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

This paper examines how particular ''inscription devices'' institute v ersions 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 set s the issue in the context of the practice of representation constitut ive of the grammatocentric organization-in this case the UK National H ealth Service. A central theme of the paper concerns the way visions o f organization (articulated through vocabularies of efficiency, effect iveness, the centrality of information in management, management by ob jectives, etc.) are translated into specific alignments of the gaze, s pecific organizations of vision (such as data modelling, etc.). (C) 19 97 Elsevier Science Ltd.