Human Systems Management: The Most Cited Papers

Daniel E. O’Leary

University of Southern California

Marshall School of Business

Los Angeles, CA90089-0441

Abstract

Using citations from Social Science Citation Index, this paper develops a list of the twenty-five most cited papers from Human Systems Management over its first twenty-five volumes. Only one author appeared more than once on the list. Nineteen of the papers were from the 1980’s and six of the papers were from the 1990’s.

Keywords: Citations, Social Science Citation Index (SSCI), Most Cited Papers

Human Systems Management: The Most Cited Papers

1. Introduction

As of this writing, there have been 25 volumes of “Human Systems Management” (HSM) published over the time period 1980 to 2006. After 25 volumes is an important time to begin to assess the impact of the journal on the field. As noted by Cyert [5] in a review of the first 20 volumes, there have been some important researchers that have contributed to HSM, based on their reputation alone. However, another approach to examining importance is to investigate the papers that have received the most attention by other researchers. One measure of the impact of a paper is the number of citations that it has received over time. Citation analysis can be used to identify those authors and papers that have been most frequently identified and used by other researchers. As a result, the purpose of this paper is to summarize and analyze the most cited papers from HSM for volumes 1-25.

1.1 Why List Most Cited Papers?

Such citation studies are important for a number of reasons. First, such studies can be particularly important to the authors whose work is rated among the most cited studies. Being the author of a “most cited” paper can result in financial benefits at annual performance reporting periods and in prestige (e.g., Diamond [6]). Second, after 25 volumes is a time to reflect on what has transpired, time to begin to examine some of the history of HSM. Understanding which papers are most cited is a key aspect to that history. As a example, Cyert [5] was a paper looking back at HSM after 20 volumes had been published. Third, finding the most cited papers can provide insight into those papers that have been found to be important by others (e.g., Garfield and Welljams-Dorof [8]). Fourth, summarizing those references in a single location may be helpful to others by bringing out research that others have found important. Pointing out those most cited papers can be useful to other researchers by pointing to papers with ideas that have influenced other researchers.

1.2 Outline of this Paper

This paper proceeds as follows. Section 1 has provided the introduction, including the purpose of the paper and a number of reasons why it is important to have citation studies focusing on the most cited papers in HSM. Section 2 briefly reviews citations. Section 3 lays out the methodology used in the analysis. Section 4 presents the results and investigates the findings. Section 5 provides a brief summary of the paper.

2. Citations

Citations are important to the author being cited. Authors get not only prestige and satisfaction from being cited, but researchers (e.g., Diamond[6]) also have found an economic benefit to citations. However, ultimately citations are important to institutions, journals and even countries as measures of their success at generating interest in their research activity.

In order to assess citations, I usedSocial Science Citation Index (SSCI). SSCI is perhaps the best known source of citations and provides a digital format and Internet available set of citations (Howitt [12]). SSCI gathers citations from a limited set of journals, ensuring some “quality control” over the sources of the citations. SSCI is frequently used by researchers and has been used as a basis to study citations by individual, journal, institution, and even country (e.g., Garfield and Welljams-Dorof [8]). SSCI also has been used by a number of other researchers to study the most cited or “top papers” (e.g., Smith [25]). Finally, SSCI provides an independent and “arms-length” source for the citations, limiting potential selection bias.

3. Methodology

I searched SSCI for citations to papers that had been published in “Human Systems Management.” A total of 444 citation entries were found on February 23, 2007. Abbreviations, rather than entire journal name are used to index citations. Apparently, the same journal abbreviation is not always used by citation analysts for SSCI. I found citations for HSM under five name abbreviations in the SSCI database:

Human System Man Jun1

Hum Sys Manage1

Hum Syst Manage62

Human System Managem12

Human Systems Manage368

In some cases, apparently, citations were not captured correctly in the original papers, and those errors carried through to SSCI. As a result, in order to make sure that each author was attributed the appropriate numbers of citations, author entries were examined to see if they could be combined with other entries. For example, the following two SSCI citation entries were aggregated:

Number AuthorYearVolumePage

(of citations)

1Cor199918117

14Coro199918117

The second record (“Coro”) is correct, but there apparently was a spelling error in the entry of the author’s name in the first (“Cor”). As another example, a page reference can be incorrect. For example in the following, I followed back to the original citation to determine that the page reference should have been 163. The original reference had the correct title, etc., but had incorrect page numbers listed. Those incorrect page numbers were captured by SSCI.

