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Silos, mousetraps, and islands. a chronicle of information systems in organizations. objectives. develop sense of context for: organizations information technology information systems describe some of advances and failures of the old context. why organize?. division of labor
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Silos, mousetraps, and islands a chronicle of information systems in organizations
objectives • develop sense of context for: • organizations • information technology • information systems • describe some of advances and failures of the old context
why organize? • division of labor • manage complexity • achieve mastery • reduce switching costs • reduce training costs • increase scalability
and increased need for control resulting in task specialization specialization & control A single, unified task… …naturally divides into subtasks
coordinating mechanisms • mutual adjustment • direct supervision • standardization of tasks • standardization of outputs • standardization of skills Mintzberg, 1979
3 PEOPLE = 3 CHANNELS 6 PEOPLE = 6 CHANNELS??? 6 PEOPLE = 15 CHANNELS 12 PEOPLE = ???
strategic apex middle line techno- structure support staff operating core Mintzberg’s form
failure to integrate • focus on task and individual over process and team • grouping by function discourages • lacks built-in mechanism for coordinating process flows • coordination problems rise to level to far from origin • loss of big picture; overall performance hard to track
Moore’s Law 1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 500 Merced 10M mips transistors 1M Pentium 25 80486 100K 1.0 80386 80286 10K 0.1 8086 8080 4004
generations • 1st – vacuum tubes • 2nd – transistors • 3rd – integrated circuits • 4th – large-scale integration
failure to communicate • connectivity is more than technical issue • organizational inertia and legacy systems • standards cut both ways • responsiveness is remote
connectivity / responsiveness responsiveness / usability mainframe PC / LAN Internet
IS management eras • Era I – the glass house; regulated monopoly; focus on efficiency & productivity • Era II – proliferation of PCs; free market; focus on individual & group effectiveness • Era III – network is computer; ubiquity; focus on integration & value creation Applegate et al, 1999
classification of IS strategic apex executive IS decision support middle line geographic IS techno- structure support staff artificial intelligence factory automation (CIM) operating core transaction processing
failure to allocate • imbalance in distribution: centralize/decentralize • duplication of data in functional IS • technical divide
summary • developed sense of context for: • organizations • information technology • information systems • described some of advances and failures of the old context