Management and Organisational Behaviour 7th Edition

1. Management and Organisational Behaviour 7th Edition CHAPTER 17 Technology and Organisations

2. What is technology?Problems in definition • There are a variety of definitions, none of them is universally accepted • The way technology is defined or conceptualised by a person provides an indication as to the theoretical perspective of what technology means or consists of to that person

3. Technology definitions • Scope – what is defined as comprising technology • Role – how the interaction between technology & the organisation is definedOrlikowski

4. Key perspectives on technology in an organisational context • Technological determinism • Socio-technical systems • Radical / Marxist • Political / processual • Socio-economic shaping of technology (SST) • Social construction of technology (SCT) • Actor – network analysis (ANA) • Technology as text & metaphor (TTM)

5. Technological determinismHard determinism • Technology alone causes certain things to happen or to be as they are • Technologies feed, clothe, provide shelter for us, transport & entertain us

6. Technological determinism‘Softer’ determinism • Technology has social effects that are complex & contingent

7. Socio-technical systems approaches Have a particular concern to find the ‘best fit’ in any given job/work design between the social elements (people’s psychological & social needs) & technical elements (the apparatus & physical location of the organisational system)Trist

8. Radical / Marxist perspectives The social & economic outcomes of technical change must be understood through: • the location of events & decisions within the wider dynamics of capitalism • the accumulation & the imperative of profitability for organisational survival Braverman

9. Radical / Marxist perspectives This is achieved through: • the intensification of management control over labour • the deskilling & degradation of work Braverman

10. Ways of control Electronic panopticon – the use of information technology to monitor & record the work of employees Automating – the replacement of actions of the human body by the machine Informating – the simultaneous generation of new information about organisational activities

11. Political / processual approaches Focuses on the assumption that the outcomes of technological change - rather than being determined by the logic of capitalist development, or external technical & product market imperatives - are socially chosen & negotiated within organisations by organisational actions Zuboff

12. Technological change research Buchanan & Boddy Research located within the political / processual perspective • ‘the capabilities of technology are enabling, rather than determining’ • ‘decisions of choices concerning how the technology will be used’ and not the technology itself leads to the organisational outcomes

13. Socio-economic shaping of technology (SST) • Focuses on the ways that technology is shaped by the economic, technical, political, gender & social circumstances in which it is designed, developed, & utilised • SST often draws upon Marxist & gender analyses

14. Social construction of technology (SCT) SCT draws upon the sociology of scientific knowledge to examine the unfolding of technological change over time in its social & economic contexts to show that technology is created through a multi actor (multi directional) process

15. Social construction of technology (SCT) • A range of technological options are available or identifiable, which a variety of people, groups & organisations seek to promote or challenge • The concerns of these people are partly technical, & also social, moral, & economic • The groups define the problem for which an artefact is intended to be a solution. • Technological change occurs when sufficient consensus emerges for a particular design or when an option is imposed by a powerful actor or group

16. Actor – network analysis (ANA) Actors define one another & their relationships through – • Intermediaries, e.g. books & magazines • Technical artefacts • Skills • Money They attempt to construct networks that will bring together a range of human & non-human actants

17. Technology as text & metaphors (TTM) • TTM draws on the sociology of scientific knowledge • It does not accept the proposition that technology stabilises – that is it comes to have some identifiable ‘objective’ implications, characteristics, & capabilities • What technologies are, what they can & cannot do, what effects they have are seen as a socially negotiated phenomenon • Technologies are only understood or read in the particular social contexts in which they are found

18. Technology as text & metaphors (TTM) The different representations of the nature of technologies / organisations can be created using different metaphors or readings, so the focus of interest turns to not what a particular technology can & cannot do but rather how such accounts are derived

19. Forms of technology • Advanced manufacturing technology (AMT) • Information technology • Service provision • Product

20. Advanced manufacturing technology • Computer numerical control machine tools (CNC) • Robotics • Computer-aided design (CAD) • Flexible manufacturing systems (FMS) • Computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) • Computer-aided production planning & inventory control systems • Materials requirements planning (MRPI) • Manufacturing resource planning (MRPII)

21. Information technology • Word processing • Personal computers • Intelligent knowledge-based systems • Mainframe, mini, microcomputers – used in stand- alone or networked (LAN, WAN, WWW) • Teleconferencing • Videoconferencing • Teleworking/telecommuting

22. Service provision • Automated teller machines (ATM) • Electronic funds transfer (EFT) • Electronic data interchange (EDI) • Electronic point of sale (EPOS) • Teletext • Patient monitoring systems

23. Products • Pocket calculators • Electronic games • Digital watches

24. Information & communications technology ICT is inherently flexible as a result of – • Its compactness • Low energy use • Low running costs • Software

25. Figure 17.2 Stages in new technology adoption & introduction Source: Preece, D.A. Organisations and Technical Change: Strategy, Objectives and Involvement, Routledge/ITBP (1995), p.7.

26. Types of networks in the new enterprise • Suppliers • Producers • Customers • Standard coalitions • Technology co-operation Ernst

27. The new enterprise paradigm • Business networks • Technological tools • Global competition • The state

28. The material foundation of the network society • Information is the raw material • Pervasiveness of effects of new technologies • Networking logic • Flexibility of IT • Convergence of specific technologies into an integrated system