Number AuthorYearVolumePage

(of citations)

1 Holsapple19855137

Using this approach, sets of citation aggregations for a paper were analyzed. Each set of citation aggregations (papers) that had 9 or more citations were then accumulated and listed.

4. Findings

The list of the twenty-five most cited papers from HSM is summarized in table 1. Although some papers had more than a single author, only the first author name is given in table 1, replicating the SSCI entries. However, complete reference information for each of the papers on the list is summarized in the references.

Pelz [21] and Kelley [14] were the top 2 most cited papers and the only ones with 20 or more citations. Only one name appears on the list more than once. M. Zeleny [27-30] had four sole authored papers in the top 25 most cited papers.

(Table 1 about here)

The age of the paper appears to have some influence on whether or not the paper was cited. Nineteen of the papers were from the 1980s, while 6 were from the 1990s. However, four of the ten most cited papers were from 1990s. No papers from or including the year 2000 were in the top 25 most cited. This is not unusual since it usually takes time for a paper to accumulate citations.

The list of 25 most cited papers is likely to change in the future for atleasttwo reasons. First,research topics of interest change. As a result, a paper of interest now or in the past is not necessarily of interest in the future. Second, references are increasingly digitally available. However, unfortunately, in general, older references are not available digitally. As a result, it is easier to find and access more recent digital references. For example, digital versions of the papers from 1998 on are listed on HSM’s web site Future research can be used to address the impact of these issueson citations in HSM. Further, future research can investigate changes in the most cited papers and the potential source of the changes.

5. Summary

Using Social Science Citation Index, the total number of citations to papers from Human Systems Management was determined. Using those results, I compiled a list of the 25 most cited papers from Human Systems Management over the first 25 volumes of the journal. Peltz [12] was the most cited paper, and Zeleny [27-30] was the only author with more than one paper among the twenty-five most cited.

References

  1. Baruch, Y., “The rise and fall of Organizational Commitment,” Human Systems Management,17 (2), 1998, pp.135 – 143.
  1. Burrell, G., “The absent centre: The neglect of philosophy in Anglo-American management theory,” Human Systems Management, 8 (4), 1989, pp. 307-312.
  1. Checkland, P.B.,“Soft systems methodology,”Human Systems Management, 8 (4), 1989, pp. 273-289.
  1. Coro, G. and Grandinetti, R., “Evolutionary patterns of Italian industrial districts,” Human Systems Management, 1999, 18 (2), pp 117-130.
  1. Cyert, R. M.“Human Systems Management at 20,” Human Systems Management,20(1), 2001, pp. 1-2.
  1. Diamond, A.M., “What is a Citation Worth?” Journal of Human Resources,21(2), PP. 200-215, 1986.
  1. Eom, H., "The current state of multiple criteria decision support systems," Human Systems Management, 8(2), 1989, pp.113-119.
  1. Garfield, E., and Welljams-Dorof (1992), “Citation Data: Their use as quantitative indicators for science and technology evaluation and policy making,” Science and Public Policy,19, 5, 1992, pp. 321-327.
  1. Gerwin, D. and Leung, T.K., “The Organizational Impacts of Flexible Manufacturing Systems – Some Initial Findings,” Human Systems Management,1980, 1 (3),pp. 237-246.
  1. Herden, R.P., and Lyles, M.A., “Individual Attributes and the Problem 2 (4), pp. 275-284
  1. Holsapple, C. and Whinston, A.B.,“Management Support Through Artificial Intelligence, Human Systems Management,”Human Systems Management,5 (2), 1985,pp. 163-171
  1. Howitt, M, “ISI Spins a Web of Science,” DATABASE, 21 (2), 1998, pp. 37-40.
  1. Huff, A.S., “Multilectic Methods of Inquiry,” Human Systems Management,2 (2)1981, pp. 83-94.
  1. Kelley, M.R., “Programmable Automation and the Skill Question – A Reinterpretation of the Cross-National Evidence,” Human Systems Management,6(3), 1986, pp. 223-241.
  1. Kendell, K.E., Buffington, J.R. and Kendell, J.E., “The Relationship of Organizational Subcultures to DSS User Satisfaction,” Human Systems Management,7(1), 1987, pp. 31-39.
  1. Louis, M.R., “A Cultural-Perspective on Organizations – The Need for and Consequences of Viewing Organizations as Culture Bearing Milieu,”Human Systems Management,2(4), 1981, pp. 246-258.
  1. Luo, Y., “Guanxi: Principles, Philosophies, and Implications,” Human Systems Management,16 (1), 1997, pp. 43-52.
  1. Macdonald, S., The informal information network in an age of advanced telecommunications, Human Systems Management, 11 (2), 1992, pp. 77-87.
  1. Mitroff, I.I., “Is a Periodic Table of the Elements for Organization Behavior Possible,” Human Systems Management,2 (3), 1981, pp. 168-176.
  1. O’Leary, D.E. and Turban, E., “The Organizational Impact of Expert Systems,” Human Systems Management,7 (1), 1987, pp. 11-19.
  1. Pelz, D.C. and Munson, F.C., “Originality Level and the Innovating Process in Organizations,” Human Systems Management,3 (3), 1982, pp. 173-187.
  1. Pruzan, P., “Conflict and consensus: ethics as a shared value horizon for strategic planning,” Human Systems Management,9(3), pp. 135 - 151, 1990.
  1. Schkade, L.L. and Potvin, A.R., “Cognitive-Style, EEG Waveforms and Brain Levels,” Human Systems Management,2(4), 1981, pp. 329-331.
  1. Schlesinger, R.J. and Imany, M.M., "Statistical Investigation of Robot Performance Specifications" Human Systems Management, 6 (2), 1986, pp. 157 -165.
  1. Smith, S.D., “IS an Article in a Top Journal, a Top Article?” Financial Management, 33 (4), 2004, pp. 133-149.
  1. Yager, R.R., An introduction to applications of possibility theory, Human Systems Management, 3 (4), 1983, pp. 246-269.
  1. Zeleny, M., “On the (Ir) Relevancy of Fuzzy Sets Theories,” Human Systems Management,4 (4), 1984, pp. 301-306.
  1. Zeleny, M., “Management Support Systems – Towards Integrated Knowledge Management,” Human Systems Management,7 (1), 1987, pp. 59-70.
  1. Zeleny, M., “Cognitive equilibrium: a new paradigm of decision,” Human Systems Management, 8(3), 1989, pp. 185-188.
  1. Zeleny, M., Multiple criteria decision making: eight concepts of optimality, Human Systems Management, 17 (2),1998, pages 97-108.

