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The question of evaluating evolutionary information systems is problematic because of the diverse range benefits and costs, which display differing natures. Increasingly, information systems have to cope with changing organisational needs that are further complicated by the limitations of “traditional” investment appraisal techniques. The complex interaction between the use of information technology (IT) and its changing organisational setting requires organisations to address how investments in IT/information systems should be evaluated. In this paper the authors consider the problem of evaluating IT/IS investments in dynamic organisational environments with a particular focus on tailorable information systems and the deferred systems design philosophy.

This paper aims to examine the contextual issues relating to the problem of developing web‐based information systems for emergent organisations.

The study employs an action research approach to understand and develop an analytical development tool for web developers. It postulates that existing methods are inadequate in coping with sudden and unexpected changing characteristics within the organisation. The theory of deferred action is used as the basis for the development of an emergent analytical development tool. Many tools for managing change in a continuously changing organisation are susceptible to inadequacy.

The insights proposed are believed to assist designers in developing functional and relevant approaches within dynamic organisational contexts.

The analytical development matrix assists web developers in emergent organisations to develop web‐based information systems.

The aim of this paper is to examine empirically the relevance of the theory of deferred action for knowledge management systems (KMS) design in practice.

The study adopts a case study approach to examine knowledge work and knowledge management in virtual teamwork in a large UK telecommunications company to understand the occurrence of emergent knowledge and how it is managed by virtual team leaders. The section in the company studied is described as a “knowledge intensive organization” dealing with the company's e‐commerce activities.

The analysis confirms the complex adaptive system hypothesis – a complex system adapts to its environment through self‐organization. The data reveal the behaviour of the virtual team to be self‐organizing and adaptive to its environment. It confirms the knowledge tacitness hypothesis and social embeddedness of knowledge hypothesis as important determinants of knowledge sharing. Specifically, the data reveal the main issues concerning knowledge sharing practices of virtual team workers and the crucial team leader's role in the effectiveness of the teams' capability to develop social links to externalise and share tacit knowledge to accomplish tasks.

In this paper, the authors contribute “emergent knowledge” as a third category of organizational knowledge in addition to the existing tacit and explicit knowledge that needs to be considered when designing KMS. It also derives socio‐technical systems design principles based on the theory of deferred action, and a tentative development process with metrics is then proposed for KMS design that caters for emergent, tacit, and explicit knowledge.

Existing models such as the SECI model do not acknowledge emergent knowledge or its conversion into explicit knowledge. The theory of deferred action is invoked to derive design principles, termed deferred systems design principles, to depict how explicit knowledge, tacit knowledge, and emergent knowledge can be represented to design knowledge management systems for “emergent organizations”.

The study contributes to the limited research and lack of consideration of emergent knowledge as an integral part of organizational knowledge, especially in an era of emergent organizations.

The purpose of this paper is to address the problem of designing artificial complex adaptive systems, like information systems and organisations, by developing a proof‐of‐concept conceptual proto‐agent model.

The paper develops an exploratory proto‐agent model and evaluates its suitability for implementation as agent‐based simulation.

The paper focuses on understanding the effect of emergence when designing artificial complex adaptive systems and produces a proto‐agent model that identified agents and their behavioural rules for modelling.

In deferred action, agents act in emergent organisation to achieve predetermined goals. Since emergence cannot be predicted, information systems and organisation design approaches that cater for emergent organisation are required.

The deferred action construct is a synthesis of planned approaches and contingency approaches to design information systems. It recognises the effect of emergence on information systems.

Much educational practice taught at teaching colleges regarding the process of teaching and learning is derived from a theoretical base. Less is based on lessons learned from the observation of the actual process of teaching and learning. Undergraduate teachers and mature practitioners are left with unstructured and unsystematic personal reflections of the process of teaching and learning for meeting any deficiencies they may have perceived. Soft systems methodology is an approach that can fill this lacuna. It provides a structured and systematic as well as systemic, approach for analysing actual practices in organized human activities, or human activity systems, such as the institution of education. The methodology is of particular benefit for analysing the process of teaching and learning because it does not require starting the process as an identified and precisely defined problem requiring a commensurate solution, yet it is still capable of generating recommendations for improving the process. The methodology is applied to this process to discover whether it can reveal hitherto unrecognized teaching and learning activities which can be used to improve the process in question.

Describes the holistic approach to learning and teaching interaction which has been taught on undergraduate and postgraduate degrees and doctoral programmes. The holistic approach develops students to be critical, confident and independent; aims to make learning a process of self‐improvement that explicitly recognizes the self and the social context of learning and teaching, and recognizing the needs of the individual learner in the interaction. Its premise is that the social context of the interaction is significant. It recognizes that the exchanges that take place within this social action are the foundation for developing critical learners, thus including experiential knowledge of learners and teachers to improve the quality of the teaching situation and levels of achievement of learners. Kelly’s Personal Construct Theory is invoked to explain how the holistic approach leads to the development of learners as critical thinkers. The result of practising the holistic approach has been sustained high levels of student attendance at lectures and seminars, improved progression, and appreciative and satisfied cohorts.