Customer Reviews

Organization Modeling: Innovative Architectures for the 21st Century

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Information modeling, organization theory and design, knowledge management, strategic planning, and process design are all subjects of dozens of published books. Organization Modeling (OM) introduces an innovative framework to utilize these and other relative techniques. The authors have created a novel approach, architecture, and framework that any organization wishing to compete in the 21st century should not be without. Based in existing organization theory, the authors have extended well beyond the traditional theorists. Instead, OM provides a roadmap for business professionals. They have also clearly drawn the line dividing information technology and business modeling. If you are an information technology person expecting another technique for object oriented programming, this book is not for you. If, though, you are an information technology person who desires to move beyond the IT world, this book will provide the tools and framework to move in that direction. If you are an organizational theorist looking for another school of pure organizational theory, you will find much more than that here. Instead, you will find a synthesis of organization theory and other disciplines in a pragmatic yet holistic framework. A word of caution, this book is not some form of "pop-theory" that can be read in a day or two. I was familiar with many of the subjects in the book and still found the best method for reading was absorption and reflection. I found myself examining how each section of the book could be applied at my current business situation. The book uses an extended information modeling technique introduced by Kilov. Once again, I found myself creating Kilovish models of my current situation to provide greater insight into the material. The book starts by setting the foundation of OM. This foundation introduces key concepts such as the organization molecule, and emergent organizational patterns. Once the foundation is set, the authors introduce applications to key concepts such as information, data, knowledge, culture, and learning. One soon comes to realize the true power of an architecture/framework at this level of abstraction. This book is a must have for any person interested understanding and moving their organization into the 21st century, or students of management related studies.

In a world where technology has come to permeate our lives, where businesses and the organizations which comprise them have become more virtual and knowledge-based in nature, business and IT professionals have struggled to find common ground in their understanding of how businesses operate and how technology can enhance both the efficiency and effectiveness of that operation. Organization Modeling, Innovative Architectures for the 21st Century, has successful brought together, for the business/technology manager, some of the key issues and thinking surrounding how organizations and the technology they have come to rely on should be woven together.

Rather than simply providing a new "spin" on the way today's business and organizations need to operate, the book provides new insights into how to foster communication, use information more effectively, develop collaborative behaviors, as well as tools and techniques to help align business/information strategies.

Both business and IT professionals will find this book extremely valuable in helping them understand how to analyze and design new business processes and organizational structures which effectively leverage technology as well as the skills, talents, and capabilities of the organization's members. The book goes a long way in providing business and IT professionals with a strong framework with which to understand business problems and it introduces them to new tools and techniques which I think are extremely valuable in helping architect business solutions.

An excellent framework for learning about how to balance (organizational) mission, vision, business, strategy, organizational learning, processes, and culture. Truly visionary book that elucidates concepts concerning processes, learning, knowledge, human, and strategies. I found the book to be an excellent framework for understanding the world of organizations.
I think that almost all MBA and graduate business students will deepen their knowledge and skills by thouroughly exploring this book. Even, Mintzburg has applied some of these authors concepts!

Our book is about organizational architecture and design. The intended audience includes managers and IT professionals, and graduate students of management and MIS. In addition, this book may serve as a reference for research topics - it has become popular as a resource for Master's and Ph.D. students. One hundred years ago Frederick Winslow Taylor engineered work with engineering disciplines and thus created the 20th century design discipline of Scientific Management. In this book we architect work with modeling concepts and thus create the 21st century design practice of Organization Modeling. The analytical disciplines we choose to employ are those associated with the software engineering field: contracts and object-orientation. Our central innovation is the concept of an organization molecule. An organization molecule is the building block of design. It is a managed collection of well known management concepts or domains, such as business process, information, culture, knowledge, structure, strategy, etc. - one molecule for each type of organizational domain or management concept. We may use a molecule to design a domain and create an architecture-in-the-small. Similarly, we may align several molecules into organizational patterns, creating an architecture-in-the-large. Such patterns are at the heart of an organization's competitive distinctiveness. Organization Modeling may be seen as an MIS as well as an organizational design discipline. The industrial era is giving way to the knowledge era. The industrial era organization is characterized by information processing and therefore emphasizes data creators, routine work and a machine culture. In contrast, the knowledge organization is characterized by learning, and therefore emphasizes knowledge creators, nonroutine work, and innovative cultures. The knowledge organization requires an architecture where the three domains of data, information and knowledge are clearly distinguished - designing knowledge work requires a careful intermingling of all three. Hence, we devote a great deal of attention to the architectural models underlying all three domains and how they are interrelated. This brings forth fresh design constructs such as a knowledge contract, and a whole new approach to the meaning of a business system. Finally, we advance a core organizational architecture for a successful 21st century organization, one that emphasizes culture, business processes, data, information, knowledge, people, and learning. The authors are members of the faculty at Stevens Institute of Technology. They teach in the executive information management programs at such firms as AT&T, Lucent Technologies, Solomon Smith Barney, PaineWebber, Prudential, and Pearson Education, among others.

In a world where technology has come to permeate our lives, where businesses and the organizations which comprise them have become more virtual and knowledge-based in nature, business and IT professionals have struggled to find common ground in their understanding of how businesses operate and how technology can enhance both the efficiency and effectiveness of that operation. Organization Modeling, Innovative Architectures for the 21st Century, has successful brought together, for the business/technology manager, some of the key issues and thinking surrounding how organizations and the technology they have come to rely on should be woven together.

Rather than simply providing a new "spin" on the way today's business and organizations need to operate, the book provides new insights into how to foster communication, use information more effectively, develop collaborative behaviors, as well as tools and techniques to help align business/information strategies.

Both business and IT professionals will find this book extremely valuable in helping them understand how to analyze and design new business processes and organizational structures which effectively leverage technology as well as the skills, talents, and capabilities of the organization's members. The book goes a long way in providing business and IT professionals with a strong framework with which to understand business problems and it introduces them to new tools and techniques which I think are extremely valuable in helping architect business solutions.

I am a graduate MIS student who hadc to buy this book for my course in Organizational Design. I started reading this book and found it to be very rich and innovative in terms of what an organization is and how to design the organization using an organization modeling (OM) framework. I could not believe what
vision and insight the authors had into the world of organizations. Some of the fascinating and useful ideas that they have invented are about the organizational knowledgeworld, how to balance vision, mission, business, strategy, tools, organiational molecules which can be used ot represent the formal and creative aspects of organizational domains, (early and late) knowledge binding (when, where and by whom is knowledge applied to a process, etc. This book is concept rich, deep, purposeful, and relative to my future as an oganizatinal strategist. Numerous good tables, diagrams, and illustrations of their ideas and practical applications.
Truly a pioneering book. Good job Stevens profs.

Hola soy estudiante de la Maestria en Administracion de TI, y este libro me parecio excelente ya que abarca diferentes aspectos organizacioneles con un punto de vista tecnolgico

I thought I had hit a goldmine but not so.
It's too abstract, too boring, I miss examples.

Models should be helpful, not a goal into itself. Maybe this has some illusionary appeal to managerial types.

I gladly refer to Dilbert's comics, if you want something helpful.