Department of Informatics

University of Oslo

INF5250

Information Systems Development in Organizations

Fall semester2005

Exam form: individual essay

Essay content:

Write an essay on change in the organization studied. Two aspects should be covered:

1. Micro level changes, concerning individual or small group. Relate this aspect to the topics covered in the literature and lectures like learning, participation and work

2. Macro level changes, having impact on the organizational structure. Relate to relevant literature.

Writing about changes also includes an analysis and description of the obstacles to changes and forces that trigger change. If the organization that you study undergoes little change at the moment, your essay should rather focus on the obstacles and concern how changes could take place under the circumstances that you describe.

This is an individual assignment, but you can and should discuss your drafts with the other students.

The essay will be assessed based on your ability to relate the empirical study to the literature.

To guide your writing, the process is organized as follows:

1. Write a 3-5 pages draft on the micro level theme. The draft has to be submitted on the 1^st of November, and feedbacks will be given on the 7^th of November.
2. Write a 3-5 pages draft on the macro level theme. The draft has to be submitted on the 29^th of November. Feedbacks will be given on the 29-30^th of November.
3. The final essay is composed by the micro and the macro parts, plus a reflection on the micro-macro relation. The micro and macro parts should be finalized according to the feedbacks received. The final essay should be limited to 5000 words (references excluded). The length limit should make you focus on the relevant content. Submission deadline is 16^th of December.

Practicalities:

1. Send drafts and final essay to miriag (at) ifi.uio.no
2. Attach the file in .pdf
3. Name the file: yourname.pdf
4. The final exam essay should be limited to 5000 words: state the word length on the first page of your essay.

Important Deadlines:

1st November. Draft of first aspect, 3-5 pages. Feedback on the 7thNovember.

29 November. Draft of second aspect, 3-5 pages. Feedback 29-30.

16 December. Final delivery 5-10 pages

The grading of INF 5250 is Pass/Fail. You need to get a pass both in the first assignment (Structures in Five) and this second deliverable in order to obtain a Pass mark in the course.

General guidelines on how to structure your essay:

�         Introduction

�         Literature review

�        Present the concepts you have selected from the course literature. Discursive way � full sentences and no bullets.

�         Method: briefly describe how you collected your data.

�         Case description:

�        Some background information + focus on aspects which are relevant for the analysis.

�         Analysis and discussion: interpret your case with theoretical concepts. NOT re-presenting case and theory!

�         Conclusions

General: At the beginning of each paragraph: tell the reader what you�re going to do in that paragraph