[AISWorld] Welcome to this special issue of The Journal of Strategic Information Systems (JSIS) on “STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVES ON DIGITAL WORK AND ORGANISATIONAL TRANSFORMATION”

[Guy Gable]

Welcome to this special issue of The Journal of Strategic Information Systems (JSIS) on “STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVES ON DIGITAL WORK AND ORGANISATIONAL TRANSFORMATION”. The special issue guest editors are:

-   Joao Baptista, Warwick Business School, UK

-   Mari-Klara Stein, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark

-   Stefan Klein, WWU Munster, Germany

-   Mary Beth Watson-Manheim, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA

-   Jungwoo Lee, Yonsei University, South Korea.

I'm pleased to note that ALL BUT 1 OF THE ARTICLES IN THIS SPECIAL ISSUE IS FREELY DOWNLOADABLE FROM THE URLS BELOW; the Viewpoint through end 2020, the covering article by Baptista et al is generously available from Elsevier through end 2024, and 3 of the 4 articles are available under a creative commons license.

The special issue commences with an incisive and compelling editorial by the special issue editors, “Digital Work and Organisational Transformation: Emergent Digital/Human Work Configurations in Modern Organisations,” that synthesizes the four empirical articles in the special issue. They highlight the challenges for organisations in dealing with “third order change, particularly because these effects are beyond existing frames of reference and require a more dynamic and supple response based on the values, purpose and intent dominant in the organisation.” They refer to
this as structural digital work, and further reflect on the value of current theories and methods to research this emergent phenomenon. The ideas in this special issue have much wider pertinence than might be anticipated. It is highly timely in the face of COVID-19. I encourage all to peruse the special issue editorial, which I have no doubt will further invite attention to the special issue component papers.

The special issue commences with a Viewpoint article I initiated in 2015 as then JSIS Senior Editor. Now simply titled “INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH STRATEGY”, when first invited by Bob Galliers, the article was originally about ‘Contemporary demands on university research’. Over the years it has morphed and split several times, some would suggest one time too few (I acknowledge it is large). The Viewpoint has two aligned aims: (i) to espouse the value of a strategic research orientation for the Information Systems Discipline; and (ii) to facilitate such a strategic orientation by recognising the value of programmatic research and promoting the publication of such work. It commences from the view that Information Systems (IS) research benefits from being strategic at every level, from individual researcher, to research program, to research discipline and beyond. I believe the Viewpoint article complements well this special issue, a theme in both being the need for creative concepts and methods in the dynamic post-COVID-19 world we are facing.

Gable, G. G. (2020). INFORMATION SYSTEMS RESEARCH STRATEGY. JSIS, 101620.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0963868720300287/pdfft?md5=b7c12541ea5875cb4a25dcbb4b02dcc9&pid=1-s2.0-S0963868720300287-main.pdf

Baptista, J., Stein, M. K., Klein, S., Watson-Manheim, M. B., & Lee, J. (2020). DIGITAL WORK AND ORGANISATIONAL TRANSFORMATION: EMERGENT DIGITAL/HUMAN WORK CONFIGURATIONS IN MODERN ORGANISATIONS. JSIS, 29(2), 101618
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0963868720300263/pdfft?md5=5b6f6aac0bd579e1f8c2f33924a8e160&pid=1-s2.0-S0963868720300263-main.pdf

Morton, J., Wilson, A. D., & Cooke, L. (2020). THE DIGITAL WORK OF STRATEGISTS: USING OPEN STRATEGY FOR ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION. JSIS, 29(2), 101613.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0963868720300214

Rahrovani, Y. (2020). PLATFORM DRIFTING: WHEN WORK DIGITALIZATION HIJACKS ITS SPIRIT. JSIS, 29(2), 101615.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0963868720300238/pdfft?md5=63086b3053e87b5661dd3216f247f8d3&pid=1-s2.0-S0963868720300238-main.pdf

Grønsund, T., & Aanestad, M. (2020). AUGMENTING THE ALGORITHM: EMERGING HUMAN-IN-THE-LOOP WORK CONFIGURATIONS. JSIS, 29(2), 101614.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0963868720300226/pdfft?md5=471e439f64d242f426508d13ffc3c000&pid=1-s2.0-S0963868720300226-main.pdf

Rossi, M., Nandhakumar, J., & Mattila, M. (2020). BALANCING FLUID AND CEMENTED ROUTINES IN A DIGITAL WORKPLACE. JSIS, 29(2), 101616.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096386872030024X/pdfft?md5=4419559b9090d09e45a7284b8c8ad60c&pid=1-s2.0-S096386872030024X-main.pdf

Best, Guy G. Gable
JSIS Editor-in-Chief

Guy G. Gable  |  Professor & Coordinator Discipline Engagement, School of Information Systems
Science and Engineering Faculty | Queensland University of Technology
Editor-in-Chief Journal of Strategic Information Systems (JSIS)
https://www.journals.elsevier.com/the-journal-of-strategic-information-systems
Fellow of the Association for Information System (AIS), Member AIS College of Senior Scholars
Y-Block, Level 7, Room Y7-04, Gardens Point Campus
mob +61(0)4 04096411 | mailto: g.gable at qut.edu.au<mailto:g.gable at qut.edu.au>           CRICOS No 00213J