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Dear colleagues,
The December 2020 issue of the Journal of Information Technology
(JIT) has been published. This is the TOC:
Debate:
Robo-Apocalypse cancelled? Reframing the automation and future of
work
debate
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0268396220925830>
Leslie Willcocks
pp. 286–302
Robotics and the automation of knowledge work, often referred to
as AI (artificial intelligence), are presented in the media as
likely to have massive impacts, for better or worse, on jobs
skills, organizations and society. The article deconstructs the
dominant hype-and-fear narrative. Claims on net job loss emerge as
exaggerated, but there will be considerable skills disruption and
change in the major global economies over the next 12 years. The
term AI has been hijacked, in order to suggest much more going on
technologically than can be the case. The article reviews
critically the research evidence so far, including the author’s
own, pointing to eight major qualifiers to the dominant discourse
of major net job loss from a seamless, overwhelming AI wave
sweeping fast through the major economies. The article questions
many assumptions: that automation creates few jobs short or long
term; that whole jobs can be automated; that the technology is
perfectible; that organizations can seamlessly and quickly deploy
AI; that humans are machines that can be replicated; and that it
is politically, socially and economically feasible to apply these
technologies. A major omission in all studies is factoring in
dramatic increases in the amount of work to be done. Adding in
ageing populations, productivity gaps and skills shortages
predicted across many G20 countries, the danger might be too
little, rather than too much labour. The article concludes that,
if there is going to be a Robo-Apocalypse, this will be from a
collective failure to adjust to skills change over the next
12 years. But the debate needs to be widened to the impact of
eight other technologies that AI insufficiently represents in the
popular imagination and that, in combination, could cause a
techno-apocalypse.
Commentaries:
Robo-apocalypse cancelled?
Commentary
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0268396220925832>
Kristine Dery
pp. 303–304
Robo-apocalypse
cancelled?
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0268396220925096>
Stefan Klein, Mary Beth Watson-Manheim
pp. 305–306
Information systems research on artificial intelligence and work:
A commentary on “Robo Apocalypse cancelled? Reframing the
automation and future of work
debate”
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0268396220926511>
Marleen Huysman
pp. 307–309
The robo-apocalypse plays out in the quality, not in the quantity
of
work
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0268396220923677>
Kai Riemer, Sandra Peter
pp. 310–315
How do offshoring-related changes in job characteristics affect
onshore managers’ affective organizational commitment? The
moderating role of perceived organizational
valence
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0268396220942237>
Angelika Zimmermann, Eleni Lioliou, João S Oliveira
pp. 316–336
Offshoring—the transfer of work activities to providers in
offshore countries—has for some time affected the nature of work
in onshore locations. Not much is however known about the
reactions of onshore job incumbents to such changes. In this
article, we use a survey of UK firms to examine the relationship
between perceived changes in onshore managers’ work
characteristics induced by information systems offshoring and
managers’ affective organizational commitment. We found that a
perceived increase in onshore managers’ job complexity was
associated with higher affective organizational commitment only if
managers also perceived organizational valence, that is, only if
they believed that information systems offshoring benefited their
organization. A perceived increase in cross-cultural work was
associated with higher affective organizational commitment, and
this association was positively moderated by managers’ perceptions
of organizational valence. Using the offshoring context, our
findings provide insights into consequences of contemporary
changes in the nature of work in developed countries and to
explain the diverse reactions of onshore job incumbents to such
changes.
Is code law? Current legal and technical adoption issues and
remedies for blockchain-enabled smart
contracts
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0268396220924669>
Daniel Drummer, Dirk Neumann
pp. 337–360
Blockchain technology has enabled so-called smart contracts
between different parties on a decentralized network. These
self-enforceable and self-executable computerized contracts could
initiate a fundamental paradigm shift in the understanding and
functioning of our legal practices. Opportunities for their
application are increasingly understood, and numerous tests of
feasibility have been completed. However, only very few use cases
have yet been implemented at scale. This article—as the first of
its kind—comprehensively analyzes the underlying challenges and
locates a key reason for the slow adoption in the discrepancy
between legal requirements and IT capabilities. Our work combines
a wide range of academic sources and interviews with 30 domain
experts from IT, the legal domain and private industry. First, we
establish that smart contracts still fall within the boundaries of
the general legal framework. We then systematically dissect
current shortcomings of smart contracts on three distinct levels,
namely, (1) how smart contracts are likely to cause conflicts with
existing laws, (2) how smart contracts are intrinsically limited
on an individual contract level and (3) how they are impeded by
their current technical design. Across those levels, we dissect 20
distinct issues concerning the current implementation of smart
contracts for which we derive potential remedies. We further
outline implications for policy-makers as well as IT management,
and examine how information systems research can play an important
role in advancing smart contracts. Finally, we show how managerial
and organizational issues might represent an ongoing challenge for
the widespread adoption of smart contracts.
A ‘conversation’ between Frank Land (FL) and Antony Bryant (AB):
PART
I
<https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0268396220908274>
Antony Bryant, Frank Land
pp. 361–375
The ‘conversation’ offers an important contribution to the
archaeology of information systems, both in practice as an
academic domain or discipline, and a focus on the genealogy of the
field, including some of the accidents and deviations that marked
later developments. It is derived from a series of conversations
and later exchanges that I arranged with Frank Land. The
substantive aspects date from the late 2017 and were then
developed in a series of exchanges in 2018; although in effect he
and I have been developing this conversation over many years,
during which he has been continually challenging, expansive and
forthcoming. Comments forthcoming from readers of earlier drafts
indicated some perplexity regarding the genre and the objectives
of our contribution, so it is important to note that the term
‘conversation’ is something of a conceit. It is not an interview
per se, nor is it a biographical account. The core of what follows
developed from our verbatim exchanges both face-to-face, and later
via email. Some sections, however, have been reworked and enhanced
to clarify and augment the issues raised. In addition, we have
sought to provide a good deal of background and narrative to guide
readers through the text, offering pointers to further resources.
The overall contribution is intended to provide an informed and,
we hope, informative contribution to people’s understanding of key
social and technical issues of our time.
JIT Special Issue Call for Papers:
Regulation in the Age of
Digitalization
<https://journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cmscontent/JIN/JIT%20CFP%20SI%20Regulation%20and%20IT%202020-03-08%20DS.pdf>
(deadline 2021-01-31)
Editors: Danny Gozman, Kalle Lyytinen, Tom Butler
Emerging Technologies and IS
Sourcing
<https://journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cmscontent/JIT%20CFP%20SI%20Emerging%20Technologies%20IS%20Sourcing%20FINAL-1588000712277.pdf>
(deadline 2021-02-26)
Editors: Julia Kotlarsky, Ilan Oshri, Oliver Krancher, Rajiv
Sabherwal
Ethical Issues and Unintended Consequences of Digitalization and
Platformization
<https://journals.sagepub.com/pb-assets/cmscontent/JIN/JIT%20CFP%20SI%20Ethical%20Issues%20Digitalization-1607440361830.pdf>
(deadline 2021-06-01)
Editors; Matti Rossi, Christy Cheung, Suprateek Sarker, Jason
Thatcher
Subscribe to receive JIT's special issue call for papers and
online-first publications alerts:
https://journals.sagepub.com/connected/JIN#email-alert
JIT homepage (note, we are publishing now with SAGE, not
Palgrave/Springer as previously)
https://journals.sagepub.com/home/jin
Nominate JIT for inclusion in the Financial Times list:
https://survey.ft.com/jfe/form/SV_8qBwlr4MLqwwQaV
Best wishes,
Daniel
Dr Daniel Schlagwein
Associate Professor | The University of Sydney Business School |
Business Information Systems
Co-Editor-in-Chief | Journal of Information Technology
The University of Sydney
Abercrombie Building (H70), Room 4070 | The University of Sydney
NSW 2006 | Australia
+61286277407 |
schlagwein@sydney.edu.au |
sydney.edu.au/business/schlagwein/
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