The emergence of information systems: a communication-based theory

An information system is more than just the information technology; it is the system that emerges from the complex interactions and relationships between the information technology and the organization. However, what impact information technology has on an organization and how organizational structures and organizational change influence information technology remains an open question. We propose a theory to explain how communication structures emerge and adapt to environmental changes. We operationalize the interplay of information technology and organization as language communities whose members use and develop domain-specific languages for communication. Our theory is anchored in the philosophy of language. In developing it as an emergent perspective, we argue that information systems are self-organizing and that control of this ability is disseminated throughout the system itself, to the members of the language community. Information technology influences the dynamics of this adaptation process as a fundamental constraint leading to perturbations for the information system. We demonstrate how this view is separated from the entanglement in practice perspective and show that this understanding has far-reaching consequences for developing, managing, and examining information systems

Redundancy in Systems which Entertain a Model of Themselves: Interaction Information and the Self-organization of Anticipation

Mutual information among three or more dimensions (mu-star = - Q) has been considered as interaction information. However, Krippendorff (2009a, 2009b) has shown that this measure cannot be interpreted as a unique property of the interactions and has proposed an alternative measure of interaction information based on iterative approximation of maximum entropies. Q can then be considered as a measure of the difference between interaction information and redundancy generated in a model entertained by an observer. I argue that this provides us with a measure of the imprint of a second-order observing system -- a model entertained by the system itself -- on the underlying information processing. The second-order system communicates meaning hyper-incursively; an observation instantiates this meaning-processing within the information processing. The net results may add to or reduce the prevailing uncertainty. The model is tested empirically for the case where textual organization can be expected to contain intellectual organization in terms of distributions of title words, author names, and cited references

Redefining managerial effectiveness in a multilevel organization : a structurationist account

Many organization theories consist of an interpretation frame and an idea about the ideal equilibrium state. This article explains how the equilibrium concept is used in four organization theories: the theories of Fayol, Mintzberg, Morgan, and Volberda. Equilibrium can be defined as balance, fit or requisite variety. Equilibrium is related to observables dependent on the definition of organization as work organization, formal organization or artifact organization. Equilibrium can be explicitly related to performance in the theory used, enabling cross-sectional research. The discussed theories can be mapped on a state space model in a way that clarifies the equilibrium concept, namely a mu-space (Fayol and Morgan), or a gamma-space (Mintzberg and Volberda). 1 Prof.dr. Henk W.M. Gazendam is professor of Information Systems in the Public Sector at the Faculty of Public Administration at Twente University and associate professor of Information Strategy at the Faculty of Management and Organization at Groningen University (P.O.Box 800, NL-9700-AV Groningen, The Netherlands, tel +31-50-3637078, email [email protected]). 2 Contribution to the Computational and Mathematical Organization Theory Workshop, May 3 and 4, 1996, Washington Hilton & Towers. 3 The author wishes to thank Vincent Homburg for his valuable comments.

Considering users' behaviours in improving the responses of an information base

In this paper, our aim is to propose a model that helps in the efficient use of an information system by users, within the organization represented by the IS, in order to resolve their decisional problems. In other words we want to aid the user within an organization in obtaining the information that corresponds to his needs (informational needs that result from his decisional problems). This type of information system is what we refer to as economic intelligence system because of its support for economic intelligence processes of the organisation. Our assumption is that every EI process begins with the identification of the decisional problem which is translated into an informational need. This need is then translated into one or many information search problems (ISP). We also assumed that an ISP is expressed in terms of the user's expectations and that these expectations determine the activities or the behaviors of the user, when he/she uses an IS. The model we are proposing is used for the conception of the IS so that the process of retrieving of solution(s) or the responses given by the system to an ISP is based on these behaviours and correspond to the needs of the user

Using text analysis to quantify the similarity and evolution of scientific disciplines

We use an information-theoretic measure of linguistic similarity to investigate the organization and evolution of scientific fields. An analysis of almost 20M papers from the past three decades reveals that the linguistic similarity is related but different from experts and citation-based classifications, leading to an improved view on the organization of science. A temporal analysis of the similarity of fields shows that some fields (e.g., computer science) are becoming increasingly central, but that on average the similarity between pairs has not changed in the last decades. This suggests that tendencies of convergence (e.g., multi-disciplinarity) and divergence (e.g., specialization) of disciplines are in balance.Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Decisiveness

This paper investigates how the presence of strong leadership influences an organization's ability to acquire and process information. The key concept is the leader's decisiveness. A decisive leader can make a bold move in response to a large change in the underlying landscape, whereas an indecisive leader biases her position excessively towards the status quo. An organization led by an indecisive leader needs to accumulate unrealistically strong evidence before it changes the course of action, thereby hindering the organization's ability to adapt to a changing environment. The analysis identifies several attributes and environmental factors that impair one's decisiveness and illuminates how leadership emerges or fades in organizations. The paper also sheds light on a classical issue of whether leaders can be made, rather than are born: our answer is partially `yes' in that mutual trust among members of the organization is a critical ingredient of effective leadership.Decisiveness, Transformational leadership, Charismatic leadership, Information acquisition, Career concerns.

Computer-derived management information in a special library

Not the least of the benefits of automating libraries and information centers is the enhanced ability to monitor processes and services, to collect, structure, analyze, and report critical or useful data hitherto largely unavailable or excessively difficult and costly to obtain. Good management of information requires good management information information that is as cogent, correct, current, clear, concise, and complete as cost effectiveness and enlightened decision-making demand. Computeraided information systems offer not only opportunities to gain new insights into the services they support; they challenge the systems designer to build in the feedback necessary to control and improve the systems themselves. The focus of this paper is computer-supplied management information in the special library environment. The particular context is that of an extensively computerized, corporate library network in a large research and development organization Bell Laboratories.published or submitted for publicatio

Conceptual Overview of MIS and its Importance in an Organization

A management information system is an integrated, uniform method for collecting and reporting information about a particular program, event or activity. We can also define MIS as a user machine system which is used for providing information to support the operation and decision making function in an organization. MIS support decision making at all levels of the organization and also supports decision making in both structured and unstructured problem environment. In our paper we have described about the MIS and its importance in an organization. We have also explained various types of information system and the steps involve in designing and developing of an effective MIS in an organization. Keywords: Transactional Processing System, Management Reporting System, Decision Support System and Executive Support System