Organizational Subsystem Research Articles

Decision Support Systems: the next research/practice connection

North-Holland Publishing Company Human Systems Management 3 (1982) 5455 Over the lest ten years or so, there has been a number of important occurances which have created an environment conducive to the use of systems which support decision making. The four most important occurances seem to have been: (i) The technological developments in hardware and software and their use; (ii) Recognition of the importance of the psychological dimension in decision making; (iii) Recognition of the interdependent nature of organizational subsystems; and (iv) Recognition of the fuzzy nature of many aspects of problem solving. Within each of these major areas there are numerous partitions which could be used to delineate a particular focus for research investigation or practical development. What is needed now is a careful delineation of the partitions of these areas by providing a framework for the study of DSS like the Mason and Mitroff [I] MIS framework. A framework is necessary if research is to be focused not only on such as technology and the psychological dimension of decision making but on the interaction of the various main effects. The study of the interaction of specific research aspects is more likely to lead to a strong connection between research and practice, since in practice all the main effects and their interactions must be considered. What would be desirable would be to construct research situations which are likely to impact the practical needs of individuals responsible for designing and implementing DSS. If DSS research is viewed as a means of providing (I) practical insights into the difficult and worrisome situations which surround DSS in organizations, and (2) a forum for practitioners to report the re-

Information flow through strong and weak ties in intraorganizational social networks

Strong and weak ties are compared in terms of their contributions to information flow about the work activity of persons in intraorganizational social networks. Strong ties are more important than weak ties in promoting information flow about activities within an organizational subsystem. Weak ties are more important than strong ties in promoting information flow about activities outside an organizational subsystem. The strength of weak ties in promoting boundary-spanning information flows lies not in their individual efficiency but in their numbers. In general, production of the highest probabilities of information flow is associated with a combination of both weak and strong ties.

A Theory of Academic Interdisciplinary Research Performance: A Contingency and Path Analysis Approach

A theoretical model of interdisciplinary research project performance is formulated using the contingency and single-stage multivariate path analysis approaches. The model is developed using sequences of variables identified as belonging to various organizational subsystems. The model explains performance as due to problem complexity and whether the research is basic or applied. These variables are in turn moderated by the group's perceived sense of urgency, the task orientation of the project manager, the extent to which disagreements are openly discussed, and the length of time the group remains together. The manager's role was found to be crucial in project success through his/her diagnosis of the conditions calling for task oriented behaviors. The findings presented here also indicate a major difference between industrial enterprises and research projects in the sequence with which managers respond to environmental changes.

Generation Classes among the Mbeere of Central Kenya

IntroductionAge has represented in various ways a significant principle of social organization for the Mbeere of Kenya, one of the peoples of the North-eastern Bantu cluster, just as it has among numerous other peoples of East Africa. Traditionally a formal age organization comprised two groups: age-sets universally recruited from circumcised youth, and generation classes with constituent generation-sets. Informants' explanations of the age organization together with census and genealogical data clearly suggest that the recruitment principles and social processes within age-sets were independent of the recruitment principles and social processes characterizing generation classes and their generation-sets. The distinction between these two subsystems of the age organization is therefore more than an heuristic device.

Organizations in a Changing World

Organizations today are under challenge as a result of the break with traditional authority, the growth of democratic ideology, economic affluence and consequent changes in needs and motive patterns, and the accelerated rate of change. Adaptive subsystems have not kept pace with other organizational subsystems, and hence new inputs tend to be either rejected in blanket fashion or else incorporated without assimilation to the dominant patterns. Organizational leaders are preoccupied with their tasks of mediation between conflicting demands, and the problem of the reconceptualization of values has been left to the rebelling factions. There is hope, however, that a new consensus may emerge about organizational restructuring which acknowledges both the role of direct democracy in the smaller units and representative democracy in the larger system.

Open systems theory in an organizational sub-system: A field experiment

This paper deals with a leadership change experiment conducted in a major component part (sub-system) of a manufacturing organization (system). The leaders (foremen) in seven of eight groups comprising an entire department of critical importance in the organization were reassigned on 2 days' notice in accordance with an experimental plan designed by the author. The nature of the experiment and associated data provide an unusual opportunity for an empirical field test on certain central aspects of open systems theory as applied to formal organizations.