Past Research News and Events - Seminar Series

Seminar

Topic:

Better information management and security for local government through information offensive and defensive strategies based on organisational narratives and the hermeneutic cycle: An in-depth and reflective practitioner case study including information warfare, knowledge management, information space, and legal perspectives

Presentation by:

Edward Andre

Time:

Wednesday October 8th

Venue:

Room 01.447, JO

Comments:

All are invited to attend.

Abstract:

Local government functions in increasingly competitive and, at times, stressful environments. To succeed in this information economy, local government must put in place effective strategies for managing information for the good of the individual, the organisation and the community that local government serves. Organisational change may be considered as a constant in a complex organisational and social equation. The emergence of new technologies such as the Intranet facilitates the free flow of information to all individuals that work in a modern local government organisation. If information is not properly managed then the law provides avenues for ensuring that breaches of the law are remedied. This thesis examines the issue of information management from the perspective's of information warfare, knowledge improvement and the Intranet as the primary medium of facilitating the free flow of information within a local government organisation in Australia. The thesis draws on Checkland's Soft system's theory as a foundation to embrace other theories that are better suited to interpreting information that is codified in the form of written texts. Using ethnographic approaches, the study draws heavily on the theory of hermeneutics and organisation narratives because these theories provide methodological approaches for understanding organisations as systems that deal with information, and that are interpreted by human beings albeit within a balanced interplay of organisation power. The thesis aims to make a contribution to the discipline of information systems and information management, both theoretically and practically, for local government within the paradigms of information warfare, knowledge management and information space.