organizational analysis in computer science.txt

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Economists are still studying the conditions under which
computerization contributes to organizational productivity, and
how to measure it [1]. But even if computerization proves to be a
productive investment, in the net, in most economic sectors,
there is good reason to believe that many organizations get much
less value from their computing investments than they could and
should.

There is no automatic link between computerization and improved
productivity. While many computer systems have been usable and
useful, productivity gains require that their value exceed all of
their costs.

There are numerous potential slips in translating high
performance computing into cost-effective improvements in
organizational performance. Some technologies are superb for
well-trained experts, but are difficult for less experienced
people or "casual users." Many technologies, such as networks and
mail systems, often require extensive technical support, thus
adding hidden costs (Kling, 1992).

Further, a significant body of empirical research shows that the
social processes by which computer systems are introduced and
organized makes a substantial difference in their value to
people, groups and organizations (Lucas, 1981; Kraemer, et. al.
1985; Orlikowski, 1992). Most seriously, not all presumably
appropriate computer applications fit a person or group's work
practices. While they may make sense in a simplified world, they
can actually complicate or misdirect real work.

Group calendars are but one example of systems that can sound
useful, but are often useless because they impose burdensome
record keeping demands (Grudin, 1989). In contrast, electronic
mail is one of the most popular applications in office support
systems, even when other capabilities, like group calendars, are
ignored (Bullen and Bennett, 1991). However, senders are most
likely to share information with others when the system helps
provide social feedback about the value of their efforts or they
have special incentives (Sproull and Kiesler, 1991; Orlikowski,
1992). Careful attention to the social arrangements or work can
help Computer Scientists improve some systems designs, or also
appreciate which applications may not be effective unless work
arrangements are changed when the system is introduced.

The uses and social value of most computerized systems can not be
effectively ascertained from precise statements of their basic
design principles and social purposes. They must be analyzed
within the social contexts in which they will be used. Effective
social analyses go beyond accounting for formal tasks and
purposes to include informal social behavior, available
resources, and the interdependencies between key groups
(Cotterman and Senn, 1992).

Many of the BS and MS graduates of CS departments find employment
on projects where improved computing should enhance the
performance of specific organizations or industries.
Unfortunately, few of these CS graduates have developed an
adequate conceptual basis for understanding when information
systems will actually improve organizational performance.
Consequently, many of them are prone to recommend systems-based
solutions whose structure or implementation within organizations
would be problematic.

                   ORGANIZATIONAL INFORMATICS

Organizational Informatics denotes a field which studies the
development and use of computerized information systems and
communication systems in organizations. It includes studies of
their conception, design, effective implementation within
organizations, maintenance, use, organizational value, conditions
that foster risks of failures, and their effects for people and
an organization's clients. It is an intellectually rich and
practical research area.

Organizational Informatics is a relatively new label. In Europe,
the term Informatics is the name of many academic departments
which combine both CS and Information Systems. In North America,
Business Schools are the primary institutional home of
Information Systems research and teaching. But this location is a
mixed blessing. It brings IS research closer to organizational
studies. But the institutional imperatives of business schools
lead IS researchers to emphasize the development and use of
systems in a narrow range of organizations -- businesses
generally, and often service industry firms. It excludes
information systems in important social sectors such as health
care, military operations, air-traffic control, libraries, home
uses, and so on. And Information Systems research tries to avoid
messy issues which many practicing Computer Scientists encounter:
developing requirements for effective systems and mitigating the
major risks to people and organizations who depend upon them.

The emerging field of Organizational Informatics builds upon
research conducted under rubrics like Information Systems and
Information Engineering. But it is more wide ranging than either
of these fields are in practice[2].

Organizational Informatics Research

In the last 20 years a loosely organized community of some dozens
of researchers have produced a notable body of systematic
scientific research in Organizational Informatics. These studies
examine a variety of topics, including:
     *    how system designers translate people's preferences
          into requirements;
     *    the functioning of software development teams in
          practice;
     *    the conditions that foster and impede the
          implementation of computerized systems within
          organizations;
     *    the ways that computerized systems simplify or
          complicate coordination within and between
          organizations;
     *    how people and organizations use systems in practice;
     *    the roles of computerized systems in altering work,
          group communication, power relationships, and
          organizational practices.
Researchers have extensively studied some of these topics, such
as computerization and changing work, appear in synoptic review
articles (Kling and Dunlop, in press). In contrast, researchers
have recently begun to examine other topics, such software design
(Winograd and Flores, 1986; Kyng and Greenbaum, 1991), and have
recently begun  to use careful empirical methods (e.g. Suchman,
1983; Bentley, et. al, 1992; Fish, et. al., 1993). I cannot
summarize the key theories and rich findings of these diverse
topics in a few paragraphs. But I would like to comment upon a
few key aspects of this body of research.

