Representing Organization: Knowledge, Management, and the Information Age

CONTENTS......Page 8
NOTES ON AUTHORS......Page 13
LIST OF INSERTS......Page 14
Information as if it mattered......Page 16
Using this book......Page 19
Who uses information systems?......Page 24
Technology and the labour process......Page 25
Changing the scale and scope of control......Page 28
Transforming work and informing management......Page 29
Automating the control of machine tools......Page 30
Creating management through information......Page 33
Summary......Page 34
Suggestions for further reading......Page 35
Introduction......Page 36
What is special about information technologies?......Page 37
Building the pyramids: The informational story of hierarchy......Page 38
Representing......Page 39
Representational environment and economy......Page 41
Representational techniques in practices......Page 42
Representational devices and power......Page 46
Summary......Page 47
Other useful sources include......Page 48
Introduction......Page 50
From system to System Theory......Page 51
Designed by whom? Or what?......Page 53
What is ‘in’ the system and what outside? Or, to put it another way, which parts are ‘system’ and which ‘environment’?......Page 54
Is a system a ‘thing’ or is ‘systems’ merely a way of looking at ‘things’?......Page 55
How do we define (or divine) the objective of a system? How do we know that it is the overall objective that we have happened upon?......Page 56
How do we distinguish between elements and process flows?......Page 57
What is system and what is element? Or what is system and what is subsystem? Where does the hierarchy end?......Page 58
Seeing the future......Page 59
How does modelling ‘work’?......Page 60
Summary......Page 63
Suggestions for further reading......Page 64
Key themes......Page 66
Different ‘screens’......Page 67
Managing refining......Page 68
From ‘managing imbalances’ to ‘exchanges and modal planning’......Page 73
An associology of translation?......Page 76
The translation process......Page 77
Defining and coordination roles: the process of enrolment......Page 80
Rotterdam refinery......Page 81
Mobilizing enrolled entities to act for the enunciator......Page 84
Summary......Page 85
Suggestions for further reading......Page 86
Introduction......Page 88
Re(-)presentation, mobility, and technology......Page 89
Enter the body......Page 90
The fold......Page 92
Gigantic simulation......Page 94
Summary and conclusion......Page 96
Suggestions for further reading......Page 97
Introduction......Page 98
Why new now?......Page 99
What’s new?......Page 100
Rhetorics of empowerment......Page 102
Systems for self-discipline......Page 103
Self-scanning?......Page 106
Helping oneself with a handset 1......Page 107
Maintaining control......Page 109
Helping oneself with a handset 2......Page 110
Summary......Page 113
Suggestions for further reading......Page 114
Being accountable......Page 116
The system builders......Page 118
Central focus......Page 119
The database......Page 120
The core application: modelling accountability......Page 121
Simultaneous simulation, understanding, and the translation of accountability......Page 124
Managing the benefits of OMS: the buck stops here......Page 127
Precedent, practice, and practicalities......Page 129
Summary and conclusion......Page 132
Discussion questions......Page 133
Suggestions for further reading......Page 134
Introduction......Page 136
Groupware: a new hope for organizational sociality......Page 137
Groupware in an organizational context......Page 139
Organizational memory or organizing memory......Page 142
Just talk?......Page 147
Discussion questions......Page 149
Suggestions for further reading......Page 150
Introduction......Page 152
Representation and the accomplishment of organization......Page 153
Symbols and materials......Page 154
Representing objectification in the information age......Page 155
A representational communication......Page 158
From context-embedded signification to abstract signification......Page 159
Connections, contextual knowledge, and oral language......Page 162
Summary......Page 163
Suggestions for further reading......Page 164
Introduction......Page 166
Data, information, knowledge......Page 167
Dealing with knowledge in KM......Page 169
From individual to collective knowledge......Page 170
Organizational learning......Page 171
What about organization?......Page 174
A philosophical bent......Page 176
A sociological bent......Page 179
And back to KM......Page 181
Discussion questions......Page 184
Suggestions for further reading......Page 185
Postscript......Page 186
NOTES......Page 188
BIBLIOGRAPHY......Page 196
F......Page 212
M......Page 213
W......Page 214
Z......Page 215
E......Page 216
N......Page 217
S......Page 218
Y......Page 219