Sexuality and Empowerment: An Intimate Connection

Information Technology as Ontology:
A Phenomenological Investigation into Information Technology
and Strategy In-the-World








Fernando Albano Maia de Magalhães Ilharco








Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy of The University of London







2002






London School of Economics and Political Science
Department of Information Systems
London WC2A 2AE
United Kingdom




- 1 -








This dissertation is dedicated with love and gratitude to Margarida, my wife,
and to our children Ana, André and Fernando.

- 2 -

Abstract

This dissertation offers a phenomenological approach to the comprehension of Information
Technology (IT) and Strategy, and of the relationships between these two phenomena. We
argue that in order thoughtfully to understand the manifold connections between IT and
Strategy, their contradictions, shortcomings, and possibilities, one has to rely on the essence
of each of these phenomena.
The rationale of this approach implies the need to make explicit the ontological
assumptions on which the investigation relies. An essential uncovering of that which IT and
Strategy are can only take place as long as we lay bare a primary position on the nature of
that which is. Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time and, to a lesser extent, the theory of
autopoiesis are the foundations of this investigation. We claim that these theories are
paradigmatically consistent and show relevant complementarities, namely in what concerns
the issues of action, information, and knowledge. The matching of these two theories
provides the ontological and epistemological grounds of the investigation. Within this
fundamental setting we argue that IT and Strategy will only essentially show up as long as
they are accessed in-the-world in which they are what they are.
The research applies the phenomenological method of investigation in its original form as
developed by Edmund Husserl. However we extend the Husserlian formulation in a last
phase by using the arguments of Heidegger on the opening up of possible concealed
meanings of phenomena. The method sets the boundaries of the research. IT and strategy
are phenomenological analysed not as empirical objects, events, or state of affairs, but as
intentional objects of consciousness. These are formally indicated from the outset of the
investigation as the ITness of IT and the Strategyness of Strategy.
The central conclusions of the investigation are that (1) IT is an ontological phenomenon,
substantively penetrating the being-in-the-world we, ourselves, are; and, (2) Strategy,
essentially choosing to choose, has been unfolding throughout History guided by the
concealed meaning of a striving for an authentic identity. These essential notions uncover a
complex set of relationships between the two phenomena. Those relationships are thus
described and characterised. We also show that although phenomenology is not empirical
its results have many important implications for the empirical world.

Key words: Information technology, information systems, technology, information, action,
knowledge, replacement, strategy, authenticity, identity, globalisation, ontology,
phenomenology, essence, Heidegger, being-in-the-world, autopoiesis, closed systems,
theoretical investigation, interpretive research, qualitative research.
- 3 -

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………. 7

Preface……………………………………………………………………...…….. 8

Introduction……………………………………………………………………..... 11


PART I - GROUNDING

CHAPTER 1 - AN ONTOLOGICAL GROUNDING…………………………………….. 17
1.1. An Ontic Account of IT……………………………………………………….. 19
1.2. An Ontological Recovering……………………………………………………. 31
1.3. A Grounding Questioning…………………………………………...………… 43
1.4. Heidegger, Autopoiesis, and Information Systems……………………………. 45
1.5. Recapitulation……………………………………………………..…………… 48

CHAPTER 2 - A PHENOMENOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION………………..………… 50
2.1. The Idea of Phenomenology…………………………………………………… 51
2.2. The Place of Phenomenology………………………………………………….. 55
2.3. Key Concepts of Phenomenology…………………………………...………… 60
2.3.1. Intentionality ………………………………………………………... 60
2.3.2. Description…………………………………………………………... 64
2.3.3. Reduction……………………………………………….……………. 66
2.3.4. Essence………………………………………………………………. 68
2.4. The Phenomenological Method…………………………………….……….…. 74
2.5. Recapitulation……………………………………………………..…………… 83

APPENDICES TO PART I – THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS…………………. 85
A. Heidegger………………………………………………….……………. 87
A.1. Being-in-the-world…………………………………………………….. 88
A.1.1. Worldhood………………………………………………...…………. 91
A.1.2. Being-in……………………………………………………………… 98
A.2. Temporality……………………………………………………...…….. 105

