Centralized versus decentralized computing: organizational considerations and management options

Author(s): King, John Leslie | Abstract: The long-standing debate over whether to centralize or decentralize computing is examined in terms of the fundamental organizational and economic factors at stake. The traditional debate is examined and found to focus predominantly on issues of efficiency vs. effectiveness, with solutions based on a rationalistic strategy of optimizing in this tradeoff. A more behavioralistic assessment suggests that the driving issues in the debate are the politics of organization and resources, centering on the issue of control. The economics of computing deployment decisions is presented as an important issue, but one that often serves as a field of argument that is based on more political concerns. The current situation facing managers of computing, given the advent of small and comparatively inexpensive computers, is examined in detail, and a set of management options for dealing with this persistent issue is presented.

[1]  L. Wagner,et al.  Computers, Decentralization, and Corporate Control , 1966 .

[2]  K. Kraemer,et al.  REQUIEM FOR USAC , 1979 .

[3]  L. Selwyn.  ECONOMIES OF SCALE IN COMPUTER USE; INITIAL TEST AND IMPLICATION A FOR THE COMPUTER UTILITY , 1970 .

[4]  S. Arnstein,et al.  Ladder of Citizen Participation , 2020 .

[5]  Henry C. Lucas,et al.  Organizational power and the information services department , 1984, CACM.

[6]  Donald N. Streeter.  Centralization or Dispersion of Computing Facilities , 1973, IBM Syst. J..

[7]  Richard L. Nolan.  Management Accounting and Control of Data Processing , 1964 .

[8]  C. Mills,et al.  The Theory of Social and Economic Organization , 1948 .

[9]  Rob Kling,et al.  The Web of Computing: Computer Technology as Social Organization , 1982, Adv. Comput..

[10]  Kenneth J. Arrow,et al.  On the Agenda of Organizations , 1974 .

[11]  Richard C. Schwing,et al.  Not Risk but Power@@@Societal Risk Assessment: How Safe Is Safe Enough? , 1982 .

[12]  James N. Danziger.  The "Skill Bureaucracy" and Intraorganizational Control , 1979 .

[13]  Richard L. Nolan,et al.  Information systems administration , 1973 .

[14]  Maurice H. Halstead,et al.  Maximum computing power and cost factors in the centralization problem , 1972, CACM.

[15]  Earl Chrysler,et al.  Some basic determinants of computer programming productivity , 1978, CACM.

[16]  J. R. Buchanan,et al.  Understanding distributed data processing , 1980 .

[17]  Lynn M. Salerno.  Catching up with the Computer Revolution , 1983 .

[18]  Dick H. Brandon.  Management planning for data processing , 1963 .

[19]  Kenneth L. Kraemer,et al.  Computing policies and problems: A stage theory approach , 1981 .

[20]  BalzerR.,et al.  Software Technology in the 1990's , 1983 .

[21]  Richard L. Nolan,et al.  Managing the computer resource , 1973, Commun. ACM.

[22]  James N. Danziger,et al.  Computers and Politics: High Technology in American Local Governments , 1982 .

[23]  Kenneth L. Kraemer,et al.  Telecommunications/ transportation substitution and energy conservation Part 2 , 1982 .

[24]  Kenneth L. Kraemer,et al.  The Dynamics of Computing , 1985 .

[25]  Martin B. Solomon.  Economies of scale and the IBM system/360 , 1966, CACM.

[26]  Marvin V. Zelkowitz,et al.  Perspectives in Software Engineering , 1978, CSUR.

[27]  Zenon S. Zannetos,et al.  On the theory of divisional structures: some aspects of centralization and decentralization of contr , 1965 .

[28]  Franz Edelman,et al.  Managers, computer systems, and productivity , 1981 .

[29]  Larry E. Long,et al.  Design and Strategy for Corporate Information Services: Mis Long-Range Planning , 1981 .

[30]  John Leslie King,et al.  Local Government Use of Information Technology: The Next Decade , 1982 .

[31]  Donald N. Streeter,et al.  A methodology for the design of distributed information systems , 1979, CACM.

[32]  Joan M. Morrissey,et al.  On Software Engineering-An Economic Perspective , 1979, ICSE.

[33]  Rob Kling,et al.  Automated welfare client-tracking and service integration: the political economy of computing , 1978, CACM.

[34]  Graham Allison,et al.  Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis , 1972 .

[35]  R. Nolan,et al.  Managing the Four Stages of EDP Growth , 1974 .

[36]  F. Warren McFarlan,et al.  Managing computer-based information systems , 1971 .

