Modeling the Organization as a System of Communication Activity

Abstract

A conversation with a group of computer system designers from the Netherlands introduces what is called the Language/Action Perspective (LA P) on modeling business workflow and communication processes. Basing their conceptualization of the human-computer interface on Winograd and Flores's (1986) critique of the formalization of meaning and language, on Searle's (1969, 1979) speech act theory and on Habermas's theory of communicative action, they describe their attempts to develop system models that go beyond data flow to incorporate the communicative actions or transactions that result in the creation of a commitment. To be useful in the context of organizational communication processes, computer systems must support communication and embody the social dimensions ol authority and responsibility.