Combining cybernetics and conceptual modeling: the concept of variety in organizational engineering

Authors:
Christoph Rosenkranz;Roland Holten
Affiliations:
Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany;Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany
Venue:
Proceedings of the 2007 ACM symposium on Applied computing
Year:
2007

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Abstract

Organizational engineering addresses various aspects of changing organizations in order to create and keep the alignment between business and information technology (IT). In this paper, we show how the combination of cybernetic theories with conceptual modeling contributes to the analysis and design of information systems and organizations. Based on the discussion of a language-driven understanding of information systems as socio-technical systems, we show how conceptual models can significantly contribute to organizational engineering if used in combination with the concept of variety, an established theory from cybernetics. Within an IT controlling case, we show how our approach can be applied to the diagnosis of an IT controlling and reporting system in the German subsidiary of a large European bank.