The institutional character of computerized information systems

We examine how important social and technical choices become part of the history of a computer-based information system (CB/SJ and embedded in the social structure which supports its development and use. These elements of a CBIS can be organized in specific ways to enhance its usability and performance. Paradoxically, they can also constrain future implementations and post-implementations.We argue that CBIS developed from complex, interdependent social and technical choices should be conceptualized in terms of their institutional characteristics, as well as their information-processing characteristics. The social system which supports the development and operation of a CBIS is one major element whose institutional characteristics can effectively support routine activities while impeding substantial innovation. Characterizing CBIS as institutions is important for several reasons: (1) the usability of CBIS is more critical than the abstract information-processing capabilities of the underlying technology; (2) CBIS that are well-used and have stable social structures are more difficult to replace than those with less developed social structures and fewer participants; (3) CBIS vary from one social setting to another according to the ways in which they are organized and embedded in organized social systems. These ideas are illustrated with the case study of a failed attempt to convert a complex inventory control system in a medium-sized manufacturing firm

Theoretical perspective in social analyses of computerization : an addendum

Since I wrote "Social Analysis of Computing" in 1979, more than 200 scholarly books and articles and several literature surveys have been published about the social dimensions of computerization. In addition, there have been interesting empirical and theoretical studies published in Danish, French, German, Italian, and Norwegian, among other languages. This addendum serves as a brief guide to some of this newer literature

Computerization and social transformations

This paper examines the relationship between the use of computer-based systems and transformations in parts of the social order. Answers to this question rest heavily on the way computer-based systems are consumed - not just produced or disseminated. The discourse about computerization advanced in many professional magazines and the mass media is saturated with talks about "revolution" - and yet, substantial social changes are often difficult to identify in carefully designed empirical studies. The paper examines qualitative case studies of computerization in welfare agencies, urban planning, accounting, marketing, and manufacturing to examine the ways that computerization alters social life in varied ways: sometimes restructuring relationships and reinforcing social relationships in other cases. The paper also examines some of the theoretical issues in studies of computerization, such as drawing boundaries. And it concludes with some observations about the sociology of computer science as an academic discipline.This paper is based on a keynote address for the annual conference of the Society for the Social Studies of Science in November, 1989

The dynamics of computerization in a social science research team : a case study of infrastructure, strategies, and skills

This paper examines the dynamics of Computerization in a PC-oriented research group through a case study. The time and skill in integrating computing into the labor processes of research are often significant "hidden costs" of computerization. Computing infrastructure plays a key role in reducing these costs may be enhanced by careful organization. We illustrate computerization strategies that we have found to be productive and unproductive. Appropriate computerization strategies depend as much on the structuring of resources and interests in the larger social setting, as on a technical characterization of tasks

More information, better jobs? : occupational stratification and labor market segmentation in the United States' information labor force

This article examines the mix of good and bad jobs in the restructuring of United States' labor markets for information work between 1900 and 1980. ls the information sector still growing relative to other occupational sectors? What is the relative proportion of good to bad jobs in the information sector today? ls the mix of good bad jobs within the information sector changing over time? To answer these questions, we examine changes in the relative size of the information sector's labor markers and changes in five occupational strata within it - professional, semiprofessional, supervisory and upper-level sales personnel, clerks, and blue-collar workers.The information occupations mushroomed in size from 17% of the United States workforce in 1900 to over 50% in 1980. Information sector jobs vary widely in quality. Few information sector jobs are fully professional, and clerical jobs form the largest single occupational stratum. When we examined the growth of the various strata between 1900 and 1980, we found that clerical jobs became more dominant, not less dominant. But this distribution has been masked by the steady growth of information sector jobs in the highly professional and semiprofessional strata, as well as clerical jobs. The occupational stratum between clerks and semiprofessionals - the supervisory and upper-level sales workers - has steadily declined in relative size.Two lower strata - clerks and sales and supervisory workers - account for 55% of the jobs in the information sector. Our data suggest that information labor markets are divided into relatively impermeable segments. As the information sector expanded, it took on many characteristics of the overall economy. It includes a mix of jobs that are diverse in their pay, status, and power. Its internal divisions reflect patterns of segmentation that have developed elsewhere in the society - a dual labor market. Overall, the information sector has become sufficiently large that it is not an alternative to the dominant social order - it simply reproduces many of its features

