Cognitive science and organizational design: a case study of computer conferencing

Many researchers have investigated and speculated about the link between information technology and organizational structure with very mixed results. This paper suggests that part of the reason for these mixed results is the coarseness of previous analyses of both technology and structure. The paper describes a new and much more detailed perspective for investigating this link. Using concepts of object-oriented programming from artificial intelligence, the information processing that occurs in organizations is characterized in terms of the kinds of messages people exchange and the ways they process those messages. The utility of this approach is demonstrated through the analysis of a case in which a reduction in levels of management is coupled with the introduction of a computer conferencing system. The detailed model developed for this case helps explain both macro-level data about thd changes in the organizational structure, and micro-level data about individuals' use of the system.

[1]  Paul Attewell,et al.  Computing and organizations: what we know and what we don't know , 1984, CACM.

[2]  R. Walton.  Social Choice in the Development of Advanced Information Technology , 1982 .

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

[4]  Margrethe H. Olson,et al.  New Information Technology and Organizational Culture , 1982, MIS Q..

[5]  P. Lawrence,et al.  Organization and environment , 1967 .

[6]  C. Perrow.  A FRAMEWORK FOR THE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ORGANIZATIONS , 1967 .

[7]  O. Williamson,et al.  Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implications. , 1977 .

[8]  Alfred Dupont Chandler,et al.  战略与结构 : 美国工商企业成长的若干篇章=strategy and structure : chapters in the history of the American industrial enterprise , 1962 .

[9]  Ulrich Briefs,et al.  Re-thinking industrial work: Computer effects on technical white-collar workers , 1981 .

[10]  James F. Courtney,et al.  The impact of DSS on organizational communication , 1984, Inf. Manag..

[11]  Lawrence W. Foster,et al.  Management Information Technology: Its Effects on Orgnizational Form and Function , 1984, MIS Q..

[12]  Daniel G. Bobrow,et al.  Object-Oriented Programming: Themes and Variations , 1989, AI Mag..

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

[14]  T. L. Whisler,et al.  Information technology and organizational change , 1972 .

[15]  N. Carter.  Computerization as a Predominate Technology: Its Influence on the Structure of Newspaper Organizations , 1984 .

[16]  Christopher J. Rowe.  The Impact of Computers on the Work Organisation:Centralisation or Decentralisation? , 1984 .

[17]  Thomas W. Malone,et al.  Tradeoffs in designing organizations: implications for new forms of human organizations and computer systems , 1984 .

[18]  Michael L. Tushman,et al.  Information Processing as an Integrating Concept in Organizational Design. , 1978 .

[19]  A. B. Crawford,et al.  SIM Competition Paper: Corporate Electronic Mail - A Communication-Intensive Application of Information Technology , 1982, MIS Q..

[20]  Gerald R. Barber.  An office study: Its implications on the understanding of organizations , 1984 .

[21]  Thomas W. Malone,et al.  Organizational Structure and Information Technology: Elements of a Formal Theory , 1985 .

[22]  G. Walker,et al.  Network Position and Cognition in a Computer Software Firm , 1985 .

[23]  P. A. Losty,et al.  A Behavioural Theory of the Firm , 1965 .

[24]  Allen Newell,et al.  Computer science as empirical inquiry: symbols and search , 1976, CACM.

[25]  J. Pfeffer,et al.  Information Technology and Organizational Structure , 1977 .

[26]  T. Cook,et al.  Quasi-experimentation: Design & analysis issues for field settings , 1979 .

[27]  Jay R. Galbraith.  Organization Design: An Information Processing View , 1974 .

[28]  Starr Roxanne Hiltz,et al.  The evolution of user behavior in a computerized conferencing system , 1981, CACM.

[29]  Jay R. Galbraith.  Organization Design , 1977 .

[30]  C. Perrow,et al.  Complex Organizations: A Critical Essay. , 1975 .

[31]  David Robson,et al.  Smalltalk-80: The Language and Its Implementation , 1983 .