The authors of the ACT report saw some commonality in the research content undertaken by the IS groups in that region, regardless of whether the research was applied or not. All ACT IS researchers investigated areas that were recognisable as falling within the boundaries of IS, and their fellow researchers had a common understanding of their research.

On the other hand, many IS groups were not able to recognise any commonality in IS research topics. The University of Canberra concluded that the degree of professionalism in research was low, as the IS research of their IS group was largely individual and eclectic. In New South Wales and Tasmania too, the fragmentation and diversity of IS research were seen to limit its professionalism.

While diversity of research topics was certainly seen at the IS group and university level, it is only when the topics were aggregated across the nation, and to a lesser extent, across states, that the existence of key research topics could be recognised—as displayed in Appendix 12.1. The many overlapping research topics uncovered in the earlier analysis of research areas from IS groups around Australia suggest that the existence of core research topics that are familiar to other researchers is not unique to ACT universities. It is unsurprising that IS groups and universities considered that there was limited commonality in research topics, given that they had access largely to local evidence only. The issue of whether identifiable core research topics exist in Australian IS is, however, relevant when evaluating whether professionalism occurs in IS research.

Even the ACT authors argued that the wide variation in the research methods used in IS groups in that region acted against the development of professionalism in research, as the routinisation of tasks was not supported. Similarly, the West Australian chapter commented that, because all local universities used many approaches (qualitative and quantitative methods, multiple methods and case studies), the diversity of research methods acted against achieving professionalism in IS research in that state. A number of other universities shared the view that the professionalism of IS research was limited. Limited cooperation in IS research was reported across institutions, particularly in New South Wales. The dispersal of IS groups in ‘silos’ across universities, particularly within settings in which the researchers are not identifiable as belonging to IS, restricts opportunities for cooperation, and the professionalism of research and teaching.

A further test is the extent to which ACIS committees, reviewers and participants, and AJIS editorial board members, reviewers and readers, mutually recognise one another, one another’s topics and one another’s research methods, or perceive strangers and strangeness. AJIS has been healthy and, subject to current perturbations associated with the RQF, and discussed shortly, ACIS has also continued to attract healthy attendances. These characteristics are consistent with at least a moderate level of commonality being perceived among community members.

Professionalism requires a common research culture. It is difficult to develop a common culture in research in which groups are fragmented, dispersed, hidden behind non-IS nomenclatures, immersed in the cultures of other disciplines, use a great variety of methods or examine disconnected research topics. Analysis of IS in Australia shows some, but limited, evidence of it being a professionalised discipline from a research perspective.

Those universities that teach research methods in discrete units in postgraduate programs, such as ADFA, help promote the development of professionalism in research through promulgating standard approaches and a common understanding. The operation of IS doctoral programs appears to be another mechanism that contributes to increasing professionalism, and links the professionalism of IS teaching to achieving more professionalism in IS research.

Inconsistencies, however, between the research methods taught to students in the Australian Capital Territory and the core knowledge of the undergraduate IS curricula delivered in the same region point to a low degree of professionalism. At the time that the ACT chapter was written, research students in two of the three IS groups in the Australian Capital Territory did not have exposure to ‘design theory’, as they studied research methods with business students; yet the common IS undergraduate curricula in those universities included artefact construction. It seems likely that other Australian IS graduate programs experience the same inconsistency between their undergraduate and research training.

At least for one ACT university, undergraduate IS programs were not designed to prepare students to be IS professionals, but instead aimed to produce ‘well-informed users’, with an expectation that on-the-job training would develop more uniform work processes within organisations.

The professional skills training offered in some IS programs, however—and referred to earlier—is expected to increase professionalism in the graduates of those programs. Use of the ACS accreditation guidelines for IS curriculum development will also increase professionalism, where adopted.

Within one specific institution, the University of Tasmania, a high to medium level of professionalism was found for IS curriculum and teaching issues, when task certainty, routinisation of activities and division of labour were assessed.

Many IS groups commented on the disparity and fragmentation of IS research topics at their university, along with limited collaboration with other IS researchers—attributes that were interpreted as reducing the professionalism of Australian IS research. When, however, the research topics were aggregated across the nation in particular, considerable commonality was displayed, which suggests that core topics exist for Australian IS research. Research methods were also recognised as diverse. The collation of Australian IS research methods across the nation might, however, also reveal a greater uniformity than has been suggested by authors of the individual state chapters.

