Strategic Organizational Diagnosis and Design: The Dynamics of Fit (Information and Organization Design Series)

Book Description

There are two very contrasting approaches to reading this book and learning about organizational design. The more traditional approach is to read the book, and then use the OrgCon on cases and applications. The second approach is to begin with the OrgCon software and only examine the book as you find it helpful. Which approach is better? It is your choice, not ours. In our experience, students in organizational design prefer to start with the OrgCon and a case, rather than with the book itself. Readers who have more background in organization theory and design usually examine the book first.

There are numerous changes in the third edition. The literature review in each chapter has been updated. The information processing approach is strengthened and applied more comprehensively as the theoretical underpinnings. Throughout we have rewritten the text beyond normal editing in an attempt to make the presentation clearer and easier to read.

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In praise of paper?
What the UK media say

The Myth of the Paperless Office
Abigail J. Sellen , and Richard H. R. Harper
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 026269283X

Book Description

Over the past thirty years, many people have proclaimed the imminent arrival of the paperless office. Yet even the World Wide Web, which allows almost any computer to read and display another computer’s documents, has increased the amount of printing done. The use of e-mail in an organization causes an average 40 percent increase in paper consumption. In The Myth of the Paperless Office, Abigail Sellen and Richard Harper use the study of paper as a way to understand the work that people do and the reasons they do it the way they do. Using the tools of ethnography and cognitive psychology, they look at paper use from the level of the individual up to that of organizational culture.

Central to Sellen and Harper’s investigation is the concept of "affordances"--the activities that an object allows, or affords. The physical properties of paper (its being thin, light, porous, opaque, and flexible) afford the human actions of grasping, carrying, folding, writing, and so on. The concept of affordance allows them to compare the affordances of paper with those of existing digital devices. They can then ask what kinds of devices or systems would make new kinds of activities possible or better support current activities. The authors argue that paper will continue to play an important role in office life. Rather than pursue the ideal of the paperless office, we should work toward a future in which paper and electronic document tools work in concert and organizational processes make optimal use of both.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful Service.......2007-06-13

I received the "The Myth of the Paperless Office" book within a few days of ordering it. It was in perfect condition just as it was stated on the promo.

In praise of paper?.......2004-03-13

There are copious amounts of research on how people interact with computers or machines. However, there is very little research on all the hidden features of paper. "The Myth of the Paperless Office" brings attention to how office workers actually organize their information needs. In many ways, it's probably a pioneering work in computer usability, even though it doesn't specifically deal with computers, but rather anthropological research on the use of paper in organisations.

This book can be very useful for anyone. Especially for designers of computer systems that wonder why people still stick to yellow labels and printouts, even its technically "inefficient", compared to a digital solution. Its also recommended reading for bosses that plan to implement a "clean desk policy", or employees that are wondering how to get around clutter on their desks.

For an excellent review of the book, read the article "In praise of clutter" from The Economist Magazine (Dec 19th 2002)

What the UK media say.......2001-12-04

New Scientist, 10 November, 2001
This is a book that all managers should read...It explodes the paperless myth, and highlights the strengths and weakenesses of electronic paper-based systems.

Book Description

The vision of the MIT Process Handbook Project is the creation of a systematic and powerful method of organizing and sharing business knowledge. Organizing Business Knowledge: The MIT Process Handbook presents the key findings of a multidisciplinary research group at MIT’s Sloan School of Management that has worked for over a decade to lay the foundation for just such a comprehensive system. It does so by focusing on the process itself. The book proposes a set of fundamental concepts to guide analysis and a classification framework for organizing knowledge, and describes the publicly available online knowledge base developed by the project, which includes a set of representative templates and specific case examples as well as a set of software tools for organizing and sharing knowledge.

