The Vulnerable Fortress by James R. Taylor and Elizabeth J. Van Every

Taylor, James R., and Elizabeth J. Van Every. The Vulnerable Fortress. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1993.
ISBN 0-8020-7773-0

Taylor and Van Every explore the traditional model of organization as machine and the difficulties discovered in attempts to map real organizations into machines (computers and information technology). They conclude that the machine model is inadequate and offer as an alternative the model of the organization as conversation and text.



Perhaps the most useful thing is the book is the demonstration of the inadequacies of the machine model; the authors show it is necessary to look elsewhere. The alternative model is perhaps too new and theoretical to be of immediate use, but the authors introduce some interesting concepts as they develop their model. These concepts are frames and scripts. Frames are templates or archetypes that we overlay onto situations and give us perspective on how the elements of a situation are related. Scripts are similar to frames, but specify behaviors or sequences of events. It is interesting to think of learning as the reframing of a situation that allows one to examine the old frame.

The book is a lot to take in at once. The concepts and arguments are sometimes so abstract that they become difficult to follow. While I think it has merit, the model of conversation and text does not readily illuminate or simplify understanding of organizations because conversation and text themselves are difficult to understand. It is difficult to put a frame around, learn about, language, conversation and text because these form a frame that encompasses most human activity. The authors are right to say that conversation and text cannot be ignored and cannot be reconciled to the machine model, but they ask the reader to make a large conceptual leap to say that the organization is conversation and text.