NTHS Vol10(4) pp29-30
1997
Fulk J &
Steinfield C (Eds.) (1990) Organisations and Communication Technology
Sage Publications, New York ISBN 0-8039-3531-5
Bob
Sapey is Lecturer in Social Work at the University of Lancaster. He is
a member of the New Technology in the Human Services Advisory Group and
edits the Professional Digest for Professional Social Work. His current
research is on disability and housing and he is currently revising Mike
Oliver's book 'Social Work with Disabled People'.
Contact him
at:
Dept of Applied Social Studies
University of Lancaster
Lancaster, LA1 4YL, UK
Tel: +44 (0) 1524 594863
Email: b.sapey@lancaster.ac.uk
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Organisations and Communication Technology
Reviewed by Bob Sapey
Reviewing
a reader of thirteen chapters is a bit like reviewing thirteen books,
which would not only be excessive on words, but potentially tiresome.
This review is therefore of necessity, extremely truncated, which in turn
means that it cannot reflect the richness and depth of writing of this
particular book.
Although
now eight years old, this collection of papers has not lost any of its
value to the study of organisations and technology. The principle reason
for this and one of the main aims of the book, is that rather than attempting
to measure and evaluate the latest impacts of new technology, the authors
have set out to take a more reflective approach in the hope of developing
a theoretical infrastructure in which such studies might take place, The
editors suggest that the field of technology is currently impoverished
of theory while being overrun by data, and there hope is that a theoretical
infrastructure will permit us to gain knowledge from the observations
of developments in this field.
The
book is structured into five parts which do develop some key themes. In
Part 1, 'Theorizing About Information Technology in Organizations', the
need for theory is discussed and promoted. While interesting in its own
right - I found myself making links to the debates about the need for
theory in social work - this is primarily an introduction to the rest
of the book.
Part
2, as its title states, presents 'Two Views of Information Technology,
Tasks, and Organizations'. First, James Beniger argues that in conceptualising
information technology as organisations and vice-versa, we are able to
draw upon a wide range of established theory concerning the latter, in
order to understand the former. This really sets the scene for the rest
of the book in which the writers do just that. The essence of his argument
for this conceptualisation is that bureaucracies and other modern organisations
evolved as a response to the need for more efficient ways of processing
information in order to control faster production and operational processes.
As such, new technologies are a continuation of this and should not be
thought of as completely distinct. This is followed by a paper by Clifford
Nass and Laurie Mason which criticises current approaches to researching
technology as being unable to generate useful generalisations. They go
on to propose a range of variables, to which others could well be added,
that would permit more meaningful study to occur. While complementing
Beniger's paper to some extent, this also provides a more traditional,
theory-testing approach to research than the interpretivism associated
with classical organisations theorists such as Weber.
The
third part, 'Individual Interactions with Information Technology in the
Organizational Context', makes use of symbolic interactionism to develop
the other main theme that runs through the book - media choice. First,
Linda Trevino, Richard Daft and Robert Lengel present a rational model
of decision making in which the interacting variables are message equivocality,
contextual determinants and media symbolism. This is followed by Robert
Zmud who draws out two further key issues of control and manipulation
in seeking to understand more about why strategic managers fail to use
information systems. The rational model is then challenged by Janet Fulk,
Joseph Schmitz and Charles Steinfield with their 'social influence' model
in which they also take account of the ways in which people experience
technology. In particular this affects the hierarchy of media symbolism
which in turn further influences the experience of media use.
In
Part 4, 'Information Technology and Collective Behaviours', the focus
moves away from the individual, but the social influence model is picked
up by Noshir Contractor and Eric Eisenberg. They welcome its contribution
but suggest that it lacks the inclusion of communication theory that would
allow for an understanding of the processes by which social information
flows. Their starting point is that everything about the adoption and
use of media is social and go on to apply communications network concepts
to the use of technology. In doing so they draw on Giddens' structuration
and Burt's theory of structural action. This theme is then continued by
Marshall Poole and Geraldine De Sanctis in seeking to understand the use
made of 'Group Decision Support Systems'. At this stage the book felt
to be less relevant to technology and social work but the next paper by
Lynne Markus, which explores a critical mass theory of interactive media,
could be quite useful in studying the developing use of the Internet.
This part is then completed with a paper from Terry Connolly and Brian
Thorn in which they examine the domain of the discretionary database,
which falls somewhere between the simple computerisation of data that
is already stored and the expert systems that might be commercially developed.
Bulletin boards are the example they use, in which information is provided
free of charge, yet does require some form of motivation.
The
final sections of the book looks at 'Information Technology and Organizational
Design'. George Huber seeks to integrate studies of IT with organisation
theory to understand its impact, particularly on organisational design,
intelligence and decision making. In doing so he picks up on the earlier
theme of media choice and suggests that the assumption made that equivocal
messages require a rich media may not be absolute. Rather, the use of
a lean media such as email, may extend participation and allow communications
to focus on the more equivocal aspects of their discussions when meeting
face to face. In another important part of this paper, he argues that
it is one of several mistaken impressions that advanced technology leads
to rational outcomes. Thomas Allen and Oscar Hauptman then consider the
role of technology in research and development organisations, and how
its integration into different organisational designs relates to the effectiveness
of pursuing functional or project goals. The final paper in the book is
from Peter Keen. He is concerned to help managers use telecommunications
to maintain organisational health. He considers how their use can help
to change and simplify organisational structures, while increasing direct
and flexible contact between people. To do otherwise might be counter-productive.
As
I said at the beginning, this review is necessarily brief and only touches
the surface of this book. However, I believe that it succeeds in the goal
of editors which was 'less to present closed deductive systems than to
organize thought and energize conceptual development on a very important
and timely topic for organizational communication studies' (p23).
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