Organizing Business Knowledge: The MIT Process Handbook includes twenty-one papers, some previously published and some appearing for the first time, that have come out of this decade-long project. Together, they form a comprehensive and coherent vision of the future of knowledge organization. The Handbook is organized into five parts: an introduction and overview; the presentation of a theory of process representation; "Contents of the Process Repository"; "Process Repository Uses," which gives examples from both research and practice; and a conclusion, which maps the progress so far and the challenges ahead.

Information Foraging Theory: Adaptive Interaction with Information (Oxford Series in Human-Technology Interaction)

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Information Foraging Theory: Adaptive Interaction with Information (Oxford Series in Human-Technology Interaction)
Peter L. T. Pirolli
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design

ASIN: 0195173325

Book Description

Although much of the hubris and hyperbole surrounding the 1990's Internet has softened to a reasonable level, the inexorable momentum of information growth continues unabated. This wealth of information provides resources for adapting to the problems posed by our increasingly complex world, but the simple availability of more information does not guarantee its successful transformation into valuable knowledge that shapes, guides, and improves our activity. When faced with something like the analysis of sense-making behavior on the web, traditional research models tell us a lot about learning and performance with browser operations, but very little about how people will actively navigate and search through information structures, what information they will choose to consume, and what conceptual models they will induce about the landscape of cyberspace. Thus, it is fortunate that a new field of research, Adaptive Information Interaction (AII), is becoming possible. AII centers on the problems of understanding and improving human-information interaction. It is about how people will best shape themselves to their information environments, and how information environments can best be shaped to people. Its roots lie in human-computer interaction (HCI), information retrieval, and the behavioral and social sciences. This book is about Information Foraging Theory (IFT), a new theory in Adaptive Information Interaction that is one example of a recent flourish of theories in adaptationist psychology that draw upon evolutionary-ecological theory in biology. IFT assumes that people (indeed, all organisms) are ecologically rational, and that human information-seeking mechanisms and strategies adapt the structure of the information environments in which they operate. Its main aim is to create technology that is better shaped to users. Information Foraging Theory will be of interest to student and professional researchers in HCI and cognitive psychology.

The New Handbook of Organizational Communication: Advances in Theory, Research, and Methods

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Mediocrity at its best

The New Handbook of Organizational Communication: Advances in Theory, Research, and Methods
Frederic M Jablin , and Linda L. Putnam
Manufacturer: Sage Publications, Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Handbook of Organizational Communication: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

ASIN: 0803955030

Book Description

Organizational communication as a discipline has grown tremendously over the latter part of the century, but accompanying that growth has been a struggle to establish a clear identity for the field. The ongoing evolution of complex organizations in an equally complex global environment has scholars continuing to define and redefine the focus, the boundaries, and the future of the field. The New Handbook of Organizational Communication is a landmark volume that weaves together the various threads of this interdisciplinary area of scholarship.

Customer Reviews:

Thumbs Up!.......2002-09-16

This book provides a solid overview of Organizational Communication from a scholarly perspective. The authors do an excellenct job of identifying and elaborating on key issues, elaborating on related inquiry and elaborating on future considerations for the field.

Mediocrity at its best.......2002-09-12

This book characterizes much of what is wrong with the current way in which text-books are pumped out by authors/academics/publishers to serve as a new yet ultimately qualitatively useless addition to the heap of knowledge in any given field. It is not that the topics presented here are useless, meaningless or anything of the sort, it is simply that the mediocrity with which they are written about and presented to the reader- supposedly a student attempting to learn about these subjects- is apparant on nearly every page.
If the mark of someone who truly understands their field of study is their ability to clearly and easily convey and teach it to others, than many of the contributors to this book do not truly understand their field, certainly not to the extent that they should when being held up as the fore front of their academic field. Read or Buy if you must, but turn to others sources for a better reading and learning experience.

Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice

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Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice
Kimiz Dalkir
Manufacturer: Butterworth-Heinemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Knowledge Management (The Complete Idiot's Guide)

ASIN: 075067864X
Release Date: 2005-06-16

Book Description

As knowledge management becomes embedded within organizations it becomes more important for students to understand its principles and applications. In this textbook, Dr. Kimiz Dalkir provides a comprehensive overview of the field on knowledge management with an emphasis on translating theory into practice. Working from a multidisciplinary perspective, Dr. Dalkir weaves key concepts, tools, and techniques from sociology, cognitive science, content management, knowledge engineering, cybernetics, organizational behaviour, change management, and information science into a three-level approach to understand Knowledge Management from the individual, community, and organization levels. Using everyday language and clear illustrations, Dr. Dalkir integrates theory and practice in a highly accessible manner to provide students with a comprehensive and practical knowledge management skill set.

Case Studies from:
IBM, Xerox, Siemans, Ericsson Canada, ICL, Thomas and Betts, Chevron/Texaco, British Petroleum, CIDA, Hughes Space and Communications, SUN, British Telecommunications, J.P. Morgan Chase, Buckman Labs
, Nokia, GE, Viant, Xerox, Sigma, Hill and Knowlton
, Teamware, U.A. Army, British Petroleum, Price Waterhous Coopers, Lybrand, KPMG, Mercedes-Benz
, Monsanto, Northrup Grumman, Ford Motor Company, Accenture, Dell, Siemans Medical Systems

*Highly practical treatment that links knowledge management, content management and information management seamlessly throughout the book
*Author has over ten years' experience in knowledge management/content management/information management in the corporate world
*First textbook by a knowledge management professor

Cognitive Mapping: Past, Present and Future (Routledge Frontiers of Cognitive Science, Volume 4)

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Cognitive Mapping: Past, Present and Future (Routledge Frontiers of Cognitive Science, Volume 4)
Rob Kitchin
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 0415208068

Book Description

This important work brings together international academics from a variety of disciplines to explore the topic of spatial cognition on a 'geographic' scale. It provides an overview of the historical origins of the subject, a description of current debates and suggests directions for future research.

Complex Responsive Processes in Organizations: Learning and Knowledge Creation (Complexity and Emergence in Organizations)

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Explains novelty in organizations

Complex Responsive Processes in Organizations: Learning and Knowledge Creation (Complexity and Emergence in Organizations)
Ralph Stacey
Manufacturer: Routledge
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Binding: Paperback

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The Emergence of Leadership: Linking Self-organization and Ethics (Complexity and Emergence in Organisations)
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ASIN: 0415249198

Book Description

This work demonstrates how the 'knowledge economy' can be seen in a new light when considered from a complexity perspective. It stresses the imporance of relationships as a source of - and influence on - information and knowledge creation.

Customer Reviews:

Explains novelty in organizations.......2007-01-09

First, this is the second book in a series edited by edited by Stacey, Griffin, and Patricia Shaw from the Complexity and Management Centre, University of Hertfordshire
* Complexity and Management - Fad or Radical Challenge to Systems Thinking (2000) - Stacey, Griffin, Shaw
* Complex Responsive Processes in Organizations - Learning and Knowledge Creation (2001) - Stacey
* Changing Conversations in Organizations: A Complexity Approach to Change (2002) - Shaw
* The Emergence of Leadership (2002) - Griffin
* Complexity and Innovation in Organizations (2002) - Fonseca
* The Paradox of Control in Organizations (2001) -- Streatfield
The series intention is to develop thinking about organizations as Complex Processes of relating vs. as systems. In doing this, the authors clearly expose the failure of mainstream management thinking to explain strategic and organizational phenomena. In place of systemic (mainstream) thinking, are insights gained from complexity science that have been developed into the complex responsive process perspective. This perspective does descriptively address strategic and organizational phenomena and serves as a basis for prescriptive actions. See my review of Complexity and Management.

Second, as with the first book in the series, this is not a book to be "read", it is a book to be "studied." It delves deeply into learning and knowledge creation, the creation of knowledge being the creation of novelty. The radically different views of knowledge between cognitive and behavioral psychology is illuminating.

