Electronic Discourses and Rationalization of Organizations

In this paper we explore the relationship between information systems (ISs) and progressive rationalisation in modern organisations. More specifically, we examine how organisational discourses mediated by electronic communication influence rationalisation of organisational processes. By drawing from two case studies, we contrast and compare communicative practices in organisation-wide electronic discourses and explain how the use of apparently similar types of ISs contributed to different, and in many ways contradictory, rationalisation processes. We do this by applying a rationality framework that synthesises different approaches to reason and rationality, thus providing a conceptual model for critical analysis of social and organisational consequences of rationalisation enabled and supported by ISs.