FREE online courses on Information Technology - Chapter 3 THE IMPACT OF
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY - IMPACT ON ORGANIZATION STRUCTURE
Information system exist in the context of an organization;
they do not operate in isolation. There are a number of definitions of
organizations. For our purposes, an
organization
is a rational coordination of activities of a group of people for the
purpose of achieving some goal. The activities of the group of people are
coordinated; that is, there is a joint effort. In most organizations some
division of labor and a hierarchy of authority provide for the rational
coordination of activities. The definition also includes the goals of the
organization; there are many different types of organizations with different
kinds of goals.
The formal organization is what appears on the organization
chart, usually with well-defined reporting relationships among managers and
workers that describe its structure. Social organizations, on the other hand,
are patterns of coordination that arise spontaneously from the interaction for a
group. Social organizations have no rational coordination and generally lack
explicit goals.
The informal organization is the pattern of relations and
coordination among members of the formal organization that is not specified on a
formal chart. It represents social interaction and is a more realistic portrayal
of the formal organization, because it reflects how people actually interact.
For example, a group of workers may form an informal task force using electronic
mail or conferencing systems on a computer network this task force cuts across
traditional organizational boundaries and constitutes a temporary, informal
organization.
We must be careful to avoid designing information systems
that follow unrealistic standards and procedures. We may find that these
prescribed rules are not actually followed and that our system is unworkable
because we have adhered too closely to formal organizational considerations. It
is hard to observe and describe the informal organization as it depends on the
personalities of specific individuals and patterns of behavior that have
developed over time.
