Going Back to Basics: A Call for Interpretive Research to Interpret Meaning

Abstract

In the 1990’s, proponents of interpretive research in the business information systems (BIS) discipline called for research to include the interpretation of the meaning — specifically, the meanings that information systems have for the people who manage, use, design, and otherwise interact with them.  Thus, the interpretation of meaning is essential in interpretive research.  However, over the years, there has been the publication of numerous articles in the BIS discipline that claim to be interpretive, but actually neglect to interpret meaning.  The result is research that can be called qualitative, but not interpretive.

The seminar will (1) examine what “meaning” is, as advanced by scholars both inside and outside of the BIS discipline, (2) draw attention to the methodological issue of research that calls itself interpretive, but neglects to interpret meaning, (3) investigate how a published article (Califf, Sarker & Sarker, 2020) which claims to be interpretive does not, in fact, interpret meaning, and (4) advance the contention that research which foregoes the interpretation of meaning also foregoes the observation of important phenomena, the lack of investigation of which can threaten the development of sound theory and justifiable recommendations for practice.

Reference: Califf, C. B., Sarker, S., & Sarker, S. (2020). The Bright and Dark Sides of Technostress: A Mixed-Methods Study Involving Healthcare IT. MIS Quarterly, 44(2), 809–856.

Biography

Allen S. Lee is Professor Emeritus of Information Systems at Virginia Commonwealth University and Honorary Professor in the Discipline of Business Information Systems, The University of Sydney Business School. He was editor-in-chief of MIS Quarterly and a founding senior editor of MIS Quarterly Executive.  His research program over more than three decades has involved identifying basic lessons from the philosophy and history of science and extending them, in the information systems discipline, to show not only how qualitative research can be done rigorously, but also how quantitative research equally needs to live up to the requirements of science.

He is a Fellow of the Association for Information Systems, a member of the Circle of Compadres of the Information Systems and Sciences Doctoral Students Association (ISSDSA) of the PhD Project, and a founder of Chinese American Professors of Information Systems.  In 2015, he received the LEO Award for “lifetime exceptional achievement in information systems” from the Association for Information Systems.