Representing Organization Knowledge, Management, and the Information Age

by Lilley, Simon; Lightfoot, Geoffrey; Amaral, Paulo

• ISBN13: 9780198775423
• ISBN10: 0198775423
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-08-26
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

This textbook provides an accessible theoretical analysis of the organizational impact of information technologies. It seeks to examine and comment upon the myriad ways in which actors, organizations, and environments are represented through these technologies. Contemporary threats to organizational form and stability are considered alongside the potential that information technologies offer to both exacerbateand overcome them. It examines, amongst others, issues surrounding the material and symbolic aspects of information systems; risk and prediction; systems implementation and systems success; knowledge management practices; accountability and other management practices; computerized modelling; and thevirtual organization. To this end it deploys a number of different theoretical lenses including: DT systems theoryDT social constructivismDT labour process theoryDT post-structuralismDT actor network theoryThese offer complementary and contrasting insights into the computerization of managerial work. In order to ensure that the book is both relevant and approachable to students from a range of backgrounds these theories are applied to real examples of the development and implementation of informationsystems. This combination fosters practical knowledge that is theoretically informed. The book thus aims to bridge the gap between the abstractions of current theories of organization and the grounded material that forms the bulk of Information Systems literature. It thus offers a novel way into theongoing debates surrounding technological change and the perennial problems of managerial control.It has been designed to support theoretically informed Information and Technology courses at the advanced undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and will also be of interest to academics in the fields of Management, Information Technology, Sociological, and Cultural studies.

Table of Contents

Notes on Authors	xii
List of Inserts	xiii
Introduction	1	(1)
Information as if it mattered	1	(3)
Using this book	4	(5)
Management, Information, and the Labour Process	9	(12)
Key concepts	9	(1)
Key themes	9	(1)
Introduction	9	(1)
Who uses information systems?	9	(1)
Technology and the labour process	10	(3)
Changing the scale and scope of control	13	(1)
Transforming work and informing management	14	(1)
Automating the control of machine tools	15	(3)
Creating management through information	18	(1)
Summary	19	(1)
Discussion questions	20	(1)
Suggestions for further reading	20	(1)
Information, Representation, and Organization	21	(14)
Key concepts	21	(1)
Key themes	21	(1)
Introduction	21	(1)
What is special about information technologies?	22	(1)
Building the pyramids: The informational story of hierarchy	23	(1)
Representing	24	(2)
Representational environment and economy	26	(1)
Representational techniques in practices	27	(4)
Representational devices and power	31	(1)
Summary	32	(1)
Discussion questions	33	(1)
Suggestions for further reading	33	(1)
Other useful sources include	33	(2)
The Conceptual Basis of Information Systems: Modelling the World	35	(16)
Key concepts	35	(1)
Key themes	35	(1)
Introduction	35	(1)
From system to System Theory	36	(8)
Designed by whom? Or what?	38	(1)
Is everything a system?	39	(1)
What is `in' the system and what outside? Or, to put it another way, which parts are `system' and which `environment'?	39	(1)
Is a system a `thing' or is `systems' merely a way of looking at `things'?	40	(1)
How do we define (or divine) the objective of a system? How do we know that it is the overall objective that we have happened upon?	41	(1)
What counts as an `established' or `designed' arrangement? What is being `established' or `designed'?	42	(1)
If we do not know what the `whole' is, how do we know if it is greater than the sum of its parts?	42	(1)
How do we distinguish between elements and process flows?	42	(1)
What is system and what is element? Or what is system and what is subsystem? Where does the hierarchy end?	43	(1)
Seeing the future	44	(1)
Historical precedents?	45	(1)
How does modelling `work'?	45	(3)
Summary	48	(1)
Discussion questions	49	(1)
Suggestions for further reading	49	(2)
Speaking for Information Systems: Analysing and Prescribing Material Information	51	(22)
Key concepts	51	(1)
Key themes	51	(1)
Introduction	52	(1)
Different `screens'	52	(1)
Managing refining	53	(5)
From `managing imbalances' to `exchanges and modal planning'	58	(3)
An associology of translation?	61	(1)
The translation process	62	(3)
Defining and coordination roles: the process of enrolment	65	(1)
Rotterdam refinery	66	(3)
Mobilizing enrolled entities to act for the enunciator	69	(1)
Speak for yourself: Screening translation and appropriation	70	(1)
Summary	70	(1)
Discussion questions	71	(1)
Suggestions for further reading	71	(2)
Representation 2: Representation and Simulation	73	(10)
Key concepts	73	(1)
Key themes	73	(1)
Introduction	73	(1)
Re(-)presentation, mobility, and technology	74	(1)
Enter the body	75	(2)
The fold	77	(2)
Gigantic simulation	79	(2)
Summary and conclusion	81	(1)
Discussion questions	82	(1)
Suggestions for further reading	82	(1)
New Management Practices: Empowerment, Information, and Control	83	(18)
Key concepts	83	(1)
Key themes	83	(1)
Introduction	83	(1)
Why new now?	84	(1)
What's new?	85	(2)
Rhetorics of empowerment	87	(1)
Systems for self-discipline	88	(3)
Self-scanning?	91	(1)
Helping oneself with a handset 1	92	(2)
Maintaining control	94	(1)
Helping oneself with a handset 2	95	(3)
Summary	98	(1)
Discussion questions	99	(1)
Suggestions for further reading	99	(2)
Accountability and Systems Success	101	(20)
Key concepts	101	(1)
Key themes	101	(1)
Introduction	101	(1)
Being accountable	101	(2)
The system builders	103	(6)
Central focus	104	(1)
The database	105	(1)
The core application: modelling accountability	106	(3)
Simultaneous simulation, understanding, and the translation of accountability	109	(3)
Managing the benefits of OMS: the buck stops here	112	(2)
Precedent, practice, and practicalities	114	(3)
Summary and conclusion	117	(1)
Discussion questions	118	(1)
Suggestions for further reading	119	(2)
The Virtual Organization?	121	(16)
Key concepts	121	(1)
Key themes	121	(1)
Introduction	121	(1)
Groupware: a new hope for organizational sociality	122	(2)
Groupware in an organizational context	124	(3)
Organizational memory or organizing memory	127	(5)
Just talk?	132	(2)
Summary	134	(1)
Discussion questions	134	(1)
Suggestions for further reading	135	(2)
Representation 3: Risk, Control, and the Escape of Uncertainty	137	(14)
Key concepts	137	(1)
Key themes	137	(1)
Introduction	137	(1)
Representation and the accomplishment of organization	138	(1)
Symbols and materials	139	(1)
Representing objectification in the information age	140	(3)
A representational communication	143	(1)
From context-embedded signification to abstract signification	144	(3)
Connections, contextual knowledge, and oral language	147	(1)
Summary	148	(1)
Discussion questions	149	(1)
Suggestions for further reading	149	(2)
Handling Knowledge Management	151	(20)
Key concepts	151	(1)
Key themes	151	(1)
Introduction	151	(1)
Data, information, knowledge	152	(2)
Dealing with knowledge in KM	154	(7)
From individual to collective knowledge	155	(1)
Organizational learning	156	(1)
Organizations learning from Individuals	156	(1)
Learning at an organizational level	157	(2)
What about organization?	159	(2)
Understanding knowledge	161	(5)
A philosophical bent	161	(3)
A sociological bent	164	(2)
And back to KM	166	(3)
Summary	169	(1)
Discussion questions	169	(1)
Suggestions for further reading	170	(1)
Postscript	171	(2)
Notes	173	(8)
Bibliography	181	(16)
Name Index	197	(4)
Subject Index	201