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Electronic Communication and Changing Organizational Forms Author(s): Janet Fulk and Gerardine DeSanctis Source: Organization Science, Vol. 6, No. 4 (Jul. - Aug., 1995), pp. 337-349 Published by: INFORMS Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2634992 . Accessed: 09/09/2011 17:36
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Electronic

Communication Changing and Organizational Forms
Janet Fulk
*

Gerardine DeSanctis

AnnenbergSchool for Communication, University Southem Califomia, 3502 South Hoover Street, of Los Angeles, Califomia 90089-0281 Fuqua School of Business, Duke University,Box 90120,Durham, North Carolina 27708-0120

Abstract
We introducethis Special Issue by providingan overviewof the interplay between communication technologyand various dimensions of new organizationalforms. We consider the major factors motivating dramatic change within and between organizationstoday, and describe key dimensionsof intraorganizational and interorganizational forms that are linked toelectronic communicationtechnologies: vertical control, horizontal coordination, size of organizationand constituentunits, new types of coupling,core product,communicationcultures, ownershipand control, interorganizational coupling, strategic alliances, and interstitial linking. Our purpose is to sample the changes attendant upon advancesin electroniccommunication organizational and forms, with thegoal of energizingfuture research. Our overview uncovers possibilities for new avenues of study within the technology-organization relationshipand reveals the important contributions made by the articlesin this Special Issue. (Electronic Communication; OrganizationalForms; Interorganizational Relationships)

The study of form is at the core of organizationscience. Organizationalform consists of thestructural features or patterns that are shared across a large numberof organizations (McKelvey1982).A varietyof organizational forms have been described by researchers. McKelvey (1982) reviews historical forms, beginningwith the tribal.Economiststraditionally have focused on two alternativeforms, marketsand hierarchies. Sociologistshave focused on bureaucracy, form a Weber (1922/1968)describedin contrast to the guild form. Currently,organizationalscholars observe that an alternativeto marketsand hierarchiesappearsto be emerging,that of the network(Miles and Snow 1986, Nohria and Eccles 1992, Powell 1990, Monge and Fulk 1995). And there is growing interest in a number of alternative"postbureaucratic" forms, such as interactive (Heckscher1994) and virtual(Nohria and Berkley1047-7039/95/0604/ 337/$01.25

1994).Whateverthe specific form, it includes not only the parts and activitiesof organizations also combut munication:the linkage mechanismwherebythe parts of the organizationcoordinatewith one another and with other organizations (March and Simon 1958, Thompson1967).Because communication integralto is organizational form, advancesin communication capabilities throughelectronic technologies are implicated in a wide varietyof changes in forms. Electroniccommunicationtechnologiesare enablersof changedforms by offeringcapabilitiesto overcomeconstraints time on and distance,key barriersaroundwhich organizational forms traditionally have been designed. Electronic communicationsystems are also implicated in form insofaras their configuration maybe shaped as organizations...