Heuristic over Social InformaticsEssay Preview: Heuristic over Social InformaticsReport this essayA heuristic is a replicable method or approach for directing ones attention in learning, discovery, or problem-solving. It is commonplace, and a good heuristic for inquiry, especially with complex technologies. References to technologies and social entities and to the interactions between them are made largely for analytical convenience. This is where Social informatics comes in, from the beginning in Europe modern studies by Dr. Robert Kling.
Social informatics refers to the interdisciplinary study of the design, uses and consequences of information and communication technologies that takes into account their interactions with institutional and cultural contexts. Social informatics research may be done at group, departmental, organizational, national and/or societal levels of analysis, focused on the relationships among information, information systems, and the people who use them and the context, including the difficulties, of use. [1]
Historically, social informatics research has been strong in Europe, although in past few decades within the United States, the field is represented largely through independent research efforts at a number of diverse institutions. [1] In North America, Dr. Robert Kling was considered the father of Social Informatics [2].
Robert Kling was born in August 1944 and grew up in Northern New Jersey. He completed his undergraduate studies at Columbia University (1965) and his graduate studies, specializing in Artificial Intelligence, at Stanford University (1967, 1971). Between 1966 and 1971 he held a research appointment in the Artificial Intelligence Center at the Stanford Research Institute. He held his first professorship in Computer Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from 1970 to 1973. He was on the faculty of UC-Irvine 1973-1996 and held professorial appointments at UCIs Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations and Graduate School of Management. [3]
In the 1970s, Dr. Klings was already a leading expert on the study of social informatics which then investigated aspects of computerization and organizational change and the ways that the social organization of information technology is influenced by social forces and social practices. He early observed that complex information and computer systems are integrated into the social life of organizations and conducted studies in numerous kinds of environments, including local government, insurance companies, pharmaceutical firms, and high-tech manufacturing. Dr. Kling studied how intensive computerization transforms work practices and how computerization entails many social choices. [4]
The importance of work environments is recognized as part of a number of social changes that are taking place in cyberspace. Analyses of the effects of many changing work environments of a single company or group indicate that the effects of work environments vary over time. In fact, a recent report by the National Science Foundation, conducted at UC Berkeley, suggests that there are major differences in how workers are recruited, given workplace changes such as the use of technology and social change, as well as in the social environment they enter.
Work environments that involve a wide range of social relationships are associated with changes in the economy as well as in the work environment. A recent report on the effect of social change on individual working and service industries from a leading company in China found that only two of six companies with the largest percentage of their workforce were in the service sector. That study is significant because it suggests that more social change in the workplace is associated with changing the relationship between work and the system of government. The new report concludes that it is not surprising that work environments, rather than the changes in work processes, influence overall the economic and financial stability of many employers in terms of their work practices.
The potential for change
While our work environments are highly influenced locally, the most significant factors influencing corporate change are financial change and social change. In particular, recent research indicates that the global economic downturn and technological change have caused businesses to change work cultures, both nationally and internationally. It is significant, therefore, that changing the work environments of companies may pose the greatest threat to economic growth and employment for workers globally.
Research by University of San Diego researchers and faculty shows that the increase in work in the United States as a result of the Great Recession has created two major industries. These are technology and health care. In contrast, in the United States, technology and health care have increased in size since the crisis, and the size and employment patterns of those industries are often much larger than in their economies. Although some of these tech and health care employees have been unemployed and leaving since the financial crisis, others are making decent income of $10 a week and at least $80,000 per year, at the rate of the rest of the U.S. population. Such large and well-connected executives have become part of higher-than-average occupational employment for U.S. workers. Indeed, the most recent data available indicate that more than half of all U.S. workers (47%) have completed a degree within three years of entering the workforce.[5]
The decline in the volume of new business at our office in San Diego also has implications for the future of the United States workforce. According to one of the researchers, there are a few key areas where the changes observed in recent decades in the United States have been most significant for
The importance of work environments is recognized as part of a number of social changes that are taking place in cyberspace. Analyses of the effects of many changing work environments of a single company or group indicate that the effects of work environments vary over time. In fact, a recent report by the National Science Foundation, conducted at UC Berkeley, suggests that there are major differences in how workers are recruited, given workplace changes such as the use of technology and social change, as well as in the social environment they enter.
Work environments that involve a wide range of social relationships are associated with changes in the economy as well as in the work environment. A recent report on the effect of social change on individual working and service industries from a leading company in China found that only two of six companies with the largest percentage of their workforce were in the service sector. That study is significant because it suggests that more social change in the workplace is associated with changing the relationship between work and the system of government. The new report concludes that it is not surprising that work environments, rather than the changes in work processes, influence overall the economic and financial stability of many employers in terms of their work practices.
The potential for change
While our work environments are highly influenced locally, the most significant factors influencing corporate change are financial change and social change. In particular, recent research indicates that the global economic downturn and technological change have caused businesses to change work cultures, both nationally and internationally. It is significant, therefore, that changing the work environments of companies may pose the greatest threat to economic growth and employment for workers globally.
Research by University of San Diego researchers and faculty shows that the increase in work in the United States as a result of the Great Recession has created two major industries. These are technology and health care. In contrast, in the United States, technology and health care have increased in size since the crisis, and the size and employment patterns of those industries are often much larger than in their economies. Although some of these tech and health care employees have been unemployed and leaving since the financial crisis, others are making decent income of $10 a week and at least $80,000 per year, at the rate of the rest of the U.S. population. Such large and well-connected executives have become part of higher-than-average occupational employment for U.S. workers. Indeed, the most recent data available indicate that more than half of all U.S. workers (47%) have completed a degree within three years of entering the workforce.[5]
The decline in the volume of new business at our office in San Diego also has implications for the future of the United States workforce. According to one of the researchers, there are a few key areas where the changes observed in recent decades in the United States have been most significant for
According to Dr. Kling, social informatics is [5]:“A serviceable working conception of social informatics is that it identifies a body of research that examines the social aspects of computerization. A more formal definition is the interdisciplinary study of the design, uses and consequences of information technologies that takes into account their interaction with institutional and cultural contexts.”
Social Informatics would tell us that many of the difficulties that researchers have in quantifying the benefits of Information Technology would also affect managers. As a result, they may have difficulty in bringing the benefits to the bottom line if output targets, work organization and incentives are not appropriately adjusted. The result is that Information Technology might increase organizational slack instead of output or profits (i.e., employees misusing the internet). This is consistent with arguments by Roach that manufacturing has made better use of Information Technology than has the service sector because manufacturing faces greater international competition, and thus tolerates less slack. [6]
Sometimes the benefits do not even appear in the most direct measures of Social Informatics effectiveness. This stems not only from the difficulty of system design and software engineering, but also because the rapidly-evolving technology leaves little time for time-tested principles to diffuse before being supplanted.[7] A related argument derives from evolutionary models of organizations. The difficulties in measuring the