Four modes of organizational network usage: an information management framework for organizational assessment and choice management

This paper offers a Four Mode framework for locating the research and practice of organizations and their management, based on their usage of information networks and communication strategies. Each Mode has unique organizational requirements. Transitions between modes require shifts in organizational culture, strategy, and operations as well as technologies. Inaccurate assessment of the organizational impact of these shifts, often resulting from applying strategies that were successful in earlier intermodal transitions, results in unexpected costs and failures. Most complex organizations must successfully manage multi-modal operations. The practical framework presented by the authors emerged from an integration of their research in corporations in the United States and Canada, current academic and professional literature, and by analyzing changes in organizations, information and technologies over the past twenty years.