1. Lecture 6: IS and organisational architecture: people, culture, structure, and politics
Strategic
Management of
Information Systems

2. Roadmap Architecture and culture of organisation
Types of culture and related IS
Types of organisations
Preposition of Huber on IS impact on organisation
Information culture and its relationship with organisational and individual cultures
Political aspects in IS

3. Architecture of organisation
is a network of formal and informal „contracts“ or relationships.
Can be:
Internal - relationship with and among employees
External
Relationship with supplers or customers
Network of firms
Strategic alliances

4. Company history Leaders Symbols Stories The Power Paradigm Rituals &
Cultural web of organisation
Symbols
Stories
Company history
Leaders
The
Paradigm
Power
structure
Rituals &
Routines
Organisational
structure
Control
systems
National environment
Industry environment

5. Organisational culture perpectives J. Martin
Cultural perspective
Focus
Integration
Consistency between aspects of culture, consensus, clarity
Differentiation
Inconsistency between subcultures in different parts of the organisation
Fragmentation
Ambiguity – people interpret aspects of culture in an uncertain way, depending on the issue

6. Cultural types and related IS Cooper and Quinn
FLEXIBILITY
Human relations
Open systems
Computer-aided instructions
Interpersonal communicating
and conferencing
Group decision support
Environmental scanning and
filtering
Inter-orgnisational linking
INTERNAL
EXTERNAL
Internal monitoring
Internal controlling
Record keeping
Optimising
Modelling
Forecasting
Sensitivity analysis
Internal processes
ORDER
Rational goal

7. Types of organisation structures
Hierarchical
Flat
Matrix
Networked

8. Types of organisations
Mechanistic vs organic organisations (Slevin & Colvin, 1990)
Horizontal organisations (Ostrof & Smith, 1992)
Learning organisations

9. Roadblocks and obstacles to a new organisation (Lambert & Peppard)
Lost!!!
Required organisational form
Traditional assumptions
Inappropriate methodology
Inappropriate IT
Culture
Lack of clarity
Poor vision
Resistance to change
Poor understanding of what is involved
Politics
Existing organisational form

10. Prepositions by Huber
Use of IS in communication leads to larger number and variety of people participating in decision making.
Use of IS in communication and decision making leads to decrease in numPrepositions by Huberber and variety of members involved in face-to-face decision making.
Use of IS in communication and decision making results in less of the organisation‘s time beeing absorbed by decision-making meetings.

11. Prepositions by Huber (cont...)
A) For highly centralised organisation, use of IS in communication and decision making leads to more decentralisation.
B) For highly decentralised organisation, use of IS in communication and decision making leads to more centralisation.
Use of IS in communication and decision making leads to greater variation of the decisions made.
Use of IS in communication and decision making reduces the number of organisational levels involved in authorising proposed organiational actions.

12. Prepositions by Huber (cont...)
Use of IS in communication and information processing leads to fewer intermediate human nodes within the organisation‘s information processing network.
Availability of IS in communication and information processing leads to more frequent computer resident data bases as components of organisational memories.
Availability of more robust and user-friendly procedures for constructing expert systems leads to more frequent development and use of in-house expert systems as components of organisational memories.

13. Prepositions by Huber (cont...)
Availability of IS in communication and information processing leads to more rapid and accurate problem and opportunity identification.
Availability of IS in information storage and acquisition leads to more accurate, comprehensive, timely and available organisational intelligence.

14. Individual value of tacit knowledge Corporate Value of Tacit Knowledge
Knowledge management: Information culture matrix
High
Information
hoarding
Random
information
sharing
Selective
Full
Individual value of tacit knowledge
Low
Low
Corporate Value of Tacit Knowledge
High

15. Individual level culture Organisational level culture
Organisational, individual and information culture relationships
Normative
Pragmatic
Information culture
Information
hoarding
Random
information
sharing
Selective
Full
Closed communication
Individualistic
Results orientation
Individual level culture
Process orientation
Cooperative
Open communication
Individualistic
Collectivistic
Organisational level culture
Professional orientation
Parochical orientation
Job orientation
Employee orientation

16. Political aspects of IS
Power is the capacity of individuals to excert their will over others.
Bases of power:
Coercive
Reward
Administrative expertise
Technical expertise
Referent.

17. Organisational architecture (external context) and IS
Strategies for external business relationship:
Disintermediation
Remediation
Network-based mediation

18. Recommended reading
D.Boddy et al. Chapter 6
D. Galliers (edited), Part 4