Language and a post-modern management approach to information systems

摘要

Words are windows onto ideas. This paper discusses how a new way of thinking about the practise of information systems management especially in the implementation phase of a system, which the authors refer to as the post-modern approach (IJIM December 1997), requires a new way of thinking about language and its management. But it is not enough to assert that post-modernism simply requires a new lexicon to cope with a new set of concepts. The post-modern paradigm to information systems management requires the active management of language itself. This entails the establishment of meaning by all the key stakeholders of this approach and the tracking of the inevitable changes in meaning as understanding of the information systems outcomes develops and changes over the life of a major project.