Welcome to this special issue of The Journal of Strategic Information Systems on “Strategic Perspectives on Digital Work and Organisational Transformation”. The special issue guest editors are Joao Baptista, Warwick Business School, UK; Mari-Klara Stein, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark; Stefan Klein, WWU Munster, Germany; Mary Beth Watson-Manheim, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA; and Jungwoo Lee, Yonsei University, South Korea. The special issue commences with an incisive and compelling editorial by the special issue editors, “Digital Work and Organisational Transformation: Emergent Digital/Human Work Configurations in Modern Organisations,” that synthesizes the four empirical articles in the special issue. They highlight the challenges for organisations in dealing with “third order change, particularly because these effects are beyond existing frames of reference and require a more dynamic and supple response based on the values, purpose and intent dominant in the organisation.” They refer to this as structural digital work, and further reflect on the value of current theories and methods to research this emergent phenomenon. The ideas in this special issue have much wider pertinence than might be anticipated. It is highly timely in the face of COVID-19. I encourage all to peruse the special issue editorial, which I have no doubt will further invite attention to the special issue component papers.
The special issue is followed by a Viewpoint article I commenced in 2015 as then JSIS Senior Editor. Now simply titled “Information Systems Research Strategy”, when first invited by Bob Galliers, the article was originally about ‘Contemporary demands on university research’. Over the years it has morphed and split several times, some would suggest one time too few (I acknowledge it is large). The Viewpoint has two aligned aims: (i) to espouse the value of a strategic research orientation for the Information Systems Discipline; and (ii) to facilitate such a strategic orientation by recognising the value of programmatic research and promoting the publication of such work. It commences from the view that Information Systems (IS) research benefits from being strategic at every level, from individual researcher, to research program, to research discipline and beyond. It particularly advocates for more coordinated programs of research emphasising real-world impact, while recognising that vibrant, individual-driven and small-team research within broad areas of promise, is expected to continue forming the core of the IS research ecosystem. Thus, the overarching aim is the amplification of strategic thinking in IS research – the further leveraging of an orientation natural to the JSIS community, with emphasis on research programs as a main strategic lever, and further considering how JSIS can be instrumental in this aim. I believe the Viewpoint article complements well this special issue, a theme in both being the need for creative concepts and methods in the dynamic post-COVID-19 world we are facing.
Lastly, I take this opportunity to announce the JSIS Best Paper 2019! Congratulations to Simon Chanias, Institute for Information Systems and New Media, LMU Munich, Germany; Michael Myers, University of Auckland Business School, New Zealand; and Thomas Hess, LMU for their article … Chanias, S., Myers, M.D., & Hess, T. (2019). Digital transformation strategy making in pre-digital organizations: The case of a financial services provider. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 28(1), 17–33.