Table 1

SSCI Citations to Human Systems Management

25 Most Cited Papers

Rank / Number / Author / Initials / Year / Volume / Page / Reference No.
1 / 23 / Pelz / DC / 1982 / 3 / 173 / 21
2 / 21 / Kelley / MR / 1986 / 6 / 223 / 14
3 / 19 / Louis / MR / 1981 / 2 / 246 / 16
4 / 18 / Luo / Y / 1997 / 16 / 43 / 17
5 / 17 / Checkland PB / 1989 / 8 / 273 / 3
5 / 17 / Oleary / DE / 1987 / 7 / 11 / 20
7 / 15 / Baruch / Y / 1998 / 17 / 135 / 1
7 / 15 / Zeleny / M / 1998 / 17 / 97 / 30
7 / 15 / Coro / G / 1999 / 18 / 117 / 4
10 / 14 / Yager / RR / 1983 / 3 / 246 / 26
11 / 13 / Kendall / KE / 1987 / 7 / 31 / 15
11 / 13 / Schkade / LL / 1981 / 2 / 329 / 23
13 / 12 / Gerwin / D / 1980 / 1 / 237 / 9
13 / 12 / Herden / RP / 1981 / 2 / 275 / 10
13 / 12 / MacDonald / S / 1992 / 11 / 77 / 18
13 / 12 / Mitroff / II / 1981 / 2 / 168 / 19
13 / 12 / Zeleny / M / 1984 / 4 / 301 / 27
18 / 11 / Holsapple / C / 1985 / 5 / 163 / 11
18 / 11 / Huff / AS / 1981 / 2 / 83 / 13
18 / 11 / Zeleny / M / 1987 / 7 / 59 / 28
18 / 11 / Zeleny / M / 1989 / 8 / 185 / 29
22 / 10 / Pruzan / P / 1990 / 9 / 135 / 22
23 / 9 / Burrell / G / 1989 / 8 / 307 / 2
23 / 9 / Eom / HB / 1989 / 8 / 113 / 7
23 / 9 / Schlesinger / RJ / 1986 / 6 / 157 / 24

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