Stacey offers philosophical, neuroscience, and social science support for the legitimacy of the complex responsive process perspective over the mainstream management thinking. The book is, for the most part, descriptive. There is a comprehensive comparison of the systems thinking and complex responsive process perspectives in the ninth chapter based on what's in the first two books in the series. The tenth and last chapter outlines what the prescriptions might look like. These prescriptions are in the next four books in the series.

The core of this book hones in on learning and knowledge creation, knowledge creation being essential to organization innovation and evolution. The first section deals with the systems thinking perspective. There is a strong case made for the inability of that perspective to explain knowledge creation as well as some insidious aspects of management based on this perspective. The next section provides a comprehensive and robust explanation of the emergence of knowledge from the complex responsive processes of relating.

As in the first book, the content, issues addressed, the perspectives developed are worthy of more than a five star rating. And again, given the newness and challenging nature of the content, the repetition, or repetitive summaries, throughout the book were welcome. The reason for rating it four stars is due to the need to study it so intently in order to gain the understanding of what the author has to tell us. As in the first book in the series, more and better frameworks could have been provided for the information delivered. Given my intense interest in the subject, I developed several of my own frameworks to organize the content in order to gain greater benefit from the information provided.

Theories of Management: Implications for Organizational Behavior and Development (Management Series)

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Theories of Management: Implications for Organizational Behavior and Development (Management Series)
Raymond E. Miles
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Companies
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0070419272

Reasons and Rationalizations: The Limits to Organizational Knowledge

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A Good Read!

Reasons and Rationalizations: The Limits to Organizational Knowledge
Chris Argyris
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness (Jossey Bass Higher and Adult Education Series)

ASIN: 0199286825

Book Description

What is the purpose of social science and management research? Do scholars/researchers have a responsibility to generate insights and knowledge that are of practical (implementable) value and validity? We are told we live in turbulent and changing times, should this not provide an important opportunity for management researchers to provide understanding and guidance? Yet there is widespread concern about the efficacy of much research: These are some of the puzzles that Chris Argyris addresses in this short book. Argyris is one of the best known management scholars in the world - a leading light whose work has consistently addressed fundamental organizational questions, and who has provided some of the key concepts and building blocks of our understanding of organizational learning - single and double learning, theory in use, and espoused theory etc. In this book he questions many of the assumptions of organizational theory and research, and his investigation is not confined to academic analysis. He also scrutinizes that capacity for 'unproductive reasoning' (self-deception and rationalization) that is common amongst managers, consultants, and indeed more generally. As well as engaging with the work of leading organizational researchers (Sennett, Gabriel, Burgelman, Czarniawska, Grint, for example)he also ponders the work of the consultants, commentators, and accountants who endorsed Enron. Throughout his purpose is to affirm the goal and values of useful knowledge. His style is direct but fair, challenging, if at times uncompromising. Drawing on his own wealth of experience of researching and working with organizations, this book will be a reference point for all concerned to develop useful knowledge and confront the defences and deceptions that are only too commonplace in the business and academic worlds.

Customer Reviews:

A Good Read!.......2005-09-27

Management scholar Chris Argyris tackles an important problem: the pervasiveness of defensive reasoning that prevents people in organizations from understanding when and why they are skillfully incompetent. Unfortunately, he employs such an academic style that his arguments are primarily useful to fellow scholars, although they would be relevant to managers if they were offered more accessibly. The professor assumes that readers are familiar with social science literature, processes, issues and vocabulary. For those who seek solutions to the organizational problem of defensive reasoning, he offers enlightening explanatory theories, but not much practical advice. That said, it is comforting to note that someone has looked seriously at the disconnection between what executives say and what they do. Argyris catalogues the dimensions of this dysfunction and proposes - although not very concretely - that it may be open to some correction, perhaps through such tools as double-loop learning and "left hand/right hand" analysis. We suggest this book to experts in organizational behavior, corporate culture and issues in scholarship about management.

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