Implications of Information Systems for the Distribution of Authority and Decision Making in Human Service Organizations

1989 ◽  
Vol 4 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 221-231 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard K Caputo
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Information Systems ◽  
Human Service ◽  
Human Service Organizations ◽  
Service Organizations

scholarly journals Observing Privilege: Examining Race, Class, and Gender in Health and Human Service Organizations

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-83 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie Collins ◽  
Sandra L. Barnes
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Service ◽  
Multivariate Analyses ◽  
Human Service Organizations ◽  
Employee Perceptions ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Organizational Position ◽  
Power Differentials ◽  
And Gender

Race, class, and gender dynamics can result in power differentials and discrimination in organizations. Such deleterious effects are particularly troubling for non-profit agencies with diverse employee and community bases and that endeavor to redress social inequality through service and program provision. Foucault (1975, 1980) as well as Andersen and Collins’s (2007) theories provide a means to conceptualize race, class, and gender as power processes that contribute to the production and maintenance of organizational privilege (unearned benefits and advantages). This study uses bivariate and multivariate analyses and data from five health and human service organizations to assess employee perceptions about dynamics that foster organizational privilege. Modeling results indicate that although organizational position is the most influential indicator in explaining perceptions about participation in decision-making, race is the most important predictor of perceptions about access to learning resources and influential relationships. These results also suggest that formally educated White employees are best positioned to access privilege. Thus, such organizations may be fostering social injustices with detrimental effects for employee culture and the communities they serve.

Electronic information systems in human service organizations: Using theory to inform future design

2016 ◽  
Vol 60 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Gillingham
Keyword(s):  
Information Systems ◽  
Systems Theory ◽  
Human Service ◽  
Human Service Organizations ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Cognitive Systems ◽  
Electronic Information ◽  
Joint Cognitive Systems ◽  
Future Design

The problems with current forms of electronic information systems (IS) implemented in human service organizations have been well documented and attention is now focussed on how they might be redesigned for the future. The aim in this article is to demonstrate how previous research and theory can provide useful insights into these problems, which, in turn, can provide guidance for future research-based approaches to redesign. Ideas from ‘cognitive systems theory’ (CSE) and more specifically ‘joint cognitive systems’ (JCS) are explored in relation to the main problems that have been identified with current forms of IS.

Board decision making in human service organizations

1987 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hillel Schmid ◽  
Pamela Dodd ◽  
John E. Tropman
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Human Service ◽  
Human Service Organizations ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Board Decision ◽  
Board Decision Making

Bounded relationality: how intermediary organizations encourage consumer exchanges with routinized relational work in a social insurance market

2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 769-793 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine K Chen
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Human Service ◽  
Social Insurance ◽  
Human Service Organizations ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Insurance Market ◽  
Relational Work ◽  
Cognitive Limitations ◽  
Intermediary Organizations

AbstractUsing observations of US governmental, advocacy and human service organizations’ (GAHSOs) talks, I show how these intermediary organizations endorsed ‘bounded relationality’ when teaching conventions about exchanges in the social insurance market. Bounded relationality synthesizes (a) Simon’s argument that organizations’ goals and practices help people compensate for bounded rationality—their cognitive limitations with decision-making—and (b) Zelizer’s relational work, which emphasizes how social relations animate market exchanges. GAHSOs attempted to acculturate older adults and their agents to decision-making routines of information-gathering and processing consumers, savvy information-seekers and watchful monitors. GAHSOs advised routinizing relational work toward making exchanges, including layperson relational work by family members and friends and expert relational work by professionals and advocacy and human service organizations. Bounded relationality supported people’s decision-making when initiating, maintaining or ending exchanges that organizations would recognize and process. By studying how intermediary actors facilitate bounded relationality, we understand how organizations encourage consumer exchanges.

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