Reader and Head of the Information, Knowledge and Systems (IKS) Research Group

The IKS group has evolved from the former Information Management Research Institute and Information Society Research groups. These former groups had a significant track record in external research funding (attracting over £1m of external research income from funding councils and public bodies), publication and PhD completions. We are currently building on this track record and academic staff within the team have current combined grants worth over £400K from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC); e-records management and Engineering and Physics Science Research Council (EPSRC); business process management for Construction. The IKS Research Group has over 15 current full and part time PhD students mainly undertaking qualitative field research in areas such as: diffusion of innovation theory; e-records and risk management; IT strategy and business alignment; knowledge management and communities of practice; information seeking behaviours, soft systems modelling; and business process management.

  As leader of this group my role is to create and lead a vibrant research community that conducts leading edge research that focuses on theory development working in the interface between technology, organisations and society. A significant part of this remit is to seek and win external research funding together with a continuous level of international level publication. We aim to contribute to both theory and practice whilst disseminating the work through a high level programme of peer reviewed research outputs such as journal articles, conference papers, research workshops and seminars. My current role as an elected board member of the UK Academy for Information Systems (UKAIS) provides a fast track route to high level networks of researchers and also a powerful avenue for rapid dissemination of research findings through organised workshops, events and international conferences.

In summary, my research role is focused on the development of a new research community bringing together research staff and students from the disciplines of Information Systems, Information and Communication Management, Records and Knowledge Management, Systems thinking and Practice. My approach is one of leadership through example and decision making through participation and input from all members of the team. I am also dedicated to continuous professional development and am making use of significant learning opportunities such as the Development Programme for Directors of Research (I attended the residential programme run through the British Academy of Management over the course of 2005) to improve my leadership, management and operational practice with respect to research group management.