لطفا منتظر باشید ...
6.5 Recommendations for Process Research and Practice
As I have argued above, in the study of ICT use and organizations, it seems reasonable to adopt a process perspective. When investigating the many organizational problems that have an ICT component, I have five recommendations to offer as are outlined below for incorporating processes in ICT research and practice.
6.5.1 Develop Richer Process Analysis and Design Techniques
Researchers need to develop richer process analysis and design techniques. Analyses of processes must include the flow of resources, the dependencies created by these flows, and how these dependencies are managed (Crowston and Osborn 1998), and not just focus on the sequence of activities. Researchers in these areas might consider how their instruments can be adapted for broader use.
A diffcult challenge is developing a meta-theory for processes comparable to the well-defined and well-understood set of terms and concepts for variance theories (e.g., 'construct', 'variable', 'proposition', 'hypothesis', 'variance', and 'error') and statistical tools for expressing and testing hypotheses. The framework developed in this chapter is but a small first step toward such a meta-theory.
6.5.2 Use Processes as a Unit of Analysis
Organizational theorists have found it problematic to develop generalizations that hold for entire organizations, reflecting the diversity of activities and micro-climates found in most modern organizations. Mohr (1982) describes organizational structure as ''multi-dimensional—too inclusive to have constant meaning and therefore to serve as a good theoretical construct.''Processes provide a useful level of analyses to narrow the study of organizational form (Mohr 1982; Abbott 1992). As Crowston (1997) states, ''to understand how General Motors and Ford are alike or different, researchers might compare their automobile design processes or even more specific subprocesses''(p. 158). Within this finer focus, it may be possible to reach more meaningful conclusions about a range of theoretical concerns (Price and Mueller 1986).For example, March and Sutton (1997) note the diffculties in studying antecedents of organizational performance due to the instability of this construct. However, it may be meaningful to consider performance at the level of a process. Similarly it is probably not meaningful to measure the level of centralization or decentralization of an entire organization (Price and Mueller 1986), but such measures may be appropriate and meaningful within the context of a single process.
6.5.3 Develop the Theory of Organizational Processes
More research is necessary to properly establish processes and the various constraints on process assembly as valid theoretical constructs. For example, research methods need to be developed or adapted to operationalize activities, resource flows, and dependencies and to validate models built around these constructs. Likewise research is needed to characterize the range of possible dependencies and the variety of coordination mechanisms possible and, in general, to document the assembly rules used in organizations. Work already done on work design and agency needs to be adapted to the general process perspective. Most important, research is needed to characterize the trade-offs between different mechanisms. Ultimately such work may allow some degree of prediction of the performance of a selected configuration of activities.
6.5.4 Expand to Richer Contexts
Consideration of organizational processes has been used primarily in an applied fashion, and as a result its use has mostly been restricted to processes in companies, often with the intent of designing a more effcient process, employing fewer workers. Certainly this is not the only or even most interesting application of these ideas. The use of organizational process analysis should be expanded to more complex contexts.
6.5.5 Use Multiple Theories
Cannella and Paetzold (1994) argued that use of multiple theories is a strength of organizational science. Following their argument, I recommend the use of a process perspective with complementary theories, resulting in a multi-level and multi-paradigm understanding of the organization. One example of this approach is an ongoing study of the use of ICT in the real estate industry (Crowston et al. 1999; Crowston and Wigand 1999; Sawyer et al. 1999). To accomplish the objectives of this research, researchers have synthesized several theoretic perspectives to integrate findings from multiple levels of data collection. Specifically, at the individual level, they have drawn on theories of work redesign and social capital. At the organizational and industrial levels, they have applied transaction cost and coordination theory.
