“Social process’ analyses of technology implementation have had a major influence on research carried out over the last 15 years. Technology implementation is now widely regarded as a ‘socially negotiated’ process the outcome of which is likely to be shaped by different interests and constituencies within the innovating firm. However, the explanatory status accorded to questions of power and political process remains problematic. This paper combines an empirical investigation of the political processes associated with the implementation of CAD/CAM with a cross-disciplinary treatment of the underlying theoretical issues. The concluding part of the paper focuses on ‘political’ and ‘learning’ aspects of technical change. ‘Power’, