Reliability, Mindfulness, and Information Systems

From Information Systems at Pitt Business

Software crashes. Hardware breaks. Networks become congested. Viruses and worms bring down systems. Data gets corrupted. Users, for better or worse, use information technologies in ways designers never imagined. Yet, the paradox of relying on complex systems composed of unreliable components for reliable outcomes is rarely acknowledged in discussions of IS operations, design, and management.

How do individuals and organizations acheive reliable performance in spite of the fact that the systems that depend on are fragile and complex? While engineering practice would suggest that reliably can achieved best through redundancy and standardization, studies of high-reliability organizations provide insight into the crucial role that adaptability, flexibility, and attentiveness play in achieving consistent performance in the face of complex, uncertain systems.

To read more check out the paper on Reliability, Mindfulness an Information Systems by Brian Butler and Peter Gray.

This article was originally published in MIS Quarterly, Vol 30, No. 2, June 2006.

[edit] Abstract

In a world where information technology is both important and imperfect, organizations and individuals are faced with the ongoing challenge of determining how to use complex, fragile systems in dynamic contexts to achieve reliable outcomes. While reliability is a central concern of information systems practitioners at many levels, there has been limited consideration in information systems scholarship of how firms and individuals create, manage, and use technology to attain reliability. We propose that examining how individuals and organizations use information systems to reliably perform work will increase both the richness and relevance of IS research. Drawing from studies of individual and organizational cognition, we examine the concept of mindfulness as a theoretical foundation for explaining efforts to achieve individual and organizational reliability in the face of complex technologies and surprising environments. We then consider a variety of implications of mindfulness theories of reliability in the form of alternative interpretations of existing knowledge and new directions for inquiry in the areas of IS operations,design, and management.

[edit] Keywords

Mindfulness, Reliability, IS operations, IS management, IS design, resilience