lars groth - forsiden · inf5210 the turbulent symbiosis between organizations and information...

1INF5210 The turbulent symbiosis between organizations and information systems Lars Groth

Lars

Groth

1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020

Master in organizationalsociology, UiO

Dr. oecon., NHH Norwegian School of Economics

Nylands Verksted

Prosjekt-styring

Morgen-bladet

Information System

International

Media Vision

Enator

Avenir

Pharos

NTNUDepartment ofSociology and

Political Science

UiO Department

of Informatics

Prof. II


INF5210

The turbulent symbiosis between organizations and information systemsLars Groth


The fundamental cause

behind any organization –

and its main challenge

Tasks too big for one person must be

divided into smaller tasks suitable for

one individual

Since a number of people now need to

cooperate, we need coordination to

make the work of each one fit into the

larger picture

Here you will find the root of most

organizational challenges!


“Every organized human activity - from the making ofpots to the placing of a man on the moon - gives rise to two fundamental and opposing requirements: thedivision of labor into various tasks to be performed and the coordination of these tasks to accomplish theactivity.

The structure of an organization can be defined simply as the sum total of the waysin which it divides its labor into distincttasks and then achieves coordinationamong them."

Henry Mintzberg in "The Structuring of Organizations”

What is an organization? The essence - 1

Henry Mintzberg


Jay R. Galbraith, ”Organization Design”, p. 2:”As a beginning, it can be said thatorganization is that ”something” whichdistinguishes any collection of 50 individuals in Kennedy International Airport from the 50 individuals comprising av football team in theNational Football League. ”

“Organization is what distiguishes Rosenborg’s first team from 11 unaquainted young men on Elgeseter bridge.”

Jay R. Galbraith in ”Organization Design”, page 2 (adapted to a Norwegian context)

What is an organization? The essence - 2


Organisation and systems

are intervowen – indeed, they

are one and the same!


But why do we really

need organizations?

Oliver Williamson

Asset specificity

Transaction uncertainty

Transaction frequency


Modern car manufacturingExtended value chain


1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2010

Max WeberTheory of Bureaucracy

Frederick TaylorScientific Management

Henri FayolAdministrative theory

Luther Gulickand Lyndall Urwick

“Papers on the Science of Administration”

Elton MayoHuman Relations

Chester Barnard“The Functions of the

Executive”

Herbert A. Simon

Bounded Rationality

Philip SelznickThe organization as social arena

Eric Trist, Kenneth Bramforth, Fred Emery

Sosiotechnics

Herbert A. Simon and James March

”Organizations”

William G. OuchiCulture and team

(theory Z)

John W. Meyer andBrian Rowan

” Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony”

Ludwig von Bertalanffy

General systems theory

Daniel Katz andRobert L. Kahn

The enterprise as an open system

Burns and Stalker”The Management of

Innovation”

W. Ross AshbySystems theory: Self-regulation and law of

requisite variety

Paul R. Lawrence and Jay W. Lorsch”Organization and

Environment”

Henry Mintzberg” The Structuring of

Organizations”

Charles D. Perrow”A Framework for

Comparative Analysis of Organizations”

James D. Thompson

” Organizations in Action”

Joan Woodward”Management and

Technology”

Harry BravermanMarxist organisation

theory

Jeffrey Pfeffer and Gerald D.Salancik

Resource-based theory

Michael T. Hannanand John H. Freeman

Population ecology

Erving GoffmanSymbolic

interactionsm

Oliver E. WilliamsonTransaction cost

Ronald CoaseTransaction cost

Jean BaudrillardPoststructuralism,epistemologicalpostmodernism

Jean-François Lyotard

Epistemologicalpostmodernism

Jaques DerridaEpistemologicalpostmodernism

Karl E. WeickOrganisation

culture

David SilvermanAction perspective

Stewart R. CleggOntological

postmodernism

Paul J. DiMaggio and Walter W. Powell

Institutional isomorphism

2000

Wanda Orlikowski and

Susan ScottSociomateriality

Back to

Basics

Tor HernesThe organisation

as processOrganization theory –

a timeline

Classical theory

Neoclassical and institutional theory

Systems theory

Contingency theory

Other theories

Postmodern approaches

Interactionism


SosiotechnicsEric Trist, British social psychologist (1909-93) – published in 1951 together with Kenneth Bamforth, a former coal

miner, ”Some Social and Psychological Consequences of the Longwall Method of Coal Getting“ in Human Relations

– Director of The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in London for more than 20 years

– Designed a theory about the interaction between people and technology in work places, basedon a study of technology change in British coal mines during the transition from the “shortwall” to the “longwall” method for coal mining.