B. Autopoiesis………………………………………………….………...… 112
B.1. Autonomy, Organisation, and Structure……………………...………... 114
B.2. Living Systems and Environment……………………………...………. 118
B.3. Human Beings………………………………………………………….. 120
B.3.1. The Individual and the Collective……………………………………. 122

C. Matching Heidegger and Autopoiesis…………………………………. 125




- 4 -
PART II- DEVELOPMENT



CHAPTER 3 - ON INFORMATION AND ACTION……………………………………... 134
3.1. Action as Ground………………………………………………………………. 138
141 3.2. Language as Action……………………………………………………………..
144 3.3. Information as Difference………………………………………………………
152 3.3.1. Etymologies of Information and Data…………………………………….
3.4. Knowledge as Instinct………………………………………………………….. 157
3.5. Recapitulation………………………………………………………………….. 163

166 CHAPTER 4 - ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY…………………………………...
170 4.1. Describing the Phenomenon of IT……………………………………………...
4.2. Analysing the Etymology of Information and Technology…………………….. 179
4.3. Performing the Phenomenological Reduction Upon IT………………………... 182
187 4.4. Investigating the Essence of IT…………………………………………………
187 4.4.1. Views on Technology………………………………………………..
192 4.4.2. Ge-stell………………………………………………………………
4.4.3. Replacement………………………………………………………… 199
220 4.5. Watching Modes in which the Essence of IT Appears…………………..……
236 4.6. Interpreting Concealed Meanings of IT…………………………………….…
240 4.7. Recapitulation…………………………………………………………………

CHAPTER 5 – ON STRATEGY……………………………………………………….. 243
5.1. The Management Field 246
5.2. Clausewitz’s Theory…………………………………………………………… 256
5.3. The Chinese Word Shi…………………………………………………………. 270
5.4. The Etymology of Strategy……………………………………….……………. 276
5.5. The Essence of Strategy……………………………………………………..…. 279
5.6. Recapitulation…………………………………………………………….……. 298

CHAPTER 6 - CONCLUSIONS……………………………………………………….. 301
6.1. The Relevance of Phenomenology for the Empirical World…………………... 303
6.2. The Readiness-to-Hand of the Findings……………………………………….. 308
6.3. Replacement and Authenticity In-the-World…………………………………... 314
6.4. Further Empirical Implications of the Investigation………………….……….. 330
6.4.1. General Empirical Implications of the Findings…………………….. 331
6.4.2. Empirical Implications for Organisations and Managing IT……….. 335
6.5. Concluding Remarks…………………………………………………………… 339


342 Postscript…………………………………………………………….……………..

References…………………………………………………………………...……... 345





- 5 -


LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1 - An Ontological Recovering………………………………………….. 39
Figure B.1 - The Living System and its Components………………………………. 115
Figure B.2 - Patterns of Coupling Between Living Being and Environment………. 120
Figure C.1 - Matching the Theories of Heidegger and Autopoiesis………………... 126
Figure C.2 - Heidegger and Autopoiesis Main Relationships……………………… 127
Figure C.3 - The Entanglement of Essences………………………………………... 129
Figure C.4 - Framework of Paradigms……………………………………………… 130
Figure 3.1 - Four Paradigms on Information………………………………………. 135
Figure 3.2 - Language as Ontogenic Communicative Behaviour………………….. 142
Figure 3.3 - Input-Output System and Environment………………………………. 147
Figure 3.4 - Autopoietic System and Environment From Observer’s Perspective… 147
Figure 3.5 – An Autopoietic System From System’s Own Perspective.…………… 147
Figure 3.6 - The Hermeneutic Circle………………………………………………. 149
Figure 3.7 - Experiencing Colours………………………………………………….. 151
Figure 3.8 - Action/Knowledge In-the-World……………………………………… 162
Figure 4.1 - Information + Technology…………………………………………….. 200
Figure 4.2 - Order and Meaning in IT……………………………………………… 202
Figure 4.3 - Order and Meaning in the Essence of IT……………………………… 204
Figure 4.4 - Enframing becoming clear 214
Figure 4.5 - The Globe Hanging Suspended in Space 226
Figure 4.6 - The Globe As It Is……………………………………………………... 227
Figure 4.7 - The History of Man (1) ……………………………………………….. 228
Figure 4.8 - The History of Man (2) 228
Figure 4.9 - The History of Man (3) 229
Figure 4.10 - Yavlisnk