Describe the major behavioral theories that help explain how information systems affect organizations?

Answer 1

Decision and control theory states that the function of the organization is to make decisions under conditions of uncertainty and risk and under the constraint of bounded rationality. The theory holds that managers never have complete information and knowledge, and they can never examine all alternatives even though they would like to. Organizations are decision-making structures, arranged so as to reduce uncertainty and to ensure survival. Organizations must centralize decision making because they have the information needed to make decisions. Middle management is necessary to gather information, analyze it and pass it up to senior managers. Information technology could change this rigid structure by lowering the costs of information acquisition and broadening the distribution of information. IT could bring information directly from operating units to senior managers, thereby eliminating middle mangers and their clerical support workers and centralizing decision making further. Alternatively, IT could distribute information to lower-level workers who could then make their own decisions based on their own knowledge and information without management intervention.

Sociological theoryfocuses on the growth of hierarchical, bureaucratic structures and standard operating procedures as primary coping tools for organizations trying to cope in unstable environments. Organizations hone and refine SOPs until they become extremely efficient. However, organizations find it nearly impossible to change routines when their environment changes. This theory states that information technology has little independent power to transform organizations. Managers are always looking for better ways to implement existing rules and SOPs but will reject IT if it threatens existing routines or subunits. Over time, IT becomes just another hard-to-change SOP. From this perspective, people and organizations control the impact of systems in their own interests. Change will come about because new organizations form around new technologies, and they are able to incorporate the new technologies in their SOPs.

Post-industrial theory states that advanced industrial countries have entered a new kind of post-industrial economy where the service sector dominates and industrial manufacturing is shifted to low-wage countries. According to this theory, the transformation to a post-industrial society results in authority relying more on knowledge and competence and less on mere formal position. Organizations will flatten because professional workers tend to be self-managing. Decision making should become more decentralized as knowledge and information become more widespread. Information technology should lead to "task force" networked organizations in which groups of professionals come together (face-to-face or electronically) for short periods of time to accomplish a specific task. Managers are reduced. Organizations will look more like adhocracies. Under this scenario, the work will be business process oriented and IT will contribute to these processes by automating parts of them and making them more efficient.

Cultural theoriesargue that IT must fit into the organization's culture or they are unlikely to be adopted. Organizations work within basic assumptions that are rarely challenged. Culture only really changes when organizations supporting them die off or when radical fringe groups gain control and shift cultural assumptions. IT can either threaten or support organizational culture.

Political theoriesdivide organizations into specialized subgroups (e.g. marketing, accounting, production). These groups have different values, and they compete for resources, producing competition and conflict. Information systems are the outcome of political competition between organizational subgroups for influence over the policies, procedures and resources of the organization. IT is bound up with organizational politics because it influences access to information which is a key resource in the political competition.

Answer 2

Social influence theory posits that individuals' attitudes and behaviors are influenced by their social environment, impacting how they interact with information systems. Task-technology fit theory highlights the importance of aligning technology with tasks to enhance user performance and satisfaction. The technology acceptance model explains how individuals' attitudes and perceptions influence their acceptance and use of new technologies within organizations.