Debra Howcroft

Contact information Debra Howcroft (Professor) BA (Manchester), MSc (UMIST), PhD (UMIST) Email: debra.howcroft@mbs.ac.uk Tel: +44 (0) 161 275 0422 Room: M36 Office hours: Tuesday 11-12 and Wednesday 11-12

Research interests 

My research interests focus on technology and organizations within a global context.  I am an Associate Editor for the Information Systems Journal and a member of the editorial boards for IT & People, Journal of Information Technology, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, and Qualitative Review of Accounting and Management.  In addition, I am Program Chair (with E Trauth) of the IFIP WG8.2 (International Federation of Information Processing Working Group) conference to be held in Limerick in July 2006.  The theme of the conference is: Social Inclusion: Societal & Organizational Implications for Information Systems (http://www.ifip82-2006.ul.ie). 

Recent publications

Books

• Howcroft D and Trauth E (eds.) Handbook of Critical Information Systems Research: Theory and Application, Edward Elgar Publishing, Cheltenham, UK, 2005.
• Trauth E, Howcroft D, Butler T, Fitzgerald B and DeGross J, (eds.) Social Inclusion: Societal & Organizational Implications for Information Systems, Springer-Verlag, 2006.

Journal publications

• Adam A, Howcroft D and Richardson H, A Decade of Neglect: Reflecting on the Gender and IS Field, New Technology, Work and Employment, 19:3, 2004, 222-240.
  Citation of Excellence award by Emerald Management Reviews
• Howcroft D, Invited commentary on Inventing Use for a Novel Mobile Service, International Journal of Technology and Human Interaction, 2006, 2:2.
• Howcroft D and Trauth M, The Implications of a Critical Agenda in Gender and IS Research, Information Systems Journal, forthcoming.
• Howcroft D and Light B, Reflections on issues of power in packaged software selection, Information Systems Journal, 2006
• Richardson H and Howcroft D, The contradictions of CRM – a critical lens on call centres, Information & Organization, 16:2, 2006 56-81.
• Wagner E, Howcroft D and Newell S, Understanding the contextual influences on enterprise system design, implementation, use and evaluation, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 14:2,2005, 91-95.
• Wilson M and Howcroft D, Power, Politics and Persuasion in IS Evaluation: a Focus on ‘Relevant Social Groups’, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 14: 1, 2005, 17-43.        
• Howcroft D, Newell S and Wagner E, Understanding the contextual influences on enterprise system design, implementation, use and evaluation, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 13: 4, 2004, 271-277.

Conference proceedings

• Howcroft D, Knox H, Langer S, Nicholson B, Richardson H and Westrup C, Economy and culture: creating global standards for local circumstances, CRESC Inaugural Conference, Culture and Social Change: Disciplinary Exchanges, Manchester, 2005.
• Howcroft D and McDonald R, An ethnographic study of IS investment appraisal, Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Information Systems, (eds. Leino T, Saarinen T and Klein S) 2004.
• Mitev N and Howcroft D The role of history in IS research, Fourth Critical Management Studies Conference, Cambridge, 2005 available at: http://www.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/research/ejrot/cmsconference/2005/default.asp

Book chapters

• Howcroft D and Trauth E, The Choice of Critical IS Research, in B. Kaplan, D. Truex, D. Wastell, A. T. Wood-Harper and J. I. DeGross (eds.) Relevant Theory and Informed Practice – Looking Forward from a 20 Year Perspective on IS Research, Kluwer Academic Publishers, Boston, 2004, 195-211.
• Howcroft D, Mitev N and Wilson M, What we may learn from the social shaping of technology approach, in Mingers J and Willcocks L (eds.) Social Theory and Philosophy of IS, John Wiley and Sons, Chichester, 2004, 329-371.
• Trauth E and Howcroft D, Critical Research on Gender and Information Systems, in Trauth E (ed.) Encyclopaedia of Gender and Information Technology, Idea Group Publishing, 2006

Teaching specialisms

• Undergraduate
  • AF2102: Information systems development approaches (with Brian Nicholson)
  • AF3232: Systems implementation and change (with John Burns)
• Postgraduate
  • FS7221: Concepts and Interpretations of IS (with Anita Greenhill, MSM)

Admin duties

Programme director for BA(Hons) in Accounting with Business Information Systems