[37]  Tom R. Burns,et al.  The Management of Innovation. , 1963 .

[38]  A. Pettigrew.  Information Control as a Power Resource , 1972 .

[39]  John F. Rockart,et al.  The management of distributed processing , 1979 .

[40]  Joseph Orlicky.  The Successful Computer System - Its Planning, Development, and Management in a Business Enterprise , 1969 .

[41]  Rob Kling,et al.  Social Analyses of Computing: Theoretical Perspectives in Recent Empirical Research , 1980, CSUR.

[42]  Margrethe H. Olson,et al.  Remote office work: changing work patterns in space and time , 1983, CACM.

[43]  Rob Kling,et al.  Recurrent dilemmas of computer use in complex organizations , 1899, 1979 International Workshop on Managing Requirements Knowledge (MARK).

[44]  P. Lawrence,et al.  Organization and Environment: Managing Differentiation and Integration , 1967 .

[45]  Ralph H. Sprague,et al.  Building Effective Decision Support Systems , 1982 .

[46]  William F. Sharpe,et al.  The Economics of Computers , 1969 .

[47]  Lee L. Gremillion,et al.  Price/performance patterns of U. S. computer systems , 1979, CACM.

[48]  John Child,et al.  Strategies of Control and Organizational Behavior , 1973 .

[49]  Barry W. Boehm,et al.  Software Engineering Economics , 1993, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.

[50]  David H. Benson.  A Field Study of End User Computing: Findings and Issues , 1983, MIS Q..

[51]  O. Holsti,et al.  Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis , 1972 .

[52]  Marshall W. Meyer.  Size and the Structure of Organizations: A Causal Analysis , 1972 .

[53]  広瀬 克哉,et al.  Computers and Politics--High Technology in American Local Governments/James N.Danziger,William H.Dutton,Rob Kling,Kenneth L.Kraemer(1982) , 1984 .

[54]  E. Johnsen.  Richard M. Cyert & James G. March, A Behavioral Theory of The Firm, Prentice-Hall, Inc., Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1963, 332 s. , 1964 .

[55]  Jud Breslin,et al.  Distributed processing systems: End of the mainframe era? , 1978 .

[56]  W. Dutton,et al.  The Interests Served B Y Technological Reform , 1979 .

[57]  Wilbert E. Moore,et al.  The Conduct of the Corporation. , 1962 .

[58]  Herbert R. J. Grosch.  Grosch's law revisited , 1983, Elektron. Rechenanlagen.

[59]  George Rosen,et al.  THE POLITICS OF THE BUDGETARY PROCESS , 1964 .

[60]  Cecilia Ruth D'Oliveira.  An Analysis of Computer Decentralization , 1977 .

[61]  John Leslie King,et al.  Cost-Benefit Analysis in Information Systems Development and Operation , 1978, CSUR.

[62]  Phillip Ein-Dor,et al.  Strategic Planning for Management Information Systems , 1978 .

[63]  E. Burton Swanson,et al.  Characteristics of application software maintenance , 1978, CACM.

[64]  J. Pfeffer.  Organizations and Organization Theory , 1982 .

[65]  P. Blau.  A FORMAL THEORY OF DIFFERENTIATION IN ORGANIZATIONS , 1970 .

[66]  H. R. J. Grosch,et al.  High Speed Arithmetic: The Digital Computer as a Research Tool , 1953 .

[67]  Daniel Robey,et al.  Computer information systems and organization structure , 1981, CACM.

[68]  Dan Bernard,et al.  Management Issues in Cooperative Computing , 1979, CSUR.

[69]  Jr. Montgomery Phister,et al.  Data processing technology and economics , 1976 .

[70]  Aaron Wildavsky,et al.  The Politics of the Budgetary Process. , 1965 .

[71]  Robert K. Yin,et al.  Production efficiency versus bureaucratic self-interest: Two innovative processes? , 1977 .

[72]  M. Shubik,et al.  A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. , 1964 .

[73]  Walt Scacchi,et al.  Managing Software Engineering Projects: A Social Analysis , 1984, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.

[74]  F. Warren McFarlan,et al.  Problems in Planning the Information System. , 1971 .

[75]  Barry C. De Roze,et al.  The Software Life Cycle—A Management and Technological Challenge in the Department of Defense , 1978, IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering.

[76]  ROB KLING,et al.  Recurrent dilemmas of computer use in complex organizations , 1979, 1979 International Workshop on Managing Requirements Knowledge (MARK).

[77]  Allan L. Scherr.  Distributed Data Processing , 1978, IBM Syst. J..