Valuing Technology: Organisations, Culture and Change

ISBN-13: 9780415192118 / Angielski / Miękka / 1999 / 272 str.

David Skinner; Paul Rosen; Paul Ross

Opis

How does new information technology become part of the fabric of organisational life? Drawing on insights from social studies of technology, gender studies and the sociology of consumption, Valuing Technology opens up new directions in the analysis of sociotechnical change within organisations. Based on a major research project focused upon the introduction of management of information systems in health, higher education and retailing, I explores the active role of end-users in innovation.
This book argues that it is through the, often difficult, engagement between users and technology that new computer systems come to gain value within organisations. Key themes developed through analysis of case studies include:
*the valuing of technology via the on-going construction of needs, uses and utilities
*occupational identities, organisational inequalities and technological change
*the gendering of technological and organisational change
*interpretive flexibility and the 'stabilisation' of technological systems and their incorporation into the lives of people in organisations.
A stimulating blend of the theoretical and substantive, this book demands a radical redefinition of 'technology acquisition'. It's highly original approach makes Valuing Technology essential reading for students, lecturers and researchers within the fields of organisation studies and the sociology of technology.

Spis treści

Introduction. Valuing Technology . Technology acquisition and consumption. Drivers of change: organisational and technological imperatives. Organisational Cultures and Identities . Administering organisational space: standardisation and malleability. Mediating change: corporate and workplace culture. Rationalising knowledge: professional identity and the construction of need. Gendered organisation, gendered technology. Finding Certainty . Making it useable: Constructions of usability. Securing stability, constructing value. Conclusions.

O autorze

McLaughlin, Janice; Rosen, Paul; Skinner, David; Webster, Andrew