Keeping Humans in the Loop: IS Disciplinary Perspectives on the Fourth Industrial Revolution
by
Nigel Melville
Associate Professor of Technology and Operations
Program Director, Design Science
Stephen M. Ross School of Business
University of Michigan
Friday, Apr 1
11:00 am – 12:30 pm
In-person: 1810 Liacouras Walk, Room 420
Abstract:
The current era of technology-enabled change is often referred to as the fourth industrial revolution (4IR). Prior research on the 4IR largely adopts a techno-economic view, focusing on the role of rapidly advancing digital technologies in enabling productivity-enhancing industrial innovations. We advance an alternative view: prosperity is limited if humans are kept out of the loop and the health of the planet is not prioritized. To operationalize this view, we leverage information systems disciplinary perspectives that emphasize the relational nature between digital technologies and human behavior in the enactment of new practices, including socio-technical and affordance theories. Our analysis suggests that the 4IR is characterized by the emulation of human cognition and communication. This yields four clusters of 4IR action possibilities for good and ill: enhanced decision making, human-centered interaction, generativity, and extensible resource sharing. The new 4IR perspective centrally situates humans and human behavior in the context of machines that can sense, understand, interact, and react. The result suggests a new discourse and new IS research streams that keep humans in the loop, prioritize the health of the planet, and promote positive outcomes while mitigating negative ones.
Bio:
Nigel P. Melville is an associate professor of information systems at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan, and Design Science Program Director. Professor Melville has over 20 years of experience researching, teaching, and consulting on the topic of organizational transformation enabled by digital information systems. He has published more than 45 research articles in such leading journals and conferences as Information Systems Research, MIS Quarterly, Journal of Management Information Systems, Decision Support Systems, Information Systems Journal, Journal of Industrial Ecology, Journal of Cleaner Production, Communications of the ACM, MIS Quarterly Executive, and the International Conference on Information Systems, has been cited more than 7500 times, and has received best paper and highly cited paper awards and won selective industry competitions and grants. He is an editor of the book “Global E-Commerce: Impacts of National Environment and Policy” (Cambridge University Press, 2006), has served as a keynote speaker for international conferences, is an invited speaker at leading institutions throughout the world, and serves on the editorial boards of leading information systems journals. In addition to executive education, Professor Melville teaches core classes in the part-time online MBA program, MS in supply chain management, and BBA program. Prior to academia, Professor Melville worked as a product engineer for a global telecommunications firm and co-founded a customer relationship management software company. Professor Melville earned a BS in electrical engineering from UCLA, an MS in electrical and computer engineering from UC Santa Barbara, and a PhD in management from UC Irvine.