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Journal ArticleDOI

Information in Organizations as Signal and Symbol.

Martha S. Feldman, +1 more
- 01 Jun 1981 - 
- Vol. 26, Iss: 2, pp 171
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TLDR
Arrow and Taylor as mentioned in this paper suggest that organizations systematically gather more information than they use, and yet continue to ask for more, and suggest that this behavior is a consequence of some ways in which organizational settings for information use differ from those anticipated in a simple decision-theory vision.
Abstract
We are grateful for the comments of Kenneth Arrow, Kennette Benedict, Robert Biller, David Brereton, Louise Comfort, Jerry Feldman, Victor Fuchs, Anne Miner, J. Rounds, Alan Saltzstein, Guje Sevon, and J. Serge Taylor; for the assistance of Julia Ball; and for grants from the Spencer Foundation, Brookings Institution, Hoover Institution, and National Institute of Education. Formal theories of rational choice suggest that information about the possible consequences of alternative actions will be sought and used only if the precision, relevance, and reliability of the information are compatible with its cost. Empirical studies of information in organizations portray a pattern that is hard to rationalize in such terms. In particular, organizations systematically gather more information than they use, yet continue to ask for more. We suggest that this behavior is a consequence of some ways in which organizational settings for information use differ from those anticipated in a simple decision-theory vision. In particular, the use of information is embedded in social normsthat make it highly symbolic. Some of the implications of such a pattern of information use are discussed.

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Organizational Learning and Communities-of-Practice: Toward a Unified View of Working, Learning, and Innovation

TL;DR: Work, learning, and innovation in the context of actual communities and actual practices are discussed in this paper, where it is argued that the conventional descriptions of jobs mask not only the ways people work, but also significant learning and innovation generated in the informal communities-of-practice in which they work.
Journal ArticleDOI

Organizational Learning: The Contributing Processes and the Literatures

TL;DR: The literature on knowledge acquisition is voluminous and multi-faceted as mentioned in this paper, and so the knowledge acquisition construct is portrayed as consisting of five subconstructs or subprocesses: 1 drawing on knowledge available at the organization's birth, 2 learning from experience, 3 learning by observing other organizations, 4 grafting on to itself components that possess knowledge needed but not possessed by the organization, and 5 noticing or searching for information about the environment and performance.
Journal ArticleDOI

Market orientation: The construct, research propositions, and managerial implications.

TL;DR: The literature reflects remarkably little effort to develop a framework for understanding the implementation of the marketing concept as mentioned in this paper, and the authors synthesize extant knowledge on the subject and pro-pose a knowledge-based approach.
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Behavioral intention formation in knowledge sharing: examining the roles of extrinsic motivators, social-psychological factors, and organizational climate

TL;DR: It is found that anticipated reciprocal relationships affect individuals' attitudes toward knowledge sharing while both sense of self-worth and organizational climate affect subjective norms, and anticipated extrinsic rewards exert a negative effect on individuals' knowledge-sharing attitudes.
Journal ArticleDOI

Capturing the Complexity in Advanced Technology Use: Adaptive Structuration Theory

TL;DR: Adaptive structuration theory (AST) as mentioned in this paper examines the change process from two vantage points: (1) the types of structures that are provided by advanced technologies, and (2) the structures that actually emerge in human action as people interact with these technologies.
References
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Book

The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an analysis of knowledge in everyday life in the context of a theory of society as a dialectical process between objective and subjective reality, focusing particularly on that common-sense knowledge which constitutes the reality of everyday life for the ordinary member of society.
Journal ArticleDOI

The Theory of Social and Economic Organization

TL;DR: A synthetic polyisoprene rubber latex produced by emulsifying a solution of polyisoperene rubber in an organic solvent with water and removing the solvent from the resulting oil-in-water emulsion is significantly improved with respect to mechanical stability, wet gel strength and dry film strength as mentioned in this paper.
Book

The Theory of Social and Economic Organization

TL;DR: The Theory of Social and Economic Organization as mentioned in this paper is based on Weber's philosophical inquiries into the nature of authority and how it is transmitted, and identifies three types of authority: the charismatic, based on the individual qualities of a leader and reverence for them among his or her followers; the traditional based on custom and usage; and the rational-legal, according to the rule of objective law.
Posted Content

A Behavioral Theory of the Firm

TL;DR: In this article, the authors advocate a theory based on empirical observation of actual firm decision-making, which provides a theory of decision making within business organizations, contrary to the economic theory of the firm, which sees firms as profit-maximizing entities.