science

Organizing vision

Organizing vision is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Organizing vision rather than just read about it. In short: The organising vision (OV) is a term developed by E. Burton Swanson and Neil Ramiller that defines how a vision is formed, a vision of how to organize structures and processes in regards to an information systems innovation.

Key takeaways

Organizing vision belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Organizing vision to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Organizing vision from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The organising vision (OV) is a term developed by E. Burton Swanson and Neil Ramiller that defines how a vision is formed, a vision of how to organize structures and processes in regards to an information systems innovation. It is defined as “a focal community idea for the application of information technology in organizations”. Images and ideas about an innovation from a wider community are brought together. The vision can often be characterised by buzzwords such as ERP (enterprise resource planning) or CRM (customer relationship management). While these are often seen as hype, they can be useful in giving a title to an organizing vision. The vision serves three key functions:

Interpretation: Explaining why the innovation exists and is relevant Legitimisation:Giving reasons and supporting stories about why an organization should go for it Mobilisation of economic roles and exchanges:Mobilizing the community and the information systems world to get involved – not just organisations, but journals, vendors, consultants, etc.

Features of The Organizing Vision Emerges from discourse. This often starts off quietly, but becomes louder and richer as more actors become involved in the community. Is constructed by a heterogeneous social community who are united by the innovation but have different roles and interests. The ideas of structuration can be seen here in that while the organizing vision is shaped by the community, it also shapes the community. For example, organizations may ally who were united by being part of the community. OV has a relatively cohesive discourse because people within the information systems community share similar linguistic and ideological backgrounds. It has relate to the real economic world for it to be of any relevance. The problem of relating it to this world is called the business problematic. Is both constrained and enabled by technology. OV helps shape adoption and diffusion, and is in turn shaped as the innovation is adopted and diffused. It changes over time. It can lose or gain focus or overlap with other OVs. For an OV to attract interest, it must be distinctive, intelligible, informative, plausible and have some perceived practical value. Ultimately, it is forgotten as the innovation either fails or become unremarkable.

References Swanson and Ramiller (1997), The Organising Vision in Information Systems Innovation, Organisation Science, Vol 8 No 5

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Organizing vision

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Organizing vision claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Organizing vision before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Organizing vision ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Organizing vision

In research: Organizing vision appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Organizing vision in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Organizing vision is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Information systems, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Organizing vision outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Organizing vision in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Organizing vision means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Organizing vision out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Organizing vision in simple terms?

Why does Organizing vision matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Organizing vision?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Organizing vision.