Reading "all about" computerization: five common genres of social analysis

This paper examines unstated, but critical, social assumptions which underlie analyses of computerization. It focuses on the popular, professional and scholarly literature which claims to describe the actual nature of computerization, the character of computer use, and the social choices and changes that result from computerization. This literature can be usefully segmented five ideal type genres: utopian, anti-utopian, social realism, social theory, and analytical reduction. Each genre is characterized and illustrated. The strengths and weaknesses of each genre are described. In the 1990s, there will be a large market for social analyses of computerization. Utopian analyses are most likely to domínate the popular and professional discourse. The empirically oriented accounts of social realism, social theory and analytical reduction, are likely to be much less common and also less commonly seen and read by computer professionals and policymakers. These genres are relatively subtle, portray a more ambiguous world, and have less rhetorical power to capture the imagination of readers. Even though they are more scientific, these empirically anchored genres don't seem to appeal to many scientists and engineers. It is ironic that computing -- often portrayed as an instrument of knowledge -- is primarily the subject of discourses whose knowledge claims are most suspect. Conversely, the discourses whose claims as valid knowledge are strongest seems to have much less appeal in the mass media and technological communities

Visions of IT: The Implementation of IT-Enabled Organizational Change

What commonly held visions do planners have about the strategic use of IT for organizational transformation? Pursuit of this question was prompted by a research gap between planned organizational change and the often unsuccessful ways in which IT has been used to implement change. A longitudinal ethnographic study of two organizations has revealed a contrast betweenthe perceptions of change architects and IT users regarding IT-based change initiatives. Our findings reveal that IT-based organizational change initiatives can run into trouble at implementation from the peripheral treatment given work in strategic vision

Scholarly Communication and the Continuum of Electronic Publishing

Electronic publishing opportunities, manifested today in a variety of electronic journals and Web-based compendia, have captured the imagination of many scholars. These opportunities have also destabilized norms about the character of legitimate scholarly publishing in some fields. Unfortunately, much of the literature about scholarly e-publishing homogenizes the character of publishing. This article provides an analytical approach for evaluating disciplinary conventions and for proposing policies about scholarly e-publishing. We characterize three dimensions of scholarly publishing as a communicative practice -- publicity, access, and trustworthiness, and examine several forms of paper and electronic publications in this framework. This analysis shows how the common claim that e-publishing "substantially expands access" is over-simplified. It also indicates how peer-reviewing (whether in paper or electronically) provides valuable functions for scholarly communication that are not effectively replaced by self-posting articles in electronic media.Comment: 35 page

Digital Shift or Digital Drift? Dilemmas of Managing Digital Library Resources in North American Universities

Many IT specialists take for granted the shift from paper to electronic documents as part of a digital revolution. National indicators of the growth of network usage support shifts to digital documents such as exponential increases in the number of Internet hosts, the number of electronic mail addresses and the number of World Wide Web sites. However, in our empirical studies we have found that academic administrators base their decisions on local indicators of demand such as the number of people who depend upon World Wide Web for their work, the demand for electronic mail accounts and number of information retrieval requests from bibliographic databases. Because university budgets are flat relative to inflation and the university management of information resources is dispersed at many levels, they are investing in a way that indicates a drift toward use of digital materials. Can whole industries drift into major IS investments without coherent strategies? Such a pattern is anathema in the literature about information systems as purposive strategic investments (Morton,1991). Even those who criticize the ways that organizations computerize tend to assume managerial rationality --albeit around values that they criticize (see, for example, Zuboff (1988) on automating versus informating). There has been an interesting setof studies of the ways that managerial rationality may backfire, and information systems may not be developed or used as intended (i.e., Zuboff, 1988; Kling and Iacono, 1989; Orlikowski, 1993). One interesting alternative to managerial rationality is bureaucratic drift, in which organizations (or clusters of them) develop tacit large-scale policies through balkanized management and managers playing semi- coordinated short-term games in their organizational turf (See Allison, 1971; Kling and Iacono, 1984). We know of no industry-scale studies that examine alternatives to managerial rationalism as the dominant logic behind IS developments. This study examines the organizational processes that are driving a specific form of computerization in a specific industry: the increasing investments in digital libraries in North American research universities. Our research questions include: How are university administrators making budgeting and policy decisions about information technology access for research? What are their choices? How do they pose outcomes? We do not claim that this industry or family of information systems typifies other industries. But the major research universities are highly competitive in some key terms: in attracting and retaining productivefaculty and promising students, in justifying fees (tuition) to parents and state legislatures, and in attracting research grants and gifts from public agencies, corporate donors, foundations, and individuals