Infoculture

The chapter examines stable beliefs, behaviors, and artifacts that revolve around organizational informing agents—culture of informing (infoculture). This concept deepens the insight into some well-known artifacts of organizational culture. The argument deconstructs the literature on organizational culture to expose such infocultural aspects. It is argued that different infocultures can exist in the same company, based on the occupational group, profession, department, and other grounds. Six types of infoculture are described, including newly introduced the team and knowledge infocultures. Case evidence on infocultures in three companies studied is used to illustrate these categories. Both a method of categorizing infocultures grounded on the idea of metaphor and the associated research inquiry are explained. The discussion also addresses the impacts of big data on infoculture. The chapter ends by presenting a case of colliding infocultures contributing to deadly air accidents.

Infoprocess

This chapter explores the concept of infoprocess, which is defined in terms of interrelated informing activities that deliver an outcome to a customer. The concept of infoprocesses involves aspects of data, cognition, and their intersection that results in information. Concepts of process in various disciplines are examined, including two approaches relevant for IS research: business process reengineering (BPR) and business process management (BPM). An analytical framework focused on process design and performance is elaborated. Decision making is then discussed from the process perspective and big data impacts on it are examined. A process-centered organization and its technology are explored. The second part of the chapter focuses on processes in the virtual organization. Its various forms are discussed, including the ecosystem. Finally, challenges of the time aspect of process are explored. A note on digital transformation and IoT ends the chapter.

Groupomatics

The chapter discusses the concept of group informatics (groupomatics), one of the topics in the informing view of organization (IVO). One running theme in the chapter is the emphasis on cognitive aspects of work groups. Another theme is communication conceived of beyond the conventional conduit metaphor. The chapter also addresses the theme of uncertainty and ambiguity plaguing the deployment of teamwork and group support systems (GSS). Ample evidence indicates unexpected outcomes of deploying GSS. Group context complexity reduces predictability of GDSS effects. Distributed (virtual) teams and distributed GSS bring up new challenges that the discussion addresses. The chapter also introduces a concept of mobile enterprise strategy.

Conclusion

The chapter reviews the book and reiterates some of the key ideas. It also discusses methodological limitations and the directions for future research. Furthermore, the informing view of organization is described by using everyday language as a guide for managers and professionals.

Information System Life Cycle

The chapter discusses the IS life cycle phases of IS design/development, adoption, use, evaluation, and management. These standard topics in the IS field are framed in the IVO perspective. A model of IS life cycle is used for analyzing the case of a system for customer relations management in a telecommunications company. Historical variation and drifts in the IS management leading to the system's marginalization are explored. The chapter also demonstrates how IVO furnishes analytical devices for extending analysis of teaching and research cases on information systems.

Introducing Fundamental Concepts and Strategic Perspective

This chapter introduces the fundamental assumption and argument of the informing view of organization (IVO) that informing agents are central to understanding organizations. Informing agents are information technologies (IT), data, knowledge, wisdom, and information conceptualized as the meaning resulting from processing data by knowledge. This informing process assists in resolving uncertainty but only partially since it is bound to a spiral of uncertainty. The discussion furthermore addresses the topic of big data in relation to understanding today's customer in a more comprehensive way. Next, the strategic perspective is introduced, and several important theories of strategy are explained and compared. Moreover, a full model of IVO is introduced, and each of its aspects are explained. The chapter closes by elaborating on the interdisciplinary background of IVO and its theoretical and practical goals.

Infoeconomics

The chapter discusses economics of informing or infoeconomics, which refers to costs and benefits of informing agents and to their contribution to organizational performance. Controversies questioning contributions of IT/IS to productivity (IT productivity paradox) and to competitiveness (IT commodification argument) are discussed. Several methods of assessing costs and benefits of informing agents are proposed. Assessing benefits from IT/IS, data, and knowledge is challenging since their impact is usually not immediately visible. The challenges have become more pressing with the data analytics and big data trends. Several research cases are used to demonstrate relationships between IVO aspects and infoeconomics. It is argued that a business process management model and balanced scorecard methodology are reliable guides for study and management of infoeconomics. The implications of big data and cloud computing on infoeconomics are discussed throughout the chapter.

Infopolitics

This chapter discusses informing politics (infopolitics), which is defined in terms of power, agendas, and flight/fight behaviors related to organizational informing agents. The central concept in infopolitics is that of infopower. Infopower is defined, illustrated by examples from the literature, and grounded in structuration theory. Manipulative communication techniques are also discussed, and their relationships with infopolitics are demonstrated. The discussion further covers a three-member categorization of resource-based infopower: data/IT control, expert power, and meaning management. In addition, alternative ontological views based on the premises of symbol and object are proposed as a way of expanding theorizing on infopower based on dialectics of autonomy and domination. The discussion also covers topics of infopolitical agenda and flight/fight behaviors. A case study of infopolitics supplements the discussion.

Infostructure, Technology, and Organization

The chapter discusses informing structure (infostructure)—the formal and stable patterns of relationships between data segments and in information technology (IT) arrangements. Infostructure parallels and complements the formal social structure of organization. The discussion covers infostructure dimensions and their role in changing organizational structure. The infostructure of big data is explained. Informal organizational structure is, then, discussed in the context of computer mediated communication (CMC) and social media. Social media are framed as a type of business, and a new concept of social media is proposed. The chapter also discusses technology and IT from the perspectives of organization theory and IS. Various ontologies of IT and information systems are reviewed, including currently popular sociomateriality and critical realism. A new model based on the emergent process ontology is described, and the potential of human agency is argued.

Homo Informaticus

This chapter discusses the concept of homo informaticus—the individual organization member that performs complex cognitive processes, engages in decision making and satisfying of informing needs, and designs and evaluates information systems. Discussed are cognitive processes of thinking, feeling, perceiving, memorizing/memory recalling, and learning. These cognitive processes are involved in the fundamental informing process that starts with perception of external data, continues with applying knowledge to data, and ends with inferring information (meaning). Homo informaticus is typified based on Karl Jung's psychology and Kolb's learning styles. The discussion also addresses cognitive limitations. Memory is limited in volume and content, perception is prone to illusions, and thinking is susceptible to biases. These limitations influence the outcomes of informing, learning, and decision making.