A Theory of Organizational Information Services

Organizational use of information technology (IT) is increasingly characterized as ‘services’ rather than ‘systems’ to more accurately reflect IT’s impact on organizational practices. We lack, however, frameworks that can help us understand, assess, and design information services in organizational contexts. This paper combines general notions of task, information, and service, to form a theory of organizational information services. Distinguishing between computational, adaptive, networking, and collaborative services, the theory suggests that work contexts should support portfolios of information services that enable effective and efficient responses to the equivocality and uncertainty profile of the involved tasks. The paper defines the four types of services, it suggests how they support different types of tasks, and it characterizes the semiotic processes through which they are enacted.