August 1999

This is one of two required core courses for the Information Studies Minor
offered by the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Instructor: Professor Caroline Haythornthwaite (haythorn@classweb.lis.uiuc.edu)

Class: Tuesday & Thursday 2-3:15

Office hours: Wednesday 1-3 or by appointment

Notes: Some overheads and handouts from the classes are available; also a list of further readings.

 * New * … Final Assignment Rules …

Organizations can be considered as information processing systems which strive to collect, process and disseminate information in the most efficient and effective manner. But, they can also be considered as collectives of classweb who share a common interest in achieving goals relating to the business of the organization, with information goals associated with keeping the organization going and accomplishing work. The way in which an organization is viewed provides an image that is used to design and select technologies. Depending on our view of organizations, we put priority on collecting, monitoring and controlling data, e.g., via transaction processing systems, and management information systems, or we put priority on tools that allow classweb to define the way in which they interact, e.g., via electronic mail, and computer-supported cooperative work tools.

This course explores images of organizations and how these images support or constrain the way in which organizations collect, process, and exchange information, and the way in which decisions are made about the implementation and design of information technologies. We will explore:

• what organizations are and what they do
• what technologies are and how they fit with what organizations do
• how and why information is important to an organization
• information processes in organizations and the technologies that support them
• how an organization's technology affects its information gathering and use, and its connections to external organizations, agencies or institutions
• how organizational, technological and societal factors affect information processing goals

Students will be expected to complete two assignments (5 pages each) and a major research paper (10 pages). Students are expected to participate in class discussions and are responsible for providing summaries of at least one of the week's readings twice during the term.

Assignments: 2 x 20% = 40%

Major Paper: 40%

In-Class Presentations (informal) and Participation: 20%

As one of the hottest topics affecting organizations as we near the end of 1999, our first assignment is to explore what the Y2K issue is and its impact in organizations. Your first assignment is to find out what the issue is and to provide a summary of its origin and what is being said about the impact.

We will follow this issue all term, bringing in new information as it appears. In the assignment you are expected to show that you understand the basics of the issue so we can discuss it through the rest of the term.

Sources: Wired magazine articles, WWW, newspapers, magazines etc.

The ranking of a song into the music top ten affects how often it gets played on radios, etc., which in turn affects sales and success for the artist and their label. Monitoring the top ten is an important feature of the information environment of music stations on radio and television. How does this top ten get compiled? What impact does it have on what a radio or TV station plays, and on what music stores buy?

Your assignment is to explore some aspect of the music top ten – how the list is compiled (by who, based on what statistics, covering what regions, etc.), how radio or TV stations find and use this information and how important it is to their operations, or how a music store finds and used this information.

You may do this assignment in groups. You might interview a music store manager or a radio station manager and ask about how the music top ten affects their play list or ordering habits. Ask how they get the list – who from and how often. Explore how it affects the way they monitor the environment for information relevant to their business.

Using chapters from the Morgan book as a model, (1) develop an image of an organization and (2) discuss the implications of that image for the information technologies that would support it.

Optionally, (3) evaluate your image for how well it fits a real organization such as somewhere you have worked or someone you know has worked, or for the university, a library, a government office, a local business, etc.

Here are some ideas for images:

• organizations as computing machines
• organizations as information processing machines
• organizations as communication systems
• organizations as quilting bees
• organizations as coffee clubs
• organizations as baseball teams
• organizations as democracies (or as dictatorships)

or

• any image of your choosing – use your imagination

• What is an organization? What do organizations do?
• Definitions of organizations: Organizational missions, goals, objectives
• Images of Organizations: metaphors; how images help us understand organizations
• What is a "technology"?
• What are information technologies? Where do they fit in organizations?

Reading: Morgan, Chapter 1 (Introduction);

See also: Stohl, Chapter 1 which summarizes Morgan, and Morgan, Chapter 10 re metaphor

• Examining the critical role of information and IT in the operation of today’s organizations
• Issues and goals re task-technology fit
• Information ecologies

Reading:
Nardi, B.A. & O'Day, V. (1999). Information ecologies. Chapter 4 in Information Ecologies: Using Technology with a Heart. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

• lecture/discussion on Y2K; provides preparation for assignment
• guest lecturer: Andrea Ballinger UIUC Y2K team

Reading:
Ullman, E. (April, 1999). The myth of order: The real lesson of Y2K is that software operates just like any natural system. Wired, 126-129, 183-184.

Leslie, J. (April, 1999). Powerless: What happens at 00:00:01 on January 1? Wired, 118-13, 175-180., and Life in the dark. 124-5, 181-2.

