The emergence of total quality management and the ISO 9000 suite of standards has allowed a re‐think of how (and why) the post‐implementation evaluation of computer systems is to be carried out. Traditional performance measurement, modeling and analysis techniques – while not discredited – have been tempered with a more holistic ideology. This article recommends a socio‐technical approach to determining the quality of a computer information system. In this context, two postulates have been proposed and tested by field survey of expert systems in the insurance industry in North America. Postulate one focuses on a multidimensional concept of IS quality comprising the characteristics of task, technology, people and organization. Postulate two deals with differences in assessments of these characteristics according to stakeholder groups: managers, developers, and users. Summarizes the key findings of these postulates in the context of the TQM and ISO 9000 philosophies.
This paper is concerned with the relationships between modes of communication, the communication environment and organizational structure. This is a very neglected area of organizational analysis, which is surprising considering the possible implications of such relationships. A framework is presented within which the above relationships can be identified and studied. Field research methodology is essential to the effort and is discussed in some detail, along with the associated problems of measure and measurement of organizational communications behaviour and organizational structure. An empirical study is described, and some initial propositions tested. Distance appears to be a dominant factor in the mode of communication chosen, and it strongly influences the association of formal structural relations with modes of communication. Such conclusions are tentative, however, as we are describing an on-going research effort.
The problem of decision making under uncertainty generally has been treated in a rather constrained fashion. Most writers assume that the decision is to be made by an entity (the problem of utility function amalgamation is ignored), that the process whereby it is reached is of no consequence, and that an adequate definition of uncertainty is that traditionally provided in game theory. We contend, on the other hand, that these assumptions are un-realistically restrictive, and that it would do well to look at the problem in its broader aspects. A general framework is provided for this purpose, and it is used in a relatively simple example to demonstrate a possible application.
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