Organizational Information Processing Theory Case Study

Organizational information processing theory (OIPT) focuses on the organizational design structure a company must develop to handle and deal with different types of uncertainties that may arise at any given time. The organizational structure should reflect the information processing needs so the company can be effective when unknown factors arise. Various studies have been conducted where OIPT is used to develop hypotheses as to whether certain areas of a business process are aiding in information processing and planning capabilities. We will investigate some current articles and evaluate how companies have utilized OIPT and what types of conclusions were drawn from these studies.

Technology is the new process that OIPT is used in gauging

In a research article by Michael G. Kaiser, Fedi El Arbi and Frederik Ahlemann (2015), they sought to reveal strategy implementation is dependent on the organizational structure. The study examined three construction companies that are highly dependent on project management to implement strategy. By putting structural changes into place within the operational hierarchy, researchers were able to determine that the performance of the managers' project implementation was increased when aligned with strategy goals (Kaiser et al., 2015). According to Kaiser et al. (2015), a byproduct of sharing information and aligning with the expected strategic targets early in the project was that strategy creation became more proficient. Project managers were brought in early, informed of the strategic goals and were able to apply these intentional goals to the processes prior to task

"Innovation is a highly uncertain and complex organizational task" (Cuijpers, Guenter, & Hussinger, 2011., p. 566). Inventiveness leads itself to many unknowns since information processing on these types of products are foreign to all parties involved. With the use of OIPT, Cuijpers et al. (2011) concluded that one of the main forms of counteracting these unknowns, such as whether there will be customer demand, is the development of inter-departmental collaboration, an internal information processing structure. By realigning the organizational design, the company was able to increase the organization's information processing capacity. The article did denote that there was a cost implication, "From OIPT we derive that besides the benefits of information processing, inter-departmental collaboration absorbs much time and resources because it makes it necessary to integrate different forms of expertise and problem-solving approaches" (Cuijpers, et al., 2011, p. 567). Though there was a cost increase, Cuijpers et al. (2011) did determine OIPT is important for process and should be implemented at the managerial level. "In order to boost performance, managers need to provide infrastructure and resources for inter-departmental collaboration" (Cuijpers et al., 2011, p.