MIST 9710 – Organization Theory For MIS Research.
Course Syllabus for Spring Semester, 2005
(revised 1/12/05)
Instructor: Dale Goodhue
Office: 312 Brooks Hall
Phone: 542-3341 (my office); 542-1294 (Management Information Systems Department office); 583-0037 (fax).
Office Hours: Tues 9:00-10:00, Thurs. 3:30-5:00
Class Time and Location: Wednesdays, 2:00 to 5:00 PM, Sanford 105.
Class Web Page: http://www.terry.uga.edu/~dgoodhue/9710main.htm
Email: The best way to communicate with me is through e-mail at: dgoodhue@terry.uga.edu.
Materials:
First two weeks of readings will be supplied to you.
Other readings will be from a combination of papers avaialable from the web (or on a CD), papers in
a packet from Beljean's, and books you can buy from Amazon.com or other source.
Course Requirements:
This course is a PhD seminar on using organizational theory in MIS research. The goal is to delve
into a collection of theories in enough depth that you as researchers will be sufficiently familiar
with the theories that you will be able to recognize the potential fit of some particular theory to your
own research issues, and thus could begin a program of reading to allow you to adopt a useful
theory. A second goal is to convince you in general of the value of theory in MIS research.
The reading load will be moderately heavy, and students will be expected to do all the reading,
before class. As an additional incentive to keep up with the readings, for every class there will be a
few questions on the readings, which students must respond to with a one to one and a half page,
single spaced paper, due at the beginning of class. These are not intended to be highly crafted
works of art, but rather a way to thoughtfully reflect on some interesting aspect of the reading.
The first 20 minutes or so of every class session (after the first two) will be the responsibility of one
assigned student, who will search the recent literature for one or more articles that pertain to the
theories discussed in the previous class session. This will help us all stay up to date, and also serve
as a review of the last weeks material. The presumption is that the student will summarize a
(hopefully) recent article and talk about how it relates to the previous material. The focus might be
on theory alone, or on the operationalization of theory, or both.
I have added a short midterm exam (90 minutes) after the first six substantive session of the class.
In discussions with the faculty, we have concluded that you need more experience writing in an
exam context, and getting feedback on your performance. This will be on the theories discussed up
to this point.
There will also be a term paper linking some current IS issue with one or more of the themes or
theoretical perspectives of the course. Consider this as a trial front end for your dissertation. It
should describe the current IS issue, and any research done to date on the issue. The meat of the
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paper will be a description of a theory which can enlighten the thinking and research on this issue,
including a careful explanation of the theory in general, how it can be applied to the issue, and any
new insights or new hypotheses that surface when this is done. There should also be a brief
attention to methodology, which of course does limit what we can actually carry out as a research
project, but our focus on methodology here will be quite limited. The term paper will be submitted
three times, at three different stages of completeness. We will talk more about that in class.
Grading will be heavily based on class participation, as follows:
20%
15%
15%
50%
Class Participation (including the two or three 20 minute sessions that you organize.)
MidTerm Exam
13 short (one to one and half pages, single spaced) papers based on thought provoking
questions for each day's readings
Term Paper
Course Schedule: This course syllabus provides a general plan for the course; deviations may
be necessary. Topics, assignments, and due dates are subject to change.
1. Jan 12. Introduction. Morgan, Images of Organizations. OtisLine. Organizational Experiences.
2. Jan 19. The Rational Organization
"Mechanization Takes Command: Organizations as Machines" Chapter 2 of Images of
Organizations,1986, Morgan, G. .
Thompson, J.D. (1967). Organizations in Action, pp 1-50. Don’t let the moderate
number of pages fool you. This is a tough but very worthwhile read! Allocate
plenty of time.
3. Jan 26.
Thompson, J.D. (1967). Organizations in Action, pp 51-98. Allocate plenty of time!
Galbraith, J. R. (1974). “Organizational Design: An Information Processing View.”
Interfaces 4(3): 87-89.
4. Feb 2. Organizational Information Processing
Tushman, M. L. and D. A. Nadler (1978). “Information processing as an integrating
concept in organizational design.” Academy of Management Review 3: 613-624.
Daft, R. L. and R. H. Lengel (1986). “Organizational information requirements, media
richness, and structural design.” Management Science 32(5): 554-571.
Goodhue, D. L., M. D. Wybo, et al. (1992). “The impact of data integration on the costs and
benefits of information systems.” MIS Quarterly 16(3): 293-311.
One half page writeup of topic for term paper due.
5. Feb 9. Cyert and March, A Beharivoral Theory of the Firm, 2nd edition, 1992. (buy at
Amazon.com or other source). Chapters 1-5, 7
6. Feb 16. Challenges to Rationality In Org Use of Information
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Cohen, M. D., J. G. March, et al. (1972). “A garbage can model of organizational
choice.” Administrative Science Quarterly 17(1): 1-25.
