Introduction

Organizational performance has long been the center of organizational studies, in particular in technology related organizations. A look at a variety of technology related incidents such as the Vincennes incident, the Hinsdale incident, and others has raised some very important questions: Why do some organizations perform better than others? Why do some organizations sustain technologically based stress while others do not? And, what are the factors affecting organizational performance under stress? These questions have puzzled generations of organizational researchers, who, from different perspectives, have provided numerous, yet often contradictory explanations. In an attempt to address these questions and further resolve existing contradictions, this book intends to provide a formal theory that can yield consistent and systematic explanations of organizational performance. We take an organizational design approach with a focus on information processing aspects of the organization from an open system’s perspective with a microand macro-linkage.