Mechanisms to increase communication with other IS groups, such as research collaborations across IS groups, joint seminars and appointing staff who are PhD graduates of another university, will help promote professionalism in research by breaking down silos. Increased communication will also increase the awareness of IS researchers that many of their colleagues in other institutions are researching related issues.

One university reported a high to medium degree of professionalism for its IS teaching, and a low to medium degree of professionalism in its IS research. As reported earlier, the same university IS group has recently merged with a school of computing. This and other recent and future restructuring of IS groups in Australian universities could reduce the professionalism of IS research and teaching. A range of pressures were identified that acted to promote or reduce the professionalism of teaching, which operated at the undergraduate or graduate level. Given the limitations of the data in the state reports, however, the professionalism of Australian IS teaching was difficult to determine.

A range of local issues were considered to influence IS research. Few joint research projects were conducted in Western Australia, as a result of little interaction and collaboration among the universities there. In South Australia and Tasmania, the development of strategic relationships with large corporations was difficult as few large companies were present in those states or, where they were present, the head office was located elsewhere. One result of this characteristic has been that research in both states has investigated phenomena in small and medium-sized enterprises. Another characteristic mentioned by several universities, including the UniSA, was that PhD numbers were restricted by the availability of supervisors.

In Queensland, the nature of research conducted in IS groups was seen to be influenced by the competencies and interests of academic research leaders more than geography. There was, however, some evidence of a deliberate policy to focus on global issues in IS in that state rather than on those that were more local.

The nature of local contingencies that affected IS teaching issues was found to be highly variable.

One local contingency pointed to in South Australia was a perceived limited interest in IS. This was accounted for in two ways. The first was the state’s interest in resources, agriculture and defence. The second reason given was that there was no single state minister with responsibility for ICT; it was shared among six ministers. A comparison was made of South Australia’s interest in IS with that in Western Australia, a neighbouring state. Despite some similarities between the two states, all four of the West Australian universities that offered IS also offered an IS degree, contrasting with South Australia, where only one of its three universities offered an IS degree.

In South Australia, the relationship between the IS and computing curricula in one university was described as being ‘finely focused’ as a consequence of the recent amalgamation of the two disciplinary groups. In South Australia as well, the content of IS teaching was influenced by local and interstate industries, and by the fact that defence was the major ICT industry in Adelaide. At ADFA in the Australian Capital Territory, the defence services encouraged study in IS and computing to at least second year in a degree, which helped increase enrolments.

In Tasmania, local contingencies were found to have a low to medium impact on curriculum and teaching.

It was reported in the Victorian chapter that local industry had little impact on IS curricula. National influences were seen to have had a greater role than the local community and industry in the development of Victorian IS curricula. The Victorian chapter identified that a cyclical demand for IS courses had influenced IS enrolment most. For example, in the late 1990s, IS had strong enrolments in Australian universities, but this trend had reversed by 2004. Declining IS enrolment was identified by many state reports including that from New South Wales, and also by the international commentators in the theoretical framework chapter. This pressure then is a global one, and not local.

A number of local contingencies influenced IS research and teaching. Geography was referred to by the more remote states as a contingency that was able to act on teaching and research. The remote location of West Australian IS groups resulted in reliance on local industry and international connections, rather than on those in the eastern states of Australia. Western Australia also referred to local and state political pressures, which could have an impact either on teaching or research. The Tasmanian interviewees also mentioned political pressures. The South Australian government outsourced all ICT to interstate or offshore locations, which was seen to impact on the IS groups within the state, with ramifications for teaching and research.

Local contingencies had an impact on IS in the three universities in the Australian Capital Territory to a moderate degree. The position of the IS groups in the university structure influenced the units taught and the nature of the research. The business orientation of the IS group in one ACT university influenced teaching and research differently than that for the IS group in another university with a primary role to educate defence force personnel.

The NSW case concluded that local contingencies were restricted in their application, and were not state wide. Examples given were variable and included organisational politics, the nature of nearby employers and competitors, support from a large local industrial organisation in Wollongong and faculty rules at the University of Sydney.

In Queensland, the IS leader was sometimes seen to determine the nature of the curriculum and research, rather than both being determined by local community characteristics. An example was provided of an IS group at a Queensland university where the curriculum and research direction changed from a focus on soft systems to technical issues when the IS leader changed. The Queensland case commented that local contingencies had high impact.

At Charles Sturt, a regional university in New South Wales, the visibility of IS has been linked to the cross-campus structure of that university, and to university politics.

Local, and therefore different, contingencies had acted on research and teaching. Some local contingencies had impacted on the nature of IS research and teaching in Australia, including geography, political pressures and organisational structure.