組織協調系統的階層關係之研究

Abstract

人們常從事協調工作，看到的是如何溝通的過程，而本研究則認為是策略、決策和溝通在交互作用下引導協調過程。本研究利用協調理論分析實際的協調案例，如商品交易、專案管理、演講行程、預算計劃、聯合開發、及策略聯盟等實例的協調過程，歸納出其協調活動間存在著由上而下展開的階層式關係：目標□工作□活動□訊息。為了表達這種階層式的結構關係，本研究整合相關協調技術，包括電腦科學、組織行為、語意學及經濟學等，而建構一個可用以描述上述案例之協調過程的階層式架構，稱為協調階層。在此架構的組成關係上，由上而下，依序為協調劇本、協調行為、協調模式及協調單元等四層。在功能關係上，協調劇本是由協調行為和邏輯控制單元所組成以分解目標協調，而協調行為則由協調模式和可能的協調單元所組成以描述工作流協調，協調模式則由特定的協調單元所構成以描述活動流協調，至於協調單元則是處理和傳遞訊息流的最基本元件。就此架構的運用層面而言，本研究設計協調定義語言(CDL)和協調執行語言(CEL)來定義和執行組織協調活動。經運用CDL和CEL重現各案例之協調過程後，顯示本研究所建立的協調階層不僅可用來描述組織協調活動、處理協調事件、發現瓶頸過程，並能比較協調過程的狀態變化。在進行組織協調活動時，本架構亦支援適當的協調策略以減少協調時間，或提昇協調品質。

Human activities are always coordinated via communication, but we view coordination as an interactive process involving strategy, decision making and communication. After analyzing real-life coordination events such as trade, project management, scheduling, budgeting, and strategic allances, a hierarchical structure with goal, task, activity, and message in a top-down expansion is induced. To better describe these complex and dynamic human coordination activities, this study integrates related findings from computer sciences, organizational behavior, linguistics, and economics, thus formalizing the previous hierarchical structure termed the coordination hierarchy. The coordination hierarchy includes coordination scenario, coordination behaviors, coordination patterns, and coordination primitives across a top-down expansion to support organizational coordination systems. The coordination scenario comprises coordination behaviors with logical control combinations to decompose goal coordination, and the coordination behavior incorporates coordination patterns and possible coordination primitives to describe task coordination, while the coordination pattern comprises defined coordination primitives to describe activity coordination, with each coordination primitive being an inseparable, smallest element which handles message exchange and sharing. To implement the coordination hierarchy, a coordination definition and execution language is designed herein. With this kind of formal design, this coordination hierarchy can be used to describe coordination activities, plan coordination events, locate coordination bottlenecks, and analyze coordination states. In the coordination hierarchy, the coordination strategy can be adopted to support organizational coordination, both by reducing the time required to achieve goals, or by allowing goals to be better satisfied.