. It identifies nine criteria for evaluating conceptual artifacts and shows that some of them differ from typical criteria for evaluating Gregor Type IV theories. As a whole, it argues that that privileging theory over other types of conceptual artifacts may not be beneficial in pursuing the research questions that the IS discipline needs to study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vastly inconsistent definitions of the term 'the IT artifact' in leading journals and conferences demonstrate why it no longer means anything in particular and should be retired from the active IS lexicon. Examples from the literature show why artifact-cousins, such as the IS artifact, sociotechnical artifact, social artifact, and ensemble artifact should be used with great care, if not retired as well. Any void created by these retirements could be filled through the following approaches: (i) relabeling with simple terms that are immediately understandable; (ii) adopting guidelines for making sense of the whole X-artifact family; and (iii) sidestepping the IT artifact and focusing directly on IT-enabled work systems in organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]