Technology and Organization

The impact of technology in organizations is of central concern to managers. It plays a crucial role in job design, the motivation of the individual at work, the successful management of change and the structure of organizations. Earlier literature has tended to fall into two separate camps: either specialized studies of new technologies or mainstream accounts of organizational behaviour in which technology is of peripheral concern. In this MBA text, the authors adopt a highly integrative approach. By using the three concepts of "power", "meaning" and "design", they explore the many different ways in which technology and organizations interact. Technology can just be a description of the productive hardware. It can also be less a question of specific technologies-in-use and more concerned with the impact of technology upon organizational structures and the power balances in complex organizations. Finally, the human factors of perception and knowledge add further to technology and its associated debates. The authors highlight the major debates within these competing perspectives.