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Information View of Organizations: Contextualizing Technology – Technologizing Context Bob Travica University of Manitob

AMCIS 2003. Information View of Organizations: Contextualizing Technology – Technologizing Context Bob Travica University of Manitoba Tampa, Florida August 4, 2003. Outline. Rationale: State of Relationship between IS theory and Organization Theory Programmatic Proposal:

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Information View of Organizations: Contextualizing Technology – Technologizing Context Bob Travica University of Manitob

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  1. AMCIS 2003 Information View of Organizations: Contextualizing Technology – Technologizing Context Bob Travica University of Manitoba Tampa, Florida August 4, 2003

  2. Outline • Rationale: • State of Relationship between IS theory and Organization Theory • Programmatic Proposal: • Information View of Organizations (IVO) • Conclusion

  3. 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

  4. Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Telecommunications Psychology, Sociology, Economics, Decision Sciences, Human Communication, Cognitive Sciences... General Systems Theory & Special Systems Theory Information Systems Theory Organization & Management Theory The bridge exists…

  5. … but the bridge is narrow… • 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

  6. … on each side 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)

  7. Jealous Mistress! • 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…

  8. 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…)

  9. 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

  10. 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 Organizational Economics Relationships with IT, information, IS Systems, Process and Knowledge Views Integration into IVO 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 Possible Topical Areas in IVO

  11. 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)

  12. 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. Organizational Structure in IVO Examples:

  13. 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

  14. 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.

  15. 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.

  16. 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…

  17. 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

  18. 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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