Guest editorial: Integrating organizational and cognitive approaches towards computer-based systems

Abstract

There are two strong psychological research traditions concerned with improving our understanding of computerbased systems, one predominantly focused on organizational issues, the other on cognitive matters. The former incorporates a number of interconnected research topics, including socio-technical systems theory, labour process theory, the study of job demands and job design, and the more general literature examining the links between technology and organizational structures and processes. The latter has a more individualistic focus on research and development into the nature and quality of the interface and the interaction between human and compute r. Unfortunately these two traditions have operated almost independently of one another. Indeed, Clegg (1994) has argued that the organizational and cognitive approaches in this area are differentiated in a number of ways, including: the issues they address; the levels of analysis; the research styles and methods in use; the underlying research paradigms; the application domains; and the outputs. Nevertheless, there are some signs that the different communities can work more closely together. This special issue explores opportunities for integrating organizational and cognitive approaches to our understanding of the development and use of computer-based systems in organizations. The goals are to improve our understanding of practical situations and to develop our conceptua l and methodological tools. This special issue comprises seven papers. All the authors are applied psychologists concerned with developing a better understanding of the ways in which new computerbased systems are developed, implemented, used, evaluated and managed in organizations. They work in Germany, the Netherlands, the UK, and the USA. Their common focus is on the human and organizational aspects of new computer-based systems, though some also have a keen interest in more technical matters. Their concerns include human computer interaction, work organization and job design, organizational structures and processes, the management of change, the role of end users, and so on. All have a theoretical interest accompanied by a very applied and practical focus. Gardner, Chmiel and Wall report a laboratory study of fault diagnosis on a simulated robotics produc tion line. Their argument is that ® eld studies within organizational psychology and organizational behaviour more generally, have widely demonstrated that job designs which give operators greater responsibility and control, for example over computer-based equipment, result in increased levels of performance. But such studies do not demonstrate why this is the case. Their experiment offers a cognitive understanding and appreciation of what may be happening in such situations, drawing on ideas concerned with implicit learning. In this instance, the impact of an organizational choice of working practices requires a cognitive analysis. Furthermore, a cogni tive appreciation of how people learn in such complex systems holds implications for how organizations manage the practice of training. Sonnentag also describes a laboratory study, in this case, of 35 software designers working individually on a standardized design task. Her emphasis is on trying to uncove r some of the cognitive strategies and activities that designers undertake when approaching a design task. She argues that the strategies adopted by the designers proved to be in uenced by their normal work situation, in particular the amount of control they have over their work. Sonnentag provides an argument that cogni tive behaviours are in uenced by organizational practices and arrangements. Heinbokel, Sonnentag, Frese, Stolte and Brodbeck describe