Email, intranets, voice over internet protocol (VoIP), and web-based applications that manage everything from enterprise resource planning to the supply chain have made communication across and between organizations nearly seamless. This has inevitably affected the way organizations are structured. There has been a steady move away from top-down hierarchical structures toward flat, decentralized, virtual organizations with units that maintain an increasing measure of independence from direct central control.
Two articles in your reading this week, one by Hitt and Brynjolfsson and the other by Lucas and Baroudi, offer different, yet complementary, analyses of the impact of technology on organizational structures. The former presents an empirical study supporting the idea that information technology necessarily drives firms to decentralize authority within the organization, while the latter concludes that IT design and organizational design are inextricably linked.
Your task is to read the case study “The Effect of Technological Innovation on Organizational Structure: Two Case Studies of the Effects of the Introduction of a New Technology on Informal Organizational Structures” and, applying the research in your readings this week, write an essay that addresses the following questions:
- What specific challenges faced each of the universities relating to the new technology?
- What type of strategic responses did the universities attempt to implement in response, and which ones led to greater success?
- Do you think social action theory is a useful framework for understanding the relative success or failure of each of these universities?
- Considering that universities are often very traditional in structure and have remained relatively unchanged compared to other types of organizations, what are the implications of this case study for organizations that are less bound by tradition?
- To what degree does this case study confirm or deny the research presented in this week’s journal articles?
Your paper should comprise 3–5 pages in APA format.
Sor, R. (2004). Information technology and organisational structure: Vindicating theories from the past. Management Decision, 42(1/2). Retrieved from ABI/INFORM Global database.
Lucas, H.C., & Baroudi, J. (1994). The role of information technology in organization design. Journal of Management Information Systems, 10(4). Retrieved from Computers & Applied Sciences Complete database.
Hitt, L.M., & Brynjolfsson, E. (1997). Information technology and Internet firm organization: An exploratory analysis. Journal of Management Information Systems, 14. Retrieved from Computers & Applied Sciences Complete database.
