Development and usage of information systems (IS) involve communication. There is a need for theories and frameworks on communication for IS research studies. This paper presents a socio-pragmatic framework on communication intended to be used for different kinds of IS research; e.g. for human communication during IS development and for usage of IS. The framework builds upon the principle of communicative multi-functionality and it consists of nine communication functions: Messages should at the same time be trans-situationally compliant, situationally responsive, expressive, referential, accountable, directed, relational, projected and mediational. The theoretical grounds of the framework are briefly described. The paper includes examples of using the framework on some IT-mediated messages.

This is an introduction to the panel -Workpractice Theory as Foundation for IS Research- on the ALOIS*2005 conference. It is also a position statement concerning workpractice theory. It describes the needs for a workpractice theory in information systems research. It describes briefly also the workpractice theory developed by Goldkuhl & Röstlinger. This is an example of a workpractice theory to be used in information systems research.

Communication modelling approaches within the Language Action Perspective (LAP) are based on two important theoretical cornerstones: 1) considering language use as action and 2) organisation of communication in accordance with pre-defined patterns. The basis for the first cornerstone can be found in speech act theory, but the basis for other must be searched for elsewhere. The paper investigates the origin for many LAP approaches, the Conversation-for-action schema of Winograd & Flores. It tries to detect an influence from the sociological approach of conversational analysis. Could conversational analysis be a basis for the study of communicative patterns within LAP? A discussion is pursued concerning differences between and possibilities to combine speech act theory and conversational analysis within LAP. This discussion, which is supported by the use of a simple example of business interaction, concludes with a contestation - in a spirit of conversational analysis - of a too heavy use of pre-defined patterns incommunication modelling.

 The aim of this paper is to contribute to the decision of how to perform evaluation depending on the evaluation context. Three general strategies of how to perform evaluation together with two general strategies of what to evaluate are identified. From the three "how-strategies" and the two "what-strategies" we derive a matrix consisting of six generic types of evalua-tion. Each one of the six types are categorised on a ideal typical level.

In order to perform business modelling as apart of information systems development, there is a need for frameworks and methods. The paper proposes a framework for business interaction based on a language/action perspective. The framework is an architecture of five generic layers. The first layer concept is 'business act', which functions as the basic unit of analysis. The following four layer concepts are 'action pair', 'exchange', 'business transaction', and 'transaction group'. The framework is inspired by a similar framework constructed by Weigand et al. The paper makes a critical examination of this framework as a basis for the proposed framework. © 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

 Within the IS research field, there are many views on how to understand the use of IT systems. Within the community of organisational semiotics, Stamper’s semiotic framework has been used as a tool to understand information systems at different abstraction levels. Another theory related to organisational semiotics, Information Systems Actability Theory (ISAT), argues that social action theories and speech act theory are needed for a thorough understanding of the use of IT systems in organisations. The use of IT systems is considered to be performance of action within a social context. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on user interfaces of information systems as a means to understand socio-pragmatic and communicative aspects of IS use. The theoretical foundation is based on semiotic and socio-pragmatic theories, and findings from a case study are presented and discussed in order to clarify the argumentation.

The paper addresses the problems of scientific conceptualisation in order to avoid diffuse abstractedness. It proposes the use of an ontology consisting of the following categories: 1) humans, 2) human inner worlds which consist of 2a) intrasubjective parts and 2b) intersubjective parts (shared knowledge and social institutions), 3) human actions, 4) symbolic objects (signs), 5) artefacts (artificially made material objects) and 6) natural environment. This approach also includes a reflective way of using language. Words and corresponding language games are investigated in order to clarify the scientific concepts.

During recent years there has been an upsurge of interest in knowledge management and organisational learning. But why focus on a subject that, at some level, has been around since the pre-Socratic philosophers? The answer to the question is manifold. One explanation is that knowledge and improvement of knowledge is considered to be crucial for the performance and development of organisations. It is also argued that in our contemporary society knowledge is an important asset in order to reach sustainable competitive advantage (see for example Drucker, 1993; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Quintas, Lefrere and Jones, 1997; Davenport and Prusak, 1998). One question of concern is what are the implications of seeing knowledge as an organisational asset? When comparing intangible assets, such as knowledge, with tangible assets, such as machines or land, they can hardly be treated as having the same properties. Another question is: how should we relate knowledge to the organisation’s total ability to perform actions and deliver value to its customers? Is knowledge the only constituent of organisational ability or are there other inherent parts? The purpose of this chapter is to investigate these questions and thereby develop the notion of organisational ability In order to do this the chapter begins by looking at some theories around the area of interest.

The paper presents an approach to the evaluation of information systems based on the concept of information systems actability, which is suggested as an important alternative way to understand the role and pragmatic use of IT-systems within organizations. The results, empirically informed by two case studies, show that the suggested approach can effectively be used to direct evaluators’ attention to important aspects of an IT-system related to the social actions performed by its use within a business context.

 The paper explores the notion of ‘organisational capability’. We argue that an organisation’s competitiveness does not only depend on knowledge; communication and technology are other important features. Thus, when developing the organisational capability it is not enough to only focus on knowledge and its management. We also need to encompass improvement of communication and artefact functionality. These parts of the capability – knowledge, communication, and technology – should not be handled separately but as mutually dependent, as expansion of one part often affect the other two.

The paper discusses how theories from the Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and the information system development fields can be combined in order to achieve more actable, and thus more usable, information systems. More specifically, one aim of this research is to create a reconciliation of the HCI perspectives of usability with the language action perspective into what we call actuability. The paper discusses advantages and limitations found in both the language action perspective and in prevalent HCI theories.