Examining the Informing View of Organization: Applying Theoretical and Managerial Approaches
Bob Travica
Glossary of New Terms
Actant’s Informing Influence: Uncontrollably functioning technology that radically deviates from design and use intentions and temporarily influences mind and action of the user.
Cloud-based Virtual Organization: A form of virtualorganization formed between cloud vendors and cloud clients.
Cognitive Informing agents: knowledge, data, meaning, and wisdom.
Communication: A process of interacting for the purposes of informing and maintaining social relationships. Communication constructs organization and it always has power connotations.
Data: Sensual stimuli (e.g., visual and audio stimuli) and symbols created for human communication (e.g., letters, numbers, sounds, graphics, and film).
Distributed team: A team with geographically distributed membership; virtual team.
Expert Power: An infopower category; subject A can change subject B’s conduct based on B’s perception that A possess knowledge that B needs.
Fundamental Informing Process: The process of transforming data into information by knowledge, which ends in human mind.
Group Informatics (Groupomatics): An aspect of IVO that refers to group cognition, decision making, group work and group support systems.
Homo Informaticus: An aspect of IVO that refers to cognition and informing behaviors of individual organization members who are users and creators of organizational IT/IS.
Imposing Facilitation Modes: Decisive roles of GDSS facilitators than shape GDSS session and outcomes; for example, Framing Users as "dominant vs. disengaged," and Pulling/Pushing Users to "get brain dump."
Infoculture: An aspect of IVO that refers to stable beliefs, behaviors, and artifacts related to informing agents, which are shared by organization members.
Infoeconomics: An aspect of IVO that refers to costs, benefits, and other organizational performance aspects related to informing agents.
Infocentralization: A dimension of infostructure; the extent to which data and access to IT are concentrated.
Infodispersion: A dimension of infostructure; the extent to which data and IT are dispersed in space.
Infoformalization: A dimension of infostructure; the extent to which written rules, procedures and instructions on handling data and IT are extant.
Informing View of organization (IVO): The inter-disciplinary framework for research and management that places informing agents at the nexus of organization.
Infofragmentation: A dimension of infostructure; the extent and modes of dividing data and IT on the department, job, task, and process basis.
Infohierarchy:A dimension of infostructure; the extent to which data and IT are vertically distributed.
Infopolitics: An aspect of IVO that refers to agendas, power, and fight/flight behaviors related to informing agents.
Infopolitical agenda (informing agenda, infoagenda): Goals, strategies and tactics related to achieving and maintaining infopower as well as other political goals.
Infopolitical fight: The struggle for achieving one’s infopolitical agenda.
Infopolitical flight: Negotiations and coalition making that aim at achieving one’s infopolitical agenda.
Infopower: The ability of subject A to make subject B do something that B otherwise would not do, based on B’s perception that A has certain abilities related to informing agents.
Infopower of Data/IT Control: An infopower category; subject A can change subject B’s conduct based on A’s control over data and IT.
Infopower of Meaning Management: An infopower category; subject A can change subject B’s conduct based on B’s expectation that A can mediate definitions of reality.
Infoprocess: An aspect of IVO that refers to processes of data manipulation and of cognition, external and internal to homo informaticus.
Information: The understanding of data occurring in human brain, or the inferred meaning of data; a result of informing process.
Information Technology: Tools, devices, and machines designed for the manipulation of data; electronic and pre-electronic.
Information System: A whole consisting of data, IT, and procedures.
Information System Life Cycle: An aspect of IVO that refers to IS design/development, adoption, management, use, and evaluation from the perspective of IVO dimensions.
Informing agents: Information technologies (IT), data, knowledge, meaning, and wisdom.
Informing Cost: Costs of work involving cognitive informing agents (knowledge, data). In knowledge tasks, it is the average expense for formal professional education (or of self-learning), plus costs of knowledge recall and implementation.
Informing need: A cognitive need of satisfying a gap in knowledge; similar to information need.
Informing seeking: An individual behavior or action a person experiencing informing need takes to satisfy the need.
Infostructure: An aspect of IVO that refers to stable relationships between data segments and the arrangements of IT, which complement social structure.
Institutional infopower: Social power relationships embedded in informing agents.
Symbol infopower: Technology as object or a conception stands for (triggers, symbolizes) meanings that relate to user’s autonomy or dependence.
Knowledge: Complex cognitive structure in human mind resulting from experiential and theoretical learning and referring to understanding what, why and how (that is, conceptual, cause-effect and procedural knowledge).
Knowledge infoculture: An infoculture in which the entire knowledge management process is supported.
Meaning: Synonym to “information.”
Mobile enterprise: Mobile enterprise is a highly spatially distributed organization whose key business processes deploy mobile information technologies and systems.
Organization: A collection of individuals and groups that is based on division of labor, rules, norms and the purpose of delivering a good or service.
Spiral of uncertainty: The effect that new information creates uncertainty regarding the future, as it resolves uncertainty regarding the present/past.
Team infoculture: An infoculture in which informing agents are in function of team autonomy;
moderate on knowledge codification and high on knowledge diffusion.
Technological Informing agents: Information and communication technologies.
Virtual organization: An organization that exists as the effect of many organizations functioning toward a common goal. It exists in the electronic space through dynamic computer networks, and delivers special products.
Virtual Life: A common rubric for various virtual forms, such as identity, relationship, community, country and world, all of which make Tree of Virtual Life.
Wisdom: A capability of making a right judgment in a right moment.