Contingency theory

Joan Woodward (1916-1971

– ”Management and Technology”, 1958, ”Industrial Organization”, 1965

– Studied a large number of firms (100) in the South Essex area of England in the 1950s

– Found that organizational form varied, and correlated with production technology

– Concluded that there was not ”one best way” to organize – the nature of the production processwould determine which form that would be most suitable

Tom Burns (1913-2001) and G. M. Stalker

– ”The Management of Innovation” (1961)

– Studied the introduction of electronics in Scottish industry

– Described two ideal types of organization on each side of a continuum – the mechanistic and theorganismic (organic) organization

– Viewed the organization as a result of the simultaneous working of (at least) three different socialsystems:

• Formal authority: aims, technology, relations with the environment

• Cooperative systems of people with different aspirations

• The political system – the competition and cooperation for power


Contingency theoryHenry Mintzberg – ”The Structuring of Organizations” (1979)

– Synthesized large parts of the organizational research up to ca. 1975

– Proposed five basic organizational configurations (forms), each based on one main coordinating mechanism and one key part of the organization:

• The Simple Structure (Entrepreneurial Form) – based on Direct supervision, Strategic Apex key

• The Machine Bureaucracy – based on Standardization of work, Technostructure key

• Professional Bureaucracy – based on Standardization of skills, Operating core key

• The Adhocracy (Innovative Organization) – based on Mutual adjustment, Support staff (R&D) key

• The Divisionalized Form (Diversified Organization) – based on Standardization of output, Middle line key

– Has later suggested two new configurations:

• The Missionary Organization – based on Standardization of norms, Ideology key

• The Political Organization – no prime coordinating mechanism, no key part

Simple StructureDirect supervision Divisionalized Form

Standardization of output

AdhocracyMutual coordination

Professional BureaucracyStandardization of skills

Machine BureaucracyStandardization of work


Interactionism

Karl E. Weick – ”The Social Psychology of Organizing” (1969)

– Enactment: Organizations are enacted, they are created by being talked about

– Sensemaking: Organizations are primarely “sensemaking systems”, incessantly create and recreate conceptions about themselves

– Loose coupling: The lack of firmness in the coupling among some of the parts of the organization – changes can take place locally with little consequence elswhere


Institutional theoryPaul J. DiMaggio and Walter W. Powell

– Institutional isomorfism

• The question is not why organizations differ, but why there is such an overwhelming degree of homogeneity – why bureaucracy has become the common organizational form

• Organizations within the same business may have displayed considerable diversity when first set up, but converge over time toward bureaucracy

• They do so not because bureaucracy is the most efficient, but because it furnishes legitimacy in the eyes of outside stakeholders

– Three kinds of isomorfism:

• Coercive isomorfism – by political influence

• Mimetic isomorfism – a response to uncertainty

• Normative isomorfism – a result of professional managers

John W. Meyer and Brian Rowan

– Organization is more about conforming to institutionalized rules than about coordinating and controlling activities

– The myth of organizational rationality is necessary to obtain legitimacy in a society with rationality as the central norm

– However, the formal structure – comprised of authority structures, plans and rules – is only loosely coupled to what is actually done in the organization

– Thus, you have two organizational structures – one formal, which can be shaped according to the normative expectations in the environment, and one informal that is actually used for getting things done

– The advantages conferred by the myths are stability, legitimity and resources – exactly what is needed to survive


Postmodern approaches

There are two branches of postmodern theory:

– Epistemological theory (episteme = reason, knowledge): No unequivocal relations between forms of representation (symbols, like words and images) and an objective, external world is possible – we cannot get behind the words

