Can networks make an organization?

ABSTRACT

Based on earlier work in Scandinavia, systems development is seen as both reflecting and shaping organizations. An ongoing action-research project at a large municipal hospital in Norway is taken as an example. This is a cooperative project in which nursing supervisors and researchers participate in shaping a learning process and designing a computer system. Some inherent contradictions, conflicts and challenges are indicated. Strengthening cooperation among themselves was the main reason for the nurses to embark on the project. It may be assumed that neither good intentions, nor the most advanced technology for cooperative work will necessarily result in a product which enhances cooperation and mutual support.

REFERENCES

• 1: Arbejdsformer sat pa dagsorden. En nordisk antologi om udvalgte problemstillinger ved udvikling af edb-baserede systemer. (Working methods put on the agenda. A Nordic anthology of selected problems in developing computerbased systems.) SYDPOL, Report no. 1, 1987 (Order from: SYDPOL-sekretariatet, Institutt for informatikk, P.b. 1080 Blindern, N 0316 Oslo 3, Norway).
• 2: Arbeidsmiljeloven av 4. februar 1977 (The Work Environment Act of 1977). The text of the law, with various changes and additions, is also available in English. The most comprehensive annotated Norwegian edition is Odd Friberg: Arbeidsmiljraloven, 4th revised ed., Tano, Oslo, 1986.
• 3: The creation of queues as a result of new forms of treatment, particularly surgical procedures, has become a general problem for health policy. The administration of such queues can partly be eased with the help of computerized waiting lists. However, when these waiting lists are conceived only as "patient administration systems" (for processing patients and for resource allocation), important aspects of patient health and well-being are defined as irrelevant. For the surgeon scheduling the operations, the type of operation is often more important than the family and work situation of the patient. The nursing supervisors and head nurses with whom we are working - and nurses at many other hospitals - have a broader view of patient health. TO these nurses, administrative work should further the interests of patients both at home and in the hospital. Hence, conflicts may result from changes in operation schedules. It is the nursing supervisor who has to inform patients of such changes, and it is she who then learns more about the patients. What others see as merely the "administration" of patients and personnel becomes an important part of patient care.
• 4: Niels Erik Andersen et al., Professionel systemudvikling. Erfaringer, muligheder og handling. (Professional systems development. Experiences, potentials and action.) Teknisk forlag, Copenhagen, 1986.
• 5: Giovan Francesco Lanzara and Lars Mathiassen, Mapping Situations with a System Development Project. An Intervention Pexspective on Organizational Change, MARS-report no. 6, Aarhus, 1984.
• 6: An example are methods developed by A/S Bedriftsradgivning in Norway. They are basically an extension of phase oriented sytems development. In practice, the "technical stream" is dominated by systems and technical experts while users participate more in the "organizational stream". Usually, there are also negotiations with formal user representatives before and after each phase.
• 7: Robert Howard, Systems design and social responsibility: the political implications of "computer-supported cooperative work". A commentary, Office Technology and People, v.3 n.2, p.175-187, August 1, 1987 [doi>10.1108/eb022647]
• 8: K. Lyytinen, A taxonomic perspective of information systems development: theoretical constructs and recommendations, Critical issues in information systems research, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY, 1987
• 9: In earlier projects, we have tried to develop methods for clarifying different positions and interpretations, inter al. by stimulating participants in design processes to arrive at varied and rich descriptions of situations - through developing and playing with metaphors and analogies, learning from similarities and contrasts between their own work situation and that of others. Cf. Tamar Bermann, Ansattes kunnskap og lazing under innfering av EDB, med bibliothek som eksempel, LOFIB, Lmringsorienterte forsek i bibliothek (Employee knowledge and learning during the introduction of EDP, exemplified by libraries.) Work Research Institute, Oslo, 1983. In this project, we were also looking for methods which programmers would find less fussy but which allow participants in systems development to crystallize alternative perspectives. We have started to work with Checkland's Soft Systems Methodology. So far, it seems to have functioned well in the project, furthering dialogues between the different experts in our group (nurses, analysts, AI expert). P.B. Checkland, Systems Thinking, Systems Practice, John Wiley, Chichester, 1981.
• 10: For critiques of this traditional view cf. Finn Borum and Harald Enderud, Konflikter i organisationer - belyst ved studier af edb-systemarbejde (Conflicts in organizations - illustrated by studies of EDP systems design), Nyt Nordisk Forlag Arnold Busck, Copenhagen, 1981, and H.K. Klein and R. Hirschheim, Fundamental Issues of Decision Support Systems: A Consequentialist Perspective, Decision Support Systems 1 (1985) 5-24.
• 11: Maurice Landry, Daniel Pascot and Dominique Briolat, Can DSS Evolve Without Changing Our view of the Concept of 'Problem'?, Decision Support Systems 1 (1985) 25-36.
• 12: Kari Thoresen, Computer Systems Development - Alternative Design Strategies, Proceedings from IFIP conference on Women, Work and Computerization, Amsterdam, April 1988, (forthcoming, North-Holland).
• 13: Lars Mathiassen and Peter Begh Andersen, Nurses and Semiotics: The Impact of EDP-Based Systems upon Professional Languages, in: M. Nurminen and H. Gaupholm, Eds.: Report of the 6th Scandinavian Research Seminar on Systemeering, Bergen, 1983.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.6 MANAGEMENT OF COMPUTING AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS
      K.6.1 Project and People Management
          Subjects: Systems development

Additional Classification:
  J. Computer Applications

  K. Computing Milieux
  K.4 COMPUTERS AND SOCIETY

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Management, Performance