Internet
The environment of a mill metaphor information system is a network. Like its name says, Internet is a global network of communication channels. Channel capacity is important. Internet is also an information superhighway, on which traffic has to be regulated. It can also be seen as a global library.
2.3. People, organization and the mill
Business process redesign and job redesign
The design of a mill focuses on finding the best method of accomplishing a certain job. Efficiency, precision, reliability, and speed are important criteria. Thus, the major objective of computerization is -according to the mill metaphor- the best way of organizing business processes. Together, information systems and humans can do many jobs much better than a human can do it alone. Thus, jobs and business processes have to be redesigned in cases where the computer is used. In this redesign, one tries to make an optimal use of the capabilities of the computer in the field of data storage, data retrieval, and computation. The character of mill metaphor information systems is especially clear in the design of the human-computer interaction. Here, the user is guided along the path that is considered the most efficient one, and no discretion is left to the user regarding leaving that path and choosing his or her own one.
People become wheels in the mill
Garson (1988: 10) uses the mill metaphor –she calls it the factory of the past– to describe the process of computerizing white-collar work. People become wheels in the mill.
“In the modern factory, parts move continuously along an assembly line that human beings feed and tend as necessary. Everything seems bent on production…. Soon, when you walk into the fully automated office, it will seem equally ordained and complete.” (Garson: 1988: 261).
Work is degradated, like blue-collar work in the industrial revolution:
“Both these systems were designed to capture the skill of the individual griddleman or broker and transfer them to a program. Thereafter, the job can be done by workers with less skill and knowledge.” (Garson, 1988: 11).
People and information systems are not equal partners. Most people are ‘slaves’ of the information system, which is controlled by a happy few in your office space:
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“In almost all cases we’ll be looking at, the effect is to centralize control and move decision making higher up in the organization.” (Garson, 1988: 11).
Attached to a mill metaphor information system, people can be monitored. Examples of monitoring are reading Email, automatic registration of time spent on tasks via applications used, automatic registration of Internet use in the office and sometimes even at home. Monitoring, however, is a moral problem. People don’t like to be monitored; they don’t like to be in a situation where “Big Brother is watching you”.
McDonaldization
Ritzer (1996: 1) describes McDonaldization as
“the process by which the principles of the fast-food restaurant are coming to dominate more and more sectors of American society as well as of the rest of the world”
McDonaldization is an organization form based on efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. McDonalds is an example of the process organization, which is characterized by the following principles:
- strong standardization;
- what can be automated, is automated;
- flat organization resulting from the fact that the logistic information system takes over middle management functions;
- the principle of the working customer (where IKEA is the paradigmatic example);
- registration of customer data (based on credit cards or customer cards) for customer oriented marketing and sales.
McDonaldization and the redesign leading to process organizations can be seen as examples of business process redesign, which is associa,ted with the application of the mill metaphor to information systems, and in todays virtual office.
Criticism of the mill metaphor
Garson criticizes the mill metaphor information system because of its degradation of work. Ritzer criticizes McDonaldization because of its dehumanization and its illusions of low cost, fun, and reality. The question is whether these criticisms are not too severe. They may be inspired by an anti-machine nostalgic romanticism. Of course, there are examples of mill metaphor computerization that have gone on the wrong, dehumanizing track. But there are also examples of process organizations that combine efficiency with a social orientation. Valens (1994) remarks that many people are happy to work in a well-organized process organization like Albert Heijn.
3. The Cell Metaphor
3.1. The cell
Whole
The cell is something that lives. It can be autonomous, or part of a larger living being.
“A cell is the smallest part of an animal or plant that is able to exist by itself.” (Collins, 1987).
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“A cell is a small usually microscopic mass of protoplasm bounded externally by a semi permeable membrane, usually including one or more nuclei and various nonliving products, capable alone or interacting with other cells of performing all the fundamental functions of life, and forming the least structural unit of living matter capable of functioning independently.” (Webster, 1980:177)
All organisms are composed of cells, or consist of one cell.
Parts
A cell is made up of a cell wall and cell contents. Protoplasm is the material bearer of life. Cells can multiply themselves, forming cell clusters. In cell clusters, cells can differentiate related to their function; this process is called morphogenesis (creation of forms). The cell contents consist of a transparent material (protoplasm) carrying several organelles, bodies with a specific function (Koningsberger, 1962). Of these organelles the kernel, which carries the inherited genetic information, catches the eye. Grown above a certain size, the cell divides itself. Individual cells have a limited lifetime. although the cell cluster or organism they are parts of may live a lot longer.
Environment
Organisms live in a spatial-temporal environment in which they wander and coexist with other organisms. These other organisms will be of a great variety. Organisms generally need to interact, rely on each other, for example for food, and form in this way an ecosystem. In a spatial environment where dangers can await you, you have to be cautious. For traveling long distances, you need navigation.
Process
Cells communicate and interact by sending and receiving streams of material through their walls. The structure of the walls and the laws of osmosis regulate these streams. Cells need food in order to survive, to grow and adapt. In an organism, special cell types process raw material to material that cells can digest. Organisms are very busy with preserving their integrity (feed themselves, repair themselves), and with interaction with the environment.

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