Human Inquiry and Information Systems

We regard information systems as instruments of human inquiry. Within the process of inquiry, these instruments serve as a medium, providing the user with information on matters of interest. The instrumental view on information systems puts them close to other instruments like microscopes, observatories, and the like.

The use of instruments in the process of inquiry and interpreting the results obtained are both influenced by philosophical (pre)suppositions. For example, from the viewpoint of positivism, these instruments do not have any effect on the way we perceive the reality, thus the objective status of the inquirer is not affected by the use of tools. From the viewpoint of radical constructivism, the use of tools is bound to theories the inquirer holds about them. Human inquiry is therefore guided by theories.

Morgan and Smircich (1980) have provided an overview of paradigms of inquiry in the social sciences (see Figure 2). The paradigms have been arranged along a spectrum with objectivism and subjectivism as the endpoints. Even if this overview is quite reductive, it illustrates the fundamental issues and some of their consequences when a researcher selects a paradigm of inquiry.

Subjectivist Approaches to Social Science					Objectivist Approaches to Social Science
Basic Ontological Assumptions	Reality as a projection of human imagination	Reality as a social construction	Reality as a realm of symbolic discourse	Reality as a contextual field of information	Reality as a concrete process	Reality as a concrete structure
Basic Assumptions About Human Nature	Man as a pure spirit, consciousness, being	Man as a social constructor, the symbol creator	Man as an actor, the symbol user	Man as an information processor	Man as an adaptor	Man as a responder
Epistemological Stance	To obtain phenomenological insight, revelation	To understand how social reality is created	To understand patterns of symbolic discourse	To map contexts	To study systems, process, change	To construct a positive science
Some Favored Metaphors	Transcendental	Language game, accomplishment, text	Theatre, culture	Cybernetic	Organism	Machine
Research Methods	Exploration of pure subjectivity	Hermeneutics	Symbol analysis	Contextual analysis of Gestalten	Historical analysis	Lab experiments, surveys

Figure 2: Paradigms of Inquiry in Social Sciences (Morgan & Smircich, 1980, p. 492)

In the following, we present two paradigms, positivism and radical constructivism, which are positioned on opposite ends of a whole spectrum of possible paradigms of inquiry, some of which have been described in the framework depicted in Figure 2. We use these paradigms to illustrate the implications of the adoption of a paradigm for the understanding of information systems.

In order to illustrate the impact of an adopted paradigm of inquiry on the understanding of information systems, we use the notion of "model," referring not to the mathematical but to the general notion of model (Stachowiak, 1973).

With different paradigms of inquiry, there are different interpretations of the notion of "model." These depend on ontological, epistemological, and anthropological positions because they determine the interpretation of "representation" - one of the essential features of models.

The Notion of "Model" in Positivism

The paradigm of positivism, dominating the field of IS research, is characterized by a realist ontology: reality exists independently of the human mind, and is driven by natural laws and mechanisms. The positivist epistemology is empiricism. It is objective and the inquirer has 'direct access' to nature. He performs a noninteractive inquiry process, biasing factors are thereby excluded from influencing his findings. This epistemology is based on a correspondence theory of truth. From an anthropological perspective, the positivist has a mechanistic worldview, he sees humans in a behavioristic fashion as stimulus-response mechanisms. Consequently, the methodology used is nomothetic. Questions or hypotheses are stated in advance in propositional form and subjected to empirical tests (falsification) under carefully controlled conditions.

From the positivist point of view, a model is regarded as a representation (mapping) of the 'true' reality. This representational notion of "model" presupposes a direct relationship between the model (the representation) and the model source (the original). A model is "good" or "true," if it corresponds with reality - the essence of the correspondence theory of truth. The simplification (abstraction) of the representation is realized by intentionally neglecting 'objective' properties of the part of reality under investigation. Applied to information systems, the positivist notion of "model" assures that what we perceive through the use of information systems is an 'objective' representation of reality. Subsequently, the use of information systems does not make any difference to the direct perception of reality.

The Notion of "Model" in Radical Constructivism

The ontology of radical constructivism is relativistic. This means that realities exist in the form of multiple mental constructions, which are dependent on their form and content on the person who holds them. The epistemology of radical constructivism is rationalism. It is subjective, the inquirer and the inquired subject are fused into a single (monistic) entity. The resulting findings are literally the creation of the process of interaction between the two; the concept of "truth" is substituted by the concept of "viability" (Glasersfeld, 1996). Anthropologically, humans are seen as "creators of realities." A radical-constructivist methodology would then be ideographic; individual constructions are elicited and refined hermeneutically.

Constructivists generally question the direct relationship between a model and reality. For them, models do not have an existence independent of a human using it as a model. Since radical constructivists assume there are as many realities as individuals and realities are subjective, then models are therefore subjective as well. Research findings, as well as models, are the result of the interaction between the inquirer and the inquiring situation. The research findings and models are influenced by the knowledge, attitudes, and values of the inquirer. Applied to information systems, the constructivist notion of "model," as opposed to the positivist one, allows a very different interpretation of the function of information systems within the process of inquiry. Information is no longer considered to provide an objective account of reality, but is subject to the context-dependent interpretation of the individual.

Methodological Implications

Since computer-based information systems in organizations usually incorporate models of the organization, we can use abstract models of organizations for the illustration of methodological implications of the notion of "model" adopted.

Referring to our conceptualization of paradigms of inquiry, an organization theory can be viewed as an ontology, constituting and describing the nature of an organization. Adoption of an organization theory can therefore be regarded as a selection of an ontological position. Since ontological, epistemological, anthropological, and methodological positions are not independent of one another, we claim that the adoption of an organization theory is highly influential on the adoption of a certain paradigm of inquiry (and vice versa). This subsequently has a major impact on the way individuals perceive and interpret information about an organization provided by an information system. With an epistemologically bound ontology, the adoption of an organization theory not only determines what has to be considered as information, but also the relation between information, the organization (what the information is about), and the user of the information system. Since models and information are fundamental to the conception, development, and use of information systems, all aspects of the notion of "model" discussed above apply to information systems as well. Thus, the adopted notion of "model" and the adopted paradigm of inquiry, all must be taken into consideration when we try to understand the role of information systems within the process of human inquiry, ultimately to understand information systems.