Organizational Information Theory OIT Systems Rules Theory Humanistic Ontological Assumptions with Socially Scientific Epistemological Axiological Assumptions a Karl Weick 1969 1995 i Organizational psychologist The Social Psychology of Organizing 1 History 2 Goal a To describe how organizations collect manage and use the information that they receive and then how they use that information to achieve their goals 3 Focus a The process organizational members go through to understand the information they receive everyday i Organizations are bombarded with information every single day technology allows there to be a limitless amount of information coming into an organization that needs to be processed every day in order to make sense of it ii How does this processing allow organizations to achieve goals Personal goals organizational goals b Communication is essential to organizational success i People are instrumental in the creation and maintenance of message meaning must communicate in order to process information 4 Theoretical Influences on OIT a General Systems Theory Bertalanffy 1968 i Interrelationship among organizational units departments 1 Human resources production IT research marketing etc all are interdependent a move by one department can affect a move by another department a Analyzes the WHOLE ii Feedback Cycle If information comes in we have to share it with the rest b Socio Cultural Evolution Darwin 1948 i Survival of the Fittest 1 Adaptable organizations will survive able to develop a plan for deciphering information that comes into it 2 Ability to process information to meet goals 5 Assumptions a Organizations exist in an information environment i Information Environment All the available stimuli that an organization has available to it coming from multiple channels and places internal and or external ii Need information to achieve goals iii Need to interpret the information and make it meaningful b The information an organization receives differs in equivocality i Equivocality Information differs in ambiguity c When information is ambiguous information processing reduces equivocality 6 Concepts a Information Environment b Equivocality c Rules Guidelines an organization has for dealing with information i Duration Organizations want rules that allow us to process information in the shortest period of time processors ii Personnel There may be people within the organization who are designated information iii Success Organizations will typically follow rules that have worked in the past efficiency iv Effort Organizations will probably develop rules that require the least amount of effort d Cycles A series of communication behaviors used by members of an organization to reduce the ambiguity of information i Act The communication behavior that indicates that there s some ambiguous information 1 How do you inform people that there is ambiguity present ii Response The communication behavior that addresses the ambiguity 1 What do you do to reduce the ambiguity iii Adjustment The communication behavior that is the feedback to the feedback 1 How do you let people know that the ambiguity was reduced e Double Interact Loops Series of cycles that continue until ambiguity is reduced 7 Principles of Equivocality a Reduction of equivocality depends on i Amount of equivocality How much ambiguity is in the message ii Number of Rules in Place How many rules are needed to reduce it iii The number of cycles needed How many cycles you will need to go through for completion b Few rules in place more cycles will be needed to reduce ambiguity c More cycles used the less equivocality remains 8 Three Stages to Reduce Ambiguity to take Analysis of information a Enactment Do we have rules in place do we have people to go to and how many cycles is this going b Selection Actually selecting the people the rules the number of cycles etc c Retention In order to be effective and move forward they need to retain the rules that work a Focus on Communication Process resonates with communication scholars b Organizational members are instrumental in the creation and maintenance of message meaning 10 Heurism a Four models of Public Relations J Grunig Hunt 1884 i The Press Agentry Model ii The Public Information Model iii The 2 way Asymmetrical Model iv The 2 way Symmetrical Model b 4 Models of PR serves as a concrete application of the OIT i How organizations manage and use information according to particular proposes 11 Logical Consistency a Do people really follow the rules Probably not 12 Metatheoretical Assumptions a Ontological Humanistic i Real Choices Yes we can choose to follow or not follow the rules ii Individual or Social Experience Socially iii Contextualized Experience Yes we enact and then adjust b Epistemological Empiricism i Issue of methodology 9 Criticisms 9 Utility
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