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Abstract:
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This study as arisen from the need to understand the information society from a perspective of a public organization, Instead of taking a traditional stance of the public sector, this study uses private sector concepts to assess the situation of a public organization. The suitability and applicability of this approach has been perhaps a silent objective of this study, which has been merely a minor concern during the research process. Major affairs have been, however, the two embarking points of this study; the age of discontinuity and the New Public Management philosophy. The purpose of this study was to explore the strategic thinking of a public organization in the information society by using resource dependence theory as an explanatory model of organizational behaviour. Theoretical background of this study derives from two main sources: management theory and organisation theory. The former consists mainly of strategic management, and is aimed at presenting the fields of strategy and strategic management in a comprehensive and multifaceted manner. The purpose of this was to find an approach of strategic management that suits the main objective of this study. The latter comprises of resource dependence theory, and is aimed at constructing a three part conceptual model of a strategy that negotiates or enacts organization's environment. This model was tested with the empirical findings. Research material to conduct the empirical part of the study was very twofold. First, to gain knowledge of the new age called the information society was done by assessing existing explanatory models of the era. These theories were compared to the age of discontinuity and its characteristics to find an apt definition. Second, to gain knowledge of the behaviour of an organization engaging in co-operation to enact its environment three sources of material was received: hands-on participatory observation, documentation and archival records, and thematic interviews, all within the organization at the centre of the model.Idea of the information society emphasis a change of epoch. It is at the same time a description of streamlining organizational processes and also a call informational networking. In both of these views, the two common themes of the theoretical foundation -stake holding and co-operation- are seen the best. Exploration of the focal organization in the organization is very deliberate and profit-maximising. The strategy process is very long, arduous, planned, and hierarchical. Any room for uncertainties in the environment is no left. Second, co-operative strategies used to negotiate the environment are biased, and the participation of is almost compulsory. And third, a common management culture is yet to fully prevail in the organization. As whole, the organization assessed does not fully portray the characteristics of resource dependence and strategic management of it. /Kir10 |