Network Organization, New Media, and
Collective Action Problems
Organizational Communication COM 570
Winter 2002
Monday and Wednesday 1:30-3:20
Communications Building #104
Dr. Philip N. Howard
Communications Building #227
Enrollment: 15 Maximum
Office Hours: MW 3:30-5:00 or by appointment
Class Website: http://faculty.washington.edu/pnhoward/netorg/netorg.html
COURSE
CONTENT
Social
scientists are increasingly interested in the growing number of organizational
forms that employ new media communication technologies. From e-commerce firms, activist networks,
hospitals, newsrooms, research communities, and immigrant diasporas, to
traditional state, firm, and non-profit bureaucracies, many organizations are
using new communication technologies to work over distant territories and
disparate time zones at all hours of the day.
These organizations have been labeled epistemic communities, knowledge
networks, or communities of practice, depending on the discipline. Most organizations pursue some kind of
collective good but have different degrees of success in doing so. In this course we will look at how
hypermedia organizations form, affect our behavior, and why some survive and
others fail. This course will begin with
core concepts in the study of organizational behavior and economic sociology, explore
theoretical problems of computer-mediated-communication, and investigate
specific cases of hypermedia organization.
Student interests will significantly influence which cases are selected
for group study. This course will be
run as a multidisciplinary workshop, with readings drawn from communication,
management, sociology and political science, and students will be expected to
develop an organizational case study of their choice. This class will take a practical look at real case studies of
social networks. Overall, this class
has several specific goals:
·
to explore different
cases of network organization and the communication infrastructures they use;
·
to understand the
different theoretical perspectives on network organization from different disciplines;
·
to critically assess
these theories, applying them in a personal research project into a case of
organizational behavior selected by the student.
Although
this course has no formal prerequisites, students with at least one other
substantive graduate course and one graduate research methods class in the
social sciences will be best prepared for the pace and expectations of this
course.
TEACHING
METHOD
This
class will be a workshop in which the instructor, students, and guest lecturers
can present ideas about how network organizations behave. Students will be responsible for leading
discussion during the second meeting each week, and will finish the course with
a good reference packet of notes, reviews, and other handouts. E-mail will be used to conduct class
business and carry on debates outside of class time. Since irregular attendance will disrupt our learning community,
unexplained absences will affect your grade.
METHODS
OF EVALUATION
Students
will be evaluated by their degree of participation in class discussions (10%),
short position papers on the readings and a senior management interview
assignment (30%), and a personal research project to be negotiated with each
student (60%). Each student should do
two position papers during the class, and they should come to me electronically
the night before our meeting so that I can photocopy the paper for the other
members of our group. Here is an example of what such position papers might
look like.
I
will not mark for grammar but if it impedes my ability to understand your
arguments your grade will suffer, so it is a good idea to have at least one
other person proofread your writing.
Use William Strunk, Jr., and E. B. White, The Elements of Style (New York:
Macmillan, 1979) for writing style questions. The University of Washington has a number of resources to help
with writing style, and they are described online at http://depts.washington.edu/uwrite/. Howard Becker’s Writing for Social
Scientists also has advice on developing good writing habits. Citations should be formatted according to
the Chicago Manual of Style. Please refer to the University of
Washington’s “Principles Regarding Academic Integrity” for the definitions and
consequences of plagiarism. I will lead
the discussion in the first half of each meeting, and students will be
responsible for leading discussion during the second half of each meeting. Students will finish the course with a good
reference packet of notes, reviews, and other handouts. E-mail will be used to conduct class
business and carry on debates outside of class time. Since irregular attendance will disrupt our learning community,
unexplained absences will affect your grade.
REQUIRED
READING
The
following texts are required for the course.
Additional readings may be assigned for particular classes. A photocopy package will be available in the
second week of class.
Manuel
Castells, The Rise of the Network Society I (Blackwell, 2000).
JoAnne
Yates, Control Through Communication:
The Rise of the System of American Management (Baltimore, MA: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989).
MEETING
PLAN
January
6 - Introductions & Workshop Goals
January
8 - Organizations in the Network Society I
Manuel
Castells, The Rise of the Network Society (Blackwell, 2000), Prologue
and Chapter 1.
January
13 - Organizations in the Network Society II
Manuel
Castells, The Rise of the Network Society (Blackwell, 2000), Chapters 2
and 3.