– Ontological theory (ontos = being, existence): The society is moving into a new era, which differ from the previous “modern” age in significant ways – which can be understood, but not with the old theories

• The core of modernity is differentiation – in organizations, especially the rational, increasingly fine-grained and rigid division of labor

• The core of postmodernity is de-differentiation – the gradual integration of jobs, the blurring of areas of responsibility, the increasing overlap of functions, the increasing flexibility, the team attitudes

Stewart Clegg, “Modern Organizations” (1990)

– Rationality is subjective, and relative to context

– “Agents” (persons, organizations or parts of organizations) all act under a subjective rationality: they attempt to accomplish projects “which make sense in terms of the calculation which agents have available to them”

– Subjective rationalities can differ widely, as any agent will be heavily influenced by the cultural and institutional values of their national frameworks

– Therefore, organizational forms and practices cannot be universal

– “Organizations are human fabrications. They are made out of whatever materials come to hand and can be modified or adopted. Organizations are concocted out of whatever recipe-knowledge is locally available.”


Sociomateriality

Wanda J. Orlikowski and Susan V. Scott

– Technology is an integrated part of work, and how it appears to the world

– “Work practices are constituted by an array of sociomaterial agencies, for example, space, devices, standards, categories, algorithms, expert judgements, physical mechanisms, and so on.”

– “Sociomateriality is so much part of our everyday organizational experience that it becomes taken-for-granted.”

– “Work in itself is sociomaterial, so to understand work we have to understand its sociomaterial forms.”

– “Different forms of sociomateriality in practice not only increase the capacity for transactions to be disembedded from time and space, but also disappear from the attentions of users and observers.”

“We see the physical hub of a person’s work practices composed of an array of materiality imbued with multiple logics and capabilities (programs, reminders, sources, and connections) all poised to form part of the pattern of her work flow, ready to be actively configured into a situated work performance.”


Processor

powerProcessing power for Intel processors

1971-2016

Intel 40042300 transistors

200 dollar

Intel Xeon E5-26997 200 000 000 transistors

4100 dollar

Equals ca. 5 800 000 4004s


Our physiological constraints

We can, by and large, only tackle one task at any

one time, and have limited capacity for physical

work

Our active, conscious memory is very limited

Our ability to consciously process information is

limited

Our communication capacity is very limited

Our natural means for communicaction have very

limited reach


Pre-literate age

Explicit knowledge

Tacit knowledge

Assigned behavior

RulesData

Communication

Asyncronous

Syncronous


Tacit knowledge

Assigned behavior

RulesData

Communication

Industrial age

Explicit knowledge

Asyncronous

Syncronous

http://www.google.no/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiW29Smwb_RAhVBnywKHRLaA44QjRwIBw&url=http://hubpages.com/education/free-worksheets-for-kids-to-practice-writing-their-phone-number&bvm=bv.144224172,d.bGg&psig=AFQjCNFmKQiZmJ0w1eLL0x259n1kqOXz3w&ust=1484410258417476


Processing

Storage and retrievalAutomatic data

acquisition Digital age

Assigned behavior

Explicit knowledge

Tacit knowledge

RulesData

Communication

Asyncronous

Syncronous

http://www.google.no/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiW29Smwb_RAhVBnywKHRLaA44QjRwIBw&url=http://hubpages.com/education/free-worksheets-for-kids-to-practice-writing-their-phone-number&bvm=bv.144224172,d.bGg&psig=AFQjCNFmKQiZmJ0w1eLL0x259n1kqOXz3w&ust=1484410258417476


What IT basically contributes

Information can be processed by machines– Provides incalculable possibilities for automation and elimination of work (including self service)

– Provides extremely improved possibilities for understanding and controlling complexity

Qualitative quantum leap in information storage (structured and unstructured)

– Provides a revolution in information retrieval and analysis

– Makes automatic coordination possible at so far unknown scales

Automatic data acquisition

Much increased bandwidth for remote communication (many orders of magnitude)


Coordination of Work

Coordinationby feedback

Coordinationby program

MutualAdjustment

DirectSupervision

Standardizationof Work

Standardizationof Skills

TacitSkills

ExplicitSkills

Taxonomy of Coordinating Mechanisms: Level 1

(Standardization of output)





