Based on the work of Karl Weick

Karl Weick

Karl E. Weick is an American organizational theorist who is noted for introducing the notions of "loose coupling", "mindfulness", and "sensemaking" into organizational studies. He is the Rensis Likert Distinguished University Professor at the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan...

, Organizational Information Theory builds upon general systems theory, and focuses on the complexity of information management within an organization. The theory addresses how organizations reduce equivocally, or uncertainty through a process of information collection, management and use.

Information Environment

A key component of Weick's theory is the information afforded by the organization's environment, including the culture within the organizational environment, which can impact the behaviors and interpretation of behaviors of those within the organization. Thus, creation of organizational knowledge is impacted by each person’s personal schema as well as the backdrop of the organization’s objectives. The organization must sift through the available information to filter out the valuable from the extraneous. Additionally, the organization must both interpret the information and coordinate that information to "make it meaningful for the members of the organization and its goals" (Pg 299) In order to construct meaning from these messages in their environment, the organization must reduce equivocality and commit to an interpretation of the message. Using established rules such a duration, personnel, success and effort the organization.

Stages of Equivocality Reduction

According to Weick, organizations experience continuous change and are ever-adapting, as opposed to a change followed by a period of stagnancy. Building off of Orlikowski’s idea that the changes that take place are not necessarily planned, but rather inevitably occur over time, Organizational Information Theory explains how organizations use information found within the environment interpret and adjust to change. In the event that the information available in the information environment is highly equivocal, the organization engages in a series of cycles that serve as a means to reduce uncertainty about the message. A highly equivocal message might require several iterations of the behavior cycles. An inverse relationship exists between the number of rules established by the organization to reduce equivocality and the number of cycles necessary to reduce equivocality. Similarly, the more cycles used, the less equivocality remains.
1. Enactment - Weick emphasizes the role of action, or enactment in change within an organization. Through a combination of individuals with existing data and external knowledge, and through iterative process of trial and error, ideas are refined until they become actualized. Enactment also plays a key role in the ides of sensemaking

Sensemaking

Sensemaking is the process by which people give meaning to experience. While this process has been studied by other disciplines under other names for centuries, the term "sensemaking" has primarily marked three distinct but related research areas since the 1970s: Sensemaking was introduced to...

, the process by which people give meaning to experience.. Essentially, the action helps to define the meaning, making those within the organization's environment responsible for the environment itself. (Weik, The Social Psychology of Organizing, pg 130).

2. Selection - Upon analyzing the information the organization possesses, the selection stage includes evaluation of outstanding information necessary to further reduce equivocality. The organization must decide the best method for obtaining the remaining information (West and Turner, pg 303) Generally, the decision-makers of the organization play a key role in this stage.

3. Retention - The final stage where the organization sifts through the information it has compiled in attempts to adapt to change, and determines which information is beneficial and worth utilizing again. Inefficient, superfluous and otherwise unnecessary information that do not contribute to the completion of the project or reduction of equivocality will most likely not be retained for future application of similar project.

Critique of Theory

Critics of this theory assert that, while the steps of information management within an organization are spelled out, the application of each step is unclear, thus resulting in subjective interpretation. According to Weik, "Selection criteria appear to be almost infinite in number," making application of this step of the process dependent on the situation. Additionally, an assumption is made that the communication rules set by their organization come into play during decision making. There are arguably many factors that impact the extent to which an employee adheres to these rules.

Additional Readings

Richard L. Daft and Norman B. Macintosh, "A Tentative Exploration into the Amount and Equivocality of Information Processing in Organizational Work Units," Administrative Science Quarterly, 26 (1981): 207-224.

Thomas F. Gattiker and Dale L. Goodhue, "Understanding the local-level costs and benefits of ERP through organizational information processing theory," Information and Management, 41 (2004): 431-443.
Karl E. Weick, "The Nontraditional Quality of Organizational Learning," Organization Science 2 (1991): 116-124.