Date of Award

Winter 2014

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

Department

Computer Information Systems

First Advisor

James F. Courtney

Abstract

Singerian Inquiring Organizations (SIO) (Courtney, et al., 1998; Courtney, 2001) are knowledge-based enterprises based on Churchman's theory of Singerian inquiring systems (Courtney, 2001). For Singerian organizations to thrive, employees must feel unfettered to quest for knowledge, share what knowledge has been found, and express opinions about the findings of others. In short, employees must feel empowered to act in order to foster the well-being and development of the organization and its stakeholders. Both the psychology and organizational behavior literature have examined psychological empowerment as a way to challenge individuals and/or employees to take control of and interest in organizational situations; however, there has been limited research examining the amalgamation of empowerment and information systems (IS) research constructs.

The purpose of this research is to extend the empowerment stream of research into IS and examine the potential positive influence that empowered employees can have on the information assurance of an organization, and ultimately, the ways in which these principles can foster Singerian Inquiring Organizations, providing a roadmap for organizations to construct their own SIO environment. These ideas were conceptualized in a research model, which was tested by collecting survey data, and proven to be significant and of good fit.

The model conceptualized in this research is offered as a way for organizations to model themselves as a Singerian Inquiring Organization, and in turn foster an organizational environment where employees are empowered to contribute in the decision-making process and tackle real world problems.

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