Information Systems as the Genetic Material of Organizations: The Contributions of Jörg Becker

Abstract

This paper uses the organizational genetics metaphor as a vehicle to understand the essential role of information systems in organizations. As with biological organisms, we can think of organizational information as being encoded in genetic material. Organizationally this material contains information about the essential organizational structures. Information systems are increasingly the embodiment of an organization’s genetic material because of the widespread effects of digitalization in today’s society. This organizational genetic material not only has a role in encoding structural information, but also affects the inheritance of structure when organizations reproduce. We illustrate the principles of genetic material as structure information using the works of Jörg Becker.