Suchergebnisse

ABSTRACTThis paper reports on an innovative seminar in which implementation of operations research and management science was the primary theme. Traditional educational strategies have sought to improve OR/MS acceptance by further exposing managers and management scientists to OR/MS techniques and management problems respectively. The present approach assumes that an understanding of the barriers to successful implementation and a knowledge of possible strategies for overcoming them are potentially more productive than the study of more OR/MS techniques. The seminar was designed to combine straightforward reading and discussion with empirical research on actual implementation situations. It is suggested that educators consider the value of this type of educational exercise in OR/MS curricula and M.B.A. programs.

This paper re-examines empirical literature which relates computerization to organization structure. Explanations are sought for the conflicting findings regarding the effects of computer adoption on centralization and decentralization. A review of the literature suggests that: (1) computers do not cause changes in the degree of delegation, (2) computerized systems are sufficiently flexible to facilitate either centralized or decentralized structures, and (3) the degree of delegation in these studies is related to task environmental conditions of the organizations studied. Certain conceptual and methodological issues pertaining to this line of research are discussed, including the meaning of centralization, the perceptual bias in interviewing affected managers, the lack of adequate effectiveness measures in most studies, and the very basic problem of treating computerization as a variable. Further research on computerization should focus away from the present confining framework to look at environmental conditions as the more likely determinants of structural variation.

ABSTRACTThe quantitative disciplines have focused their efforts primarily upon more complete and efficient methods for analyzing decision problems. Almost totally neglected in these efforts is the interplay between a decision technique and its ultimate user. This interface is of crucial importance to the continued success of the decision sciences in organizations. Data are presented to support the contention that decision techniques and their resultant impact on job content interact with psychological variables to cause variation in user satisfaction and performance. These results are similar to the effects hypothesized to occur at blue collar levels in organizations.

Purpose
– The purpose of this paper is to explore the role that mobile technologies play in mobile workers' efforts to manage the boundaries between work and non-work domains. Previous theories of work-life boundary management frame boundary management strategies as a range between the segmentation and integration of work-life domains, but fail to provide a satisfactory account of technology's role.


Design/methodology/approach
– The authors apply the concept of affordances, defined as the relationship between users' abilities and features of mobile technology, in two field studies of a total of 25 mobile workers who used a variety of mobile devices and services.


Findings
– The results demonstrate that the material features of mobile technologies offer five specific affordances that mobile workers use in managing work-life boundaries: mobility, connectedness, interoperability, identifiability and personalization. These affordances persist in their influence across time, despite their connection to different technology features.


Originality/value
– The author found that mobile workers' boundary management strategies do not fit comfortably along a linear segmentation-integration continuum. Rather, mobile workers establish a variety of personalized boundary management practices to match their particular situations. The authors speculate that mobile technology has core material properties that endure over time. The authors surmise that these material properties provide opportunities for users to interact with them in a manner to make the five affordances possible. Therefore, in the future, actors interacting with mobile devices to manage their work-life boundaries may experience affordances similar to those the authors observed because of the presence of the core material properties.

A widely accepted and usable taxonomy is a fundamental element in the development of a scientific body of knowledge. However, the creation of good empirical taxonomies of implementation processes is complicated by the need to consider the dynamics of the implementation process. This paper addresses this difficulty by using an optimal matching procedure to measure the pairwise distances among event sequences occurring in 53 computer-based information system (IS) implementation projects. Cluster analysis based on these inter-sequence distances is used to generate the empirical taxonomy of implementation processes. The resulting taxonomy includes six distinct archetypical processes. One of the process types is labeled textbook life cycle (type 4) due to its close resemblance to the detailed, rational approach commonly prescribed in IS textbooks. The logical minimalist process (type 1) follows some of the basic steps of the textbook approach, but is characterized by little project definition and infrequent assignment of personnel. Whereas both textbook life cycle and logical minimalist approaches use external vendors and consultants to some extent, external dependence is much greater in traditional off-the-shelf (type 2) and outsourced cooperative (type 5) processes. The traditional off-the-shelf process simply involves purchasing the system from an external vendor, with little system construction or assignment of personnel. In contrast, the outsourced cooperative process consists of joint system development by internally assigned personnel and external vendors. The remaining two process types—problem-driven minimalist (type 3) and in-house trial and error (type 6)—are both considerably influenced by performance problems. The problem-driven minimalist process is initiated by such problems, with little project definition, and results in a reassignment of organizational roles. The in-house trial-and-error process begins like textbook life cycle, with a clear project definition, but involves frequent system modifications to respond to the performance problems encountered during the project. The paper demonstrates how an empirical taxonomy that incorporates the dynamics of event sequences may be developed. The archetypes comprising the taxonomy are related to other implementation process models available in the literature. Some limitations of the study are acknowledged and its implications for future research and practice are discussed.

