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Hardwiring Weak Ties: Interorganizational Computer-Mediated Communication, Occupational Communities, and Organizational Change

Author

Listed:
  • Jeanne M. Pickering

    (University of California at Irvine, Irvine, California 92717)

  • John Leslie King

    (University of California at Irvine, Irvine, California 92717)

Abstract

Interorganizational computer-mediated communication (ICMC) is expanding rapidly through the Internet and other elements of infrastructure. ICMC can be expected to evolve into the mainstream of existing communications infrastructure, but this evolution is not occurring uniformly across organizations. ICMC infrastructure appears to be most strongly supported, at least in this early stage, among organizations dependent on the maintenance of external weak social ties among employees who are members of professional, dispersed occupational communities. This can be seen in the experience of research-oriented organizations. Two strong forces---the professionalism of key occupational communities seeking autonomy, and a persistent desire by organizations to reduce fixed costs and organizational size---are posited as encouraging growth of ICMC infrastructure. Such growth might provide an important “bootstrapping mechanism” of long-predicted shifts from hierarchical to market forms of organization, at least in professionalized sectors of the economy.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeanne M. Pickering & John Leslie King, 1995. "Hardwiring Weak Ties: Interorganizational Computer-Mediated Communication, Occupational Communities, and Organizational Change," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 6(4), pages 479-486, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:6:y:1995:i:4:p:479-486
    DOI: 10.1287/orsc.6.4.479
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Russell M. Frazier, 2012. "The Imperatives of Successful Policy Implementation: A Case Study of the Hollings National Institute of Standards and Technology-Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST-MEP) Program¡¯s Implementatio," International Journal of Learning and Development, Macrothink Institute, vol. 2(4), pages 52-94, August.
    2. Zand, Fardad & Van Beers, Cees & Van Leeuwen, George, 2011. "Information technology, organizational change and firm productivity: A panel study of complementarity effects and clustering patterns in Manufacturing and Services," MPRA Paper 46469, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Shelagh Campbell & Yingqi Li & Junli Yu & Zhou Zhang, 2016. "The Impact of Occupational Community on the Quality of Internal Control," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 139(2), pages 271-285, December.
    4. Zhenghui Zhu & Yao Lu & Li Wang & Wanbo Liu & Lingen Wang, 2022. "Assessing the Effectiveness of Administrative District Realignments Based on a Geographically and Temporally Weighted Regression Model," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(8), pages 1-16, July.
    5. Paul S. Adler & Seok-Woo Kwon & Charles Heckscher, 2008. "Perspective---Professional Work: The Emergence of Collaborative Community," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(2), pages 359-376, April.
    6. Nistor, Cristian, 2013. "A conceptual model for the use of social media in companies," MPRA Paper 44224, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. François-Xavier de Vaujany & Sara Winterstorm Varlander & Emmanuelle Vaast, 2018. "At the intersection of materiality, organizational legitimacy and institutional logics: A study of campus tours 1," Post-Print halshs-01840928, HAL.
    8. Haim Faridian, Parisa, 2023. "Leading open innovation: The role of strategic entrepreneurial leadership in orchestration of value creation and capture in GitHub open source communities," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    9. Mark A. Youndt & Mohan Subramaniam & Scott A. Snell, 2004. "Intellectual Capital Profiles: An Examination of Investments and Returns," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 335-361, March.
    10. Fujimoto, Yuka & Ferdous, Ahmed Shahriar & Sekiguchi, Tomoki & Sugianto, Ly-Fie, 2016. "The effect of mobile technology usage on work engagement and emotional exhaustion in Japan," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(9), pages 3315-3323.
    11. Gerald C. Kane & Maryam Alavi, 2008. "Casting the Net: A Multimodal Network Perspective on User-System Interactions," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 19(3), pages 253-272, September.

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