The finger on the panic button

I often hear nostalgic stories about the state of our field during the dot-com boom. For instance, I’ve heard that each graduating PhD used to have an average of 6 job offers.

Currently, as we know, the field is in some trouble.

In my opinion, one of the major problems with our field is that we, IS academics, tend to project a somewhat immature image of ourselves.

For instance, when Nicholas Carr came out with his article “IT doesn’t matter” in HBR, there was an emotional outcry from a range of IS academics against that article. It is my opinion that if we were self-assured about our knowledge, and about our relevance and position in the business curriculum, we would not be so emotional about criticism. Moreover, we should welcome criticism. For criticism can only guide us to a better path.

Recently, on the ISWorld mailing list, Rick Watson initiated a discusion about a bumper sticker for the field. I thought this was an excellent way in which he got us thinking about our core mission and contribution. However, this noble exercise revealed an unfortunate truth about our field. The wide range of bumper sticker ideas submitted makes it apparent that there is not much consensus about our core mission and contribution. Another projection of immaturity.

Before we press the panic button, we need to look into the mirror and think about why we lack self-assurance and self-knowledge. It won’t be pleasant. There are some ugly truths hidden in there. But our only other option may be to slide inexorably into irrelevance and obscurity.