Organizations as rational systems

• Rational view of the organization
• Open and closed systems
• Organizational structures: tight and loose coupling

• Typologies of information systems (TPS, MIS, GSS, ESS, etc.)
• Sociotechnical systems view

Reading: Morgan, Chapter 2

Organizations as natural systems

• Natural systems and how they affect operations based on a rational view
• Communication structures
• More than one: groups, teams, etc.

• CSCW, CMC, Telework, etc.

Reading:
McGregor, D.M. (1957:1992). The human side of enterprise. In J.M. Shafritz & J.S. Ott (Eds.), Classics of Organization Theory (pp. 174-180). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Co.

Grudin, J. (1989). Why groupware applications fail: Problems in design and evaluation. Office: Technology and People, 4(3), 245-264.

Suggested Further Reading:
Galegher, J. & Kraut, R.E. (1990). Technology for intellectual teamwork: Perspectives on research and design. In J. Galegher, R.E. Kraut & C. Egido (Eds.), Intellectual Teamwork: Social and Technological Foundations of Cooperative Work (pp. 1-20). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

• Inter-organizational ties, e.g., supplier-client chains
• Technologies to support inter-organizational relations
• Inter-organizational systems

Reading: Morgan, Chapter 3

• Information processing in organizations
• Formal and informal information exchange in organizations
• Attention structures

Reading:
Morgan, Chapter 4

Galbraith, J. (1973:1992). Information processing model. In J.M. Shafritz & J.S. Ott (Eds.), Classics of Organization Theory (pp. 308-315). Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Publishing Co.

Information and decision making

• models of decision making processes
• information needs for decision making
• decision making: uncertainty and equivocality; decision making under conditions of ambiguity

• John Cleese video "Meetings, Bloody Meetings" /// video unavailable .. CAVE visits instead
• technologies for meeting support and decision making: GDSS systems

Reading: Daft, R.L. & Lengel, R.H. (1986). Organizational information requirements, media richness and structural design. Management Science, 32(5), 554-571.

• a change of pace
• on Tuesday we will visit some buildings on campus and see what information they convey about the university or unit
• on Thursday we will discuss the impact of information contained in workplace design and explore how that information influences the design of information technologies

Reading:
Becker, F. & Steele, F. (1995). Rethinking status, identity and space. Chapter 3 in Workplace by Design: Mapping the High–Performance Workscape (pp. 27-47). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Suggested Further Reading:
Erickson, T. (1993). From interface to interplace: The spatial environment as a medium for interaction. Proceedings of the conference on spatial information theory. Available at: http://www.pliant.org/personal/Tom_Erickson/Interplace.html

Other factors affecting rational information use in organizations

• Status, hierarchies and information processing
• Organizational history, culture and decision making

Reading: Morgan, Chapter 5

You will be expected to report in class on one of these papers or chapters… although I highly recommend all of them :-)

Suggested Further Reading: Morgan, Chapter 6 and 7.

• Impact on cognitive load, organizational memory (into machines) 'normal accidents', decision making (decisions disappearing into machines), inter-organizational interaction (e.g., tied systems), attention structures

Reading:
Perrow, C. (1984). Complexity, coupling, and catastrophe. In Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies (chapter 3). New York, NY: Basic Books.

Suggested Further Reading:
Weick, K.E. (1990). Technology as Equivoque: Sensemaking in new technologies. In P.S. Goodman, L.S. Sproull & Associates (eds.), Technology and Organizations (pp. 1-44). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

• lecture on the productivity paradox

Reading:
Brynjolfsson, E. & Hitt, L.M. (1998). Beyond the productivity paradox. Communications of the ACM, 41(8), 49-55.

Suggested Further Reading:
Brynjolfsson, E. (1993). The productivity paradox of information technology: Review and Assessment, Communications of the ACM, 36, 66-77.

• Drop in class on Tuesday: This will be an opportunity to talk about the images you are developing for your final paper and to try out the ideas with me and/or with other class members.
• No class on Thursday

• IT as producer of change in structures
• IT change as an occasion for restructuring

Reading: Morgan, Chapter 8

Keen, P.G.W. (1991). Redesigning the organization through information technology. Planning Review, 19, 4-9.

Suggested Further Reading:
Barley, Stephen R. (1990). The alignment of technology and structure through roles and networks. Administrative Science Quarterly, 35 (March), 61-103.

Burkhardt, M.E. & Brass, D.J. (1990). Changing patterns and patterns of change - The effects of a change in technology on social network structure and power. ASQ, 35(1), 104-127.

Keen, P.G.W. (1981). Information systems and organization change. Communications of the ACM, 24(1), 24-33.

Rogers, E.M (1995). Chapter 1, Diffusion of Innovations. Fourth Edition. NY: The Free Press.

• wrap up

Assignments Due Dates: Sept. 28, Oct. 26, Dec. 7