Discusses the role of theory in applied research. Applies several
theoretical perspectives from organizational science to the subject of
organisational support for end‐user computing. Concludes that a variety
of theoretical perspectives gives a richer understanding of the
phenomenon, a source of testable propositions, and a possibility to
integrate and combine models. States the purpose of the paper is to
stimulate researchers to understand and use existing theory.

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to examine the structures and business models of electronic metals exchanges between 1995 and 2003.Design/methodology/approachA dialectical institutional analysis is applied to understand the exchanges' responses to competing pressures for efficiency and legitimacy.FindingsAlthough efficiency is enabled by internet technologies that provide greater information transparency and access, public metals exchanges exhibited less ability to survive than private exchanges. It is argued that private exchanges survived because traders regarded them as more legitimate. Private exchange models allowed existing traditional relationships involving trust and privacy to continue, whereas public exchanges did not.Originality/valueThe institutional analysis complements economic analyses of the role and structure of intermediaries in B2B electronic commerce.

Recent perspectives on organizational change have emphasized human agency, more than technology or structure, to explain empirical outcomes resulting from the use of information technologies in organizations. Yet, newer technologies such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems continue to be associated with the agenda of organizational transformation, largely because they are assumed to constrain human action. We report an interpretive case study of an ERP system after its implementation in a large government agency. Despite the transformation agenda accompanying the new system, users initially chose to avoid using it as much as possible (inertia) and later to work around system constraints in unintended ways (reinvention). We explain the change in enactments with the concept of improvised learning, which was motivated by social influence from project leaders, "power users," and peers. Our results are consistent with arguments regarding the enactment of information technology in organizations and with temporal views of human agency. We conclude that an integrated technology like ERP, which potentially represents a "hard" constraint on human agency, can be resisted and reinvented in use.

The hyper-competitive global business environment of the information age has challenged many companies to transform their business models and organizational forms. Drawing from the theoretical models of Van de Ven and Poole, we propose a process theory of organizational transition that incorporates two generative mechanisms, or 'motors'. At the individual level, we employ a teleological motor, which captures the managerial actions undertaken to promote transformation. At the organizational level, we employ a dialectic motor, which captures forces both promoting and opposing change. The model consists of three sequential phases of transition: creation, destruction, and unification. The model is grounded in an empirical study of a large company undergoing a major transition in business model and organization structure during the decade of the 1990s.

Business process re‐engineering (BPR) promises to transform organizations by fundamentally altering their core processes, thereby achieving radical improvements in performance. As the number of actual re‐engineering projects increases, the rhetoric surrounding BPR has shifted to reflect greater cynicism and discomfort over its claims. In the absence of compelling and trustworthy evidence about the success of BPR projects, critics have exposed logical contradictions within BPR's "manifesto" for revolutionary change and insinuated that BPR's utopian rhetoric masks political motives. This paper contributes to this discussion in three ways. First we examine two difficulties affecting the evaluation of BPR programmes: defining what process re‐engineering really is, and determining whether BPR has been applied successfully. Second, we examine four fundamental contradictions inherent in BPR's analysis of organizations: the fallacy of its "clean‐slate" assumption, the paradox of information technology's role as an enabler of organizational change, the hypocrisy of employee empowerment, and the irony of employee commitment. Third we propose that such contradictions be addressed in both research and practice by employing theoretical perspectives that are prepared to accommodate contradictory phenomena, in contrast to the simplistic, deterministic logic guiding current investigations of BPR's effectiveness. We suggest theories of organizational learning and organizational politics to understand and resolve the contradictions embedded within BPR.

ABSTRACTThis study investigates organizational factors related to user involvement in information system development and perceived system usefulness. Using a sample of 118 usermanagers in 34 companies, the results show that user involvement in design and implementation is related positively to users' perceptions of system usefulness. However, organizational factors were not found to be related significantly to user involvement, as had been originally hypothesized. Rather, organizational factors either had a direct relationship with perceived usefulness or moderated the relationship between involvement and usefulness. Two factors reflecting an MIS department's maturity (size and age) were found to reduce users' perceptions of system usefulness. Also, users at higher levels and those making more structured decisions found their systems more useful, although the user's level was found to moderate perceptions of system usefulness during the design stage. Three other organizational factors (level of MIS manager, MIS department scope, and decentralization of authority) also were found to have moderating effects.