MutualAdjustment

DirectSupervision



TacitSkills

ExplicitSkills

ImplicitCoordination

Technology Dependence

Computer Dependence


(by Database)

Taxonomy of Coordinating Mechanisms


Booking for (2015):

484 airlines (flightinformation for 693)421.000 hotels43 car rentals50 shipping companies233 tour operators90 railroads16 insurance groups

(2012)

Up to 39 000 Customertransactions per second

47 billions SQL-executions per day

37 petabyte data storage

16.500 infrastructuralunits


CEOTravis Kalanick

Policy & Community

Recruiting Americas

Asia Operations

International Growth

Community Operations

Legal

Policy, EMEA

Policy & Communicat

ions

HR

Global Talent

CTO Security

Operations

Strategic Initiatives

Belgium Western Europe

France Hong Kong

EMEA & APAC

UK, Ireland & Nordics

Product

Maps Advanced Technologies

Center

Design Mobile

Communication





MutualAdjustment

DirectSupervision



TacitSkills

ExplicitSkills



Computer Dependence

System-Supported

Supervision


(by Database)



Bennetton

http://www.google.no/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjk8s6j-cTRAhWJjSwKHbgoCJ4QjRwIBw&url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/11952130/Benetton-leaves-shock-tactics-behind-as-it-seeks-to-stay-in-fashion.html&psig=AFQjCNFcNUvtI2YToeKU0jiE9uMpc0jKRg&ust=1484596950895791





MutualAdjustment

DirectSupervision



TacitSkills

ExplicitSkills


ExplicitRoutines

Automation


Computer Dependence

System-Supported

Supervision


(by Database)Programmed

RoutinesHyper-

Automation



3D printing

http://www.google.no/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwipg_W148nRAhXC1SwKHWJNAwYQjRwIBw&url=http://www.3ders.org/articles/20140903-3d-systems-acquires-belgian-metal-3d-printing-service-company-layerwise.html&psig=AFQjCNG69p4YFzl4wpAmLTpviSkvxkyy8Q&ust=1484762543002184

https://www.google.no/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiwibni5MnRAhVIDywKHSENAUsQjRwIBw&url=https://3dprint.com/71349/3d-printed-sink-faucets/&psig=AFQjCNG69p4YFzl4wpAmLTpviSkvxkyy8Q&ust=1484762543002184





MutualAdjustment

DirectSupervision



TacitSkills

ExplicitSkills


ExplicitRoutines

Automation


Computer Dependence

System-Supported

Supervision



Routines

System-Supported

Skills

Hyper-Automation



Paging Dr. Watson: IBM and Cleveland Clinic Collaborate to Train Watson in Medicine

8. februar 2013: De første kommersielle produktene lansert for kreftbehandling (http://www-03.ibm.com/innovation/us/watson/)

In February 2013, IBM announced that Watson software system's first commercial application would be for utilization management decisions in lung cancer treatment at Memorial Sloan–Kettering Cancer Center in conjunction with health insurance company WellPoint. IBM Watson’s business chief Manoj Saxena says that 90% of nurses in the field who use Watson now follow its guidance.

Cleveland Clinic and IBM Work to Advance Watson's Use in the Medical Training Field.mp4





MutualAdjustment

DirectSupervision



TacitSkills

ExplicitSkills


ExplicitRoutines

Automation


Computer Dependence

System-Supported

Supervision



Routines

System-Supported

Skills

Hyper-Automation

Regulating Model AssistingModel

MediatingModel



Main parameters when analyzing an organization

The coordination needs are decisive for structure – Mintzberg

Organisations are patterns of actions that is «performed» every day – Weick,

Silverman, Galbraith and others

The connections between the various parts of an organization are often quite

loose – Weick

Technology and actors affect each other mutually in the design of

organizations – Trist, Orlikowski

Institutional isomorphism – DiMaggio og Powell, Meyer og Rowan

All actors act in accordance with their subjective rationality – Clegg

lars groth - forsiden · inf5210 the turbulent symbiosis between organizations and information...

Documents