Feldman, M. S. and J. G. March (1981). “Information in organizations as signal and
symbol.” Administrative Science Quarterly 26: 171-186.
Hannan, M.T. and Freeman, J. "The Population Ecology of Organizations," American
Journal of Sociology, 82:5, 1977 (as condensed by Shafritz and Ott, 1996).
[In Bel Jeans packet]
MidTerm Exam
7. Feb 23. More Challenges: Power and Politics and IS.
Pfeffer, Jeffrey (1981), Power in Organizations. Pp. 1-135.
[In Bel Jeans packet]
First version of term paper and 10 minute presentation due this week.
8. March 2. Power and Politics, continued. Organizational Economics
Markus, M. Lynne (1983), "Power, Politics, and MIS Implementation." Communications
of the ACM 26(6): 430-444.
Barney, Ouchi, (1-26)
[In Bel Jeans packet]
Barney, Ouchi, (72-98) (includes Coase, "The Nature of the Firm")
[In Bel Jeans packet]
Williamson, O.E. (1981), “The Economics of Organization: The Transaction Cost
Approach,” American Journal of Sociology.
9. March 9. Organizational Economics: Agency Theory and Transaction Cost
Barney, Ouchi, (205-13)
[In Bel Jeans packet]
Jensen and Meckling, (1976) "Theory of the Firm: Managerial Behavior, Agency Costs,
and Ownership Structure", Journal of Financial Economics.
Eisenhardt, K.M. (1989) “Agency Theory: An Assessment and Review,” Academy of
Management Review.
This is a lot of heavy reading. Be ready for it.
March 16 Spring Break.
10. March 23. Strategic Alignment
Henderson and Venkatraman, (1993) Strategic Alignment: Leveraging Information
Technology for Transforming Organizations, IBM Systems Journal, Vol 32, No 1,
1993
Chan, Y., Huff, S., Barclay, D. and Copeland, D. (1997) “Business Strategic Orientation,
Information Systems, Strategic Orientation, and Strategic Alignment,” Information
Systems Research.
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Cooper, Watson, Wixom, and Goodhue (2000) "Data Warehousing Supports Corporate
Strategy at First American Corporation" MISQ.
11. March 30. The Social Psychology of Organizing
Second version of term paper and a ten minute presentation
Weick, The Social Psychology of Organizing, 2nd edition, 1979. (buy book at
Amazon.com or other source) Chapters 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, and 8. This is 182 pages, so
get started early, but it is a fun read. If you will open your mind, you should find
this a treat!
12. April 6. Structuration Theory. This class will need to be rescheduled!
Barley, S. (1986). “Technology as an Occasion for Structuring: Evidence from
Observation of CT Scanners and the Social Order of Radiology Departments.”
Administrative Science Quarterly 31: 78-108.
Orlikowski, W. J. and D. Robey (1991). “Information Technology and the Structuring of
Organizations.” Information Systems Research 2(2): 143-169.
DeSanctis, G. and M. S. Poole (1994). “Capturing the Complexity in Advanced
Technology Use: Adaptive Structuration Theory.” Organization Science 5(2):
121-147.
13. April 13. Structuration Theory (continued)
Giddens, A. “Problems of Action and Structure,” Chapter 2 of The Giddens Reader, P.
Cassell, (ed.) Stanford U. Press, 1993.
[In Bel Jeans packet]
Orlikowski and Yates, "It's About Time: Temporal Structuring in Organizations", Organization
Science 2002.
14. April 20 Resource Based Theory of the Firm.
Dierickx, I. and K. Cool (1989). “Asset Stock Accumulation and Sustainability of
Competitive Advantage.” Management Science 35(12): 1504-1511.
Barney, J. B. (1991). “Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage.” Journal of
Management 17(1): 99-120.
Conner, Kathleen (1991), "A Historical Comparison of Resource-Based Theory and Five
Schools of Thought within Industrial Organization Economics: Do We Have a New
Theory of the Firm.” Journal of Management 17(1): 121-154.
15. April 27. Resource Based Theory of the Firm (Continued).
Final Version of Term Paper and 15 minute presenation due. Class will be
extended and we will bring in Pizza!
Mata, Fuerst and Barney, (1995) "Information Technology and Sustained Competitive
Advantage: A Resource Based Analysis," MISQ.
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Bharadwaj, A.S. (2000) "A Resource-Based Perspective on Information Technology
Capability and Firm Performance, MISQ 24(1), pp. 169-196.
Sambamurthy, Bharadwaj, and Grover (2003) "Shaping Agility Through Digital Options:
Reconceptualizing the Role of Information Technology in Contemporary Firms"
MISQ.
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