Transcript Main ideas - University of Manitoba

Travica / Information View of Organizations
AMCIS 2003
Information View of Organizations:
Contextualizing Technology – Technologizing Context
Bob Travica
University of Manitoba
Tampa, Florida
August 4, 2003
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Travica / Information View of Organizations
Outline
• Rationale:
State of Relationship between IS theory and Organization Theory
• Programmatic Proposal:
Information View of Organizations (IVO)
• Conclusion
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Travica / Information View of Organizations
Rationale
• Narrow bridge between IS theory and Organization Theory
(cf. Orlikowski & Barley, 2001)
• Organization Theory: IT on Margin of Radar Screen
(cf. Clegg et al., 1996; Currie & Galliers, 1999; Hatch,
1997)
• IS Theory: Vanishing Point of Organizational Context
(cf. Orlikowski & Barley, ibid.)
• Goal: Broaden the bridge between the two fields
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Travica / Information View of Organizations
Computer Science,
Artificial Intelligence,
Telecommunications
General Systems Theory
&
Special Systems Theory
Information Systems
Theory
Psychology, Sociology,
Economics, Decision Sciences,
Human Communication,
Cognitive Sciences...
Organization & Management
Theory
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Travica / Information View of Organizations
Organization Theory: IT not on Radar Screen
• IT for electronic commerce, ERP, electronic
information properties & effects
• IT one of “high technologies”
• Modern IT indifferent to technology typologies
(Woodward, Thompson, Perrow)
• Some creative leads: Weick (1990), technology as
equivoque (indetereministic, physical vs. metnal image
of processes, high automation level
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Travica / Information View of Organizations
IS Theory: Vanishing Point of Organizational Context
 Catch the tech wind
 Lonely homo informaticus – “we aren’t sociologists”
 “I measure, ergo I do science”
 We sell IT, practical relevance of IS field matters
(trendy IT + hodge-podge of organizational issues)
 And we discover, hoopla! (e.g., Chinese is more
likely to be used in Peking than in New York)
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Travica / Information View of Organizations
 Oh, yeah, and we educate organization theory on
the thing we are experts for – IT. So, IT is:
- computer software and hardware
- specific type, like email, whose actual characteristics
are, ahem, irrelevant
- actually, a black box (Orlikowski & Iacono, 2001)
- and it can also be … whack!
What?
Oh, yeeeah…
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Travica / Information View of Organizations
Programmatic Proposal
• Information View of Organizations (IVO) anchored
both in IS and organization theory
• Introduce a new “view” in organization theory,
comparable to structural, cultural… views
• Strengthen organizational context in IS theory
(“views”, group theory, cognitive psychology…)
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Travica / Information View of Organizations
Basic Terminology
Information: an umbrella term, info. in a broader sense
includes knowledge as well as meaningful data
(information in narrower sense), wisdom, and data
“Information Technology” (IT):
includes cognitive components (known techniques), and
material artifacts (computer, paper) for creating and
manipulating information
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Travica / Information View of Organizations
Possible Topical Areas in IVO
Topical Area in IVO
Content / Approach in IVO
Individual
Cognitive aspects and information
behaviors; Users as knowledge subjects
and IT developers
Group
Cognition; decision making, organization
of work etc. in conjunction with GSS
Structure, Culture,
Politics “Views”
Reinterpretation from the perspective of
information and IT
Systems, Process and
Knowledge Views
Integration into IVO
Organizational
Economics
Relationships with IT, information, IS
Organizational Roles
of Information and IT
Critical examination of classical premises
Ontologies and
Metaphors of
Organization
Modernist rationality vs. alternatives;
functionalist, interpretive and postmodern
approaches;
machine vs. brain/intelligence
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Travica / Information View of Organizations
Work Groups in IVO
Interest in Cognitive Aspects:
• Group Memory; transactive memory (Moreland &
Wingert (1995)
• Collective Mind (Yoo, 2001)
• Noise in Group Thinking: cognitive loafing (Shaila &
Saunders, 1995), groupthink
• Shaping of GSS-triggered cognitive process and outcome
by groups: MRT revision; IT structuration (Orlikowski);
facilitation with GDSS; user drifting (Ciborra, 1996)
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Travica / Information View of Organizations
Organizational Structure in IVO
Examples:
Info/IT
Formalization
The extent to which
written rules,
procedures and
instructions on
handling information
and IT are extant.
Paper and electronic
manuals of handing
information and IT that
are readily available.
Info/IT
Centralization
The extent to which
information and
access to IT are
concentrated.
The number of locations
at which information for
making certain
decisions is regularly
allocated.
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Travica / Information View of Organizations
Organizational Culture in IVO
Examples of cultural items related to info/IT from Orlikowski’s
(1996) study of a software firm:

Value of documenting well problem solving;

Story on frustrated user when documenting is poor;

Signature on solution as a symbol of solution quality;
•
Professional and diplomatic language used in documenting

Apprehensive attitudes toward management’s online monitoring

Showing off through online information on problems solved

Norms for accessing knowledge stored in the system
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Travica / Information View of Organizations
Organizational Culture in IVO
It is possible to conceive a part of organizational culture
whose assumptions, values , symbols and practices are
focused on information (in broader sense) and IT.
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Travica / Information View of Organizations
Incorporation into IVO
Systems approach
• Which one?
• System model/s useful for understanding info/IT in
today’s organization?
• Global asymmetries.
Process approach
• Merit? IT/info vs. social aspects in process?
• Relationships between process, structure and system?
• Possible to conceive information processes.
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Travica / Information View of Organizations
Incorporation into IVO
Knowledge approach/es
• Beyond management, as medium for understanding
organizations (IT is knowledge and knowledge is in IT)
• Knowledge as asset (intellectual capital) since data
and much of information in narrow sense broadly
accessible – no comparative advantage any longer
• Knowledge is object of org. culture, access to it is part
of org. structure…
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Travica / Information View of Organizations
Organizational Roles of Information and IT
• Information teleology:
Uncertainty reduction vs. uncertainty creation
(“strategic ambiguity & creative chaos”; Nonaka & Takecuhi, 1995)
• IT teleology:
IT as means of order & control vs. disturbance & empowerment
• Organization ontology:
Organization as machine vs. brain, form of intelligence;
E pluribus unum or Unum est pluribus
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Travica / Information View of Organizations
Conclusion
• There exists ground for developing an information view
of organizations (IVO) that may help broaden the bridge
between IS theory and organization theory
• IVO can build on existing organization views as well as
systems, knowledge and other established approaches
• More liberal and flexible philosophy of organizations and
information/IT needed
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