VISIONS OF ORGANIZATION AND ORGANIZATIONS OF VISION: THE REPRESENTATIONAL PRACTICES OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

This paper examines how particular “inscription devices” institute versions of the objects that they purport to render visible. It refers to a group of representational practices centred on data modelling and information requirements analysis to illustrate the argument, and sets the issue in the context of the practice of representation constitutive of the grammatocentric organization—in this case the UK National Health Service. A central theme of the paper concerns the way visions of organization (articulated through vocabularies of efficiency, effectiveness, the centrality of information in management, management by objectives, etc.) are translated into specific alignments of the gaze, specific organizations of vision (such as data modelling, etc.). © 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd