First, the author guides you through a thorough examination of how human characteristics (limited memory, processing constraints, emotions) condition organizational structure. Next, he explores how technologies of all sorts (e.g., writing, printing, telecommunications) affect organizations by relieving these limitations. Finally, only after establishing this very important context, does he turn to what exactly information technology means to organizations. Computers, he concludes, affect organizations primarily through two characteristics -- their enormous and enormously accessible memories, and their unparalleled communicating and coordinating potential.
Having established these foundations, his conclusions -- what sort of organizational structures IT facilitates -- follow logically and smoothly. Whether or not you agree with these conclusions, taking the journey with the author to arrive at them is both entertaining and educational. This book is authoritative, well-written, and hugely educational.
Groth is no IT nerd, nor a Luddite. He is surprisingly sober on the digital economy, and often funny. There are not too many people on this planet who integrates Sokrates' dialogues, Mintzberg's organization theory and the technical intricacies of computer systems into one single framework. There may be good reasons not to, but when Groth does this, you feel it is natural and coherent.