January
15 - Organizations in the Network Society III
Manuel
Castells, The Rise of the Network Society (Blackwell, 2000), Chapters 4, 5, 6
and 7.
January
20 - Martin Luther King Day, NO CLASS
January
22 - Theories of Collective Action
Mancur Olson,
The Logic of Collective Action: Public
Goods and The Theory of Groups (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press,
1971), pp. 5-22 and 33-52; Russell Hardin, Collective Action, Chapters 1-3.
January
27 - Networks as an Analytical Frame
Joel
Podolny and Karen Page, “Network Form of Organization,” Annual Review of
Sociology 24, 1998, p. 57; Emirbayer,. M and Goodwin J., “Network Analysis,
Culture and the Problem of Agency,” American Journal of Sociology 99(6), May
1994, pp. 1411-1454.
January
29 - NO CLASS
February
3 - Historical Perspective on Organization Behavior
JoAnne
Yates, Control Through Communication:
The Rise of the System of American Management (Baltimore, MA: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989).
February
5 - Adaptive Organizations
David Stark, “Heterarchy: Distributing Intelligence and Organizing Diversity” in John
Clippinger, Ed., The Biology of Business:
Decoding the Natural Laws of Enterprise (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1999, pp. 153-179;
Charles Sabel, “Moebius-Strip Organizations and Open Labor Markets: Some Consequences of the Reintegration of
Conception and Execution in a Volatile Economy,” in Pierre Bourdieu and James
Coleman, Social Theory for a Changing Society (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1990), pp. 23-54.
February
10 - Technology & Organization I
Claude
S. Fischer, America Calling: A
Social History of the Telephone to 1940 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992),
Chapter 5; J. R. Beniger, “Conceptualizing Information Technology as
Organization, and Vice Versa” in J. Fulk and C. Steinfield, Eds., Organizations
and Communication Technology (Newbury Park: Sage, 1990), pp. 29-45.
**Class
ends at 3:00 to make room for Scheidel Lecture.
February 12 - Technology & Organization
II
Stephen Barley, “Technology As An Occasion for
Structuring: Evidence from Observations
of CT Scanners and the Social Order of Radiology Departments,” Administrative
Science Quarterly 31, 78-108.
Wanda J. Orlikowski, Evolving with Notes:
Organizational Change around Groupware Technology, MIT, 1995.
February
17 - President’s Day, NO CLASS
February
19 - States & Transparency
Peter Haas, “Introduction: Epistemic Communities and
International Policy Coordination” in International Organization special
issue Knowledge, Power and International Policy Coordination 46 (1),
January 1992, pp. 1-35; Ronald Mitchell, “Sources of transparency: information
systems in international regimes.” International Studies Quarterly 42(1),
March 1998, pp. 109-130.
Senior Manager Case Due.
February
24 - Firms & Risk
Gina
Neff and David Stark, “Permanently Beta: Responsive Organization in the
Internet Era” in Society Online: The
Internet in Context, Philip E.N. Howard and Steve Jones, Eds, Thousand
Oaks, CA: Sage, 2003; Brian Uzzi, “Social Structure and Competition in
Interfirm networks: the paradox of embeddedness,” Administrative Science
Quarterly 42(3), 1997.
Macauley, S. (1963) ‘Non-contractual relations in business: a
preliminary study’, American Sociological Review 28: 55-67.
February
26 - Markets & Labor
Michael
Barrett and G. Walsham, “Electronic Trading and Work Transformation in the
London Insurance Market,” Information Systems Research 10(1), 1999, pp.
1-22; Mark Granovetter (1973/1982) “The Strength of Weak Ties: A Network Theory Revisited” in Marsden and
Lin eds. Social Structure and Network Analysis, pp. 105-130; Burt, Ronald S. “The contingent value of social
capital,” Administrative Science Quarterly 42, 1997, pp. 339-365.
March
3 - Social Movements (Bennett Guest Lecture)
Readings
To Come.
March
5 - Non-Governmental Organizations & Structure
Arjun Appadurai, “Grassroots Globalization and the
Research Imagination,” International Social Science Journal 160, June
1999, pp. 229-38; Jonathan Bach and David Stark, “Link, Search,
Interact: The Co-Evolution of NGOs and
Interactive Technology,” Working Paper, Center on Organizational
Innovation, Columbia University, February 2002.
March
10 - Student Project Presentations
March
12 - Student Project Presentations