Integrating knowledge workers and the organization: the role of IT.
Agency theory is primarily concerned with the relationship between the principal (employer/purchaser) and the agent (employee/contractor) in the issue of goal-aligned behavior. Jensen and Meckling and others were not referring to a knowledge worker agent in their conceptualization of the principal/agent relationship. The significance of having a knowledge worker agent is that the decision rights are no longer located with the principal but with the agent. This in turn has a tremendous bearing on goal alignment and agency problems. We propose that information systems/information technology (IS/IT), in particular enterprise wide systems, can alleviate these agency problems. We illustrate this through a case example from health care, an industry with a high proportion of knowledge worker agents.
Wickramasinghe
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Computer & Information Science Department, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio, USA. n.wickramasinghe@csuohio.edu
Ginzberg
M J
MJ
D003284:Contract Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006298:Health Services Administration / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D019359:Knowledge; D008329:Managed Care Programs / Q000458:organization & administration; D008331:Management Information Systems; D016347:Medical Records Systems, Computerized; D017146:Models, Organizational; D009820:Ohio; D019982:Organizational Case Studies; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D013192:Staff Development; D018511:Systems Integration; D017749:Total Quality Management