Computer Systems Use in  Social Worlds

Many studies contrast actual patterns of systems design,
implementation, use or impacts with predictions made by Computer
Scientists and professional commentators. A remarkable fraction
of these accounts are infused with a hyper-rational and under-
socialized view of people, computer systems, organizations and
social life in general.  Computer Scientists found that rule
driven conceptions to be powerful ways to abstract domains like
compilers. But many  Computer Scientists extend them to be a
tacit organizing frame for understanding whole computer systems,
their developers, their users and others who live and work with
them. Organizations are portrayed as generally cooperative
systems with relatively simple and clear goals. Computer systems
are portrayed as generally coherent and adequate for the tasks
for which people use them. People are portrayed as generally
obedient and cooperative participants in a highly structured
system with numerous tacit rules to be obeyed, such as doing
their jobs as they are formally described. Using data that is
contained in computer systems, and treating it as information or
knowledge, is a key element of these accounts. Further, computer
systems are portrayed as powerful, and often central, agents of
organizational change.

This Systems Rationalist perspective infuses many accounts of
computer systems design, development, and use in diverse
application domains, including CASE tools, instructional
computing, models in support of public policy assessments, expert
systems, groupware, supercomputing, and network communications
(Kling, 1980; Kling, Scherson and Allen, 1992).

All conceptual perspectives are limited and distort "reality."
When Organizational Informatics researchers systematically
examine the design practices in particular organizations, how
specific groups develop computer systems, or how various people
and groups use computerized systems, they find an enormous range
of fascinating and important human behavior which lies outside
the predictive frame of Systems Rationalism. Sometimes these
behaviors are relatively minor in overall importance. But in many
cases they are so significant as to lead Organizational
Informatics researchers to radically reconceptualize the
processes which shape and are shaped by computerization.

There are several alternative frames for reconceptualizing
computerization as alternatives to Systems Rationalism. The
alternatives reflect, in part, the paradigmatic diversity of the
social sciences. But all of these reconceptions situate computer
systems and organizations in richer social contexts and with more
complex and multivalent social relations than does systems
rationalism. Two different kinds of observations help anchor
these abstractions.

Those who wish to understand the dynamics of model usage in
public agencies must appreciate the institutional relationships
which influence the organization's behavior. For example, to
understand economic forecasting by the US Congress and the U.S.
Executive branch's Office of Management and Budget, one must
appreciate the institutional relations between them. They are not
well described by Systems Rationalist conceptions because they
were designed  to continually differ with each other in their
perspectives and preferred policies. That is one meaning of
"checks and balances" in the fundamental design of the US Federal
Government. My colleagues, Ken Kraemer and John King, titled
their book about  Federal economic modelling, DataWars (Kraemer,
et. al., 1985). Even this title doesn't make much sense within a
Systems Rationalist framework.

Modelling can be a form of intellectual exploration. It can also
be a medium of communication, negotiation, and persuasion. The
social relationships between modelers, people who use them and
diverse actors in Federal policymaking made these socially
mediated roles of models sometimes most important. In these
situations, an alternative view of organizations as coalitions of
interest groups was a more appropriate conceptualization. And
within this coalitional view of organizations, a conception of
econometric models as persuasion support systems rather than as
decision support systems sometimes is most appropriate.
Organizational Informatics researchers found that political views
of organizations and systems developments within them apply to
many private organizations as well as to explicitly political
public agencies.

Another major idea to emerge from the broad body of
Organizational Informatics research is that the social patterns
which characterize the design, development, uses and consequences
of computerized systems are dependent on the particular ecology
of social relationships between participants. This idea may  be
summarized by saying that the processes and consequences of
computerization are "context dependent." In practice, this means
that the analyst must be careful in generalizing from one
organizational setting to another. While data wars might
characterize econometric modelling on Capitol Hill, we do not
conclude that all computer modelling should be interpreted as
persuasion support systems. In some settings, models are used to
explore the effects of policy alternatives without immediate
regard for their support as media for communication, negotiation
or persuasion. At other times, the same model might be used (or
abused with cooked data) as a medium of persuasion. The brief
accounts of models for  global warming in CTF fit a Systems
Rationalist account. Their uses might appear much less
"scientific" if they were studied within the actual policy
processes within which they are typically used.

Computing in a Web of Technological and Social Dependencies:
                              The Role of Infrastructure

Another key feature of computerized systems is the technological
and organizational infrastructure required to support their
effective use (Kling and Scacchi, 1982; Kling, 1987; Kling,
1992). The information processing models of computerized systems
focus on the "surface structures," such as information flows
within a system. For example, one can compare the information
processing capabilities of computerized modelling systems in
terms of the complexity and variety of computations that they
support, the richness of their graphical displays, and so on.
Text processing systems can be similarly compared by contrasting
their capabilities for handling footnotes, graphics, fine grained
text placement, custom dictionaries and so on. From an
information processing point of view, system A is usually better
than system B if it offers many more capabilities than system B.
Information processing conceptions have also fueled much of the
talk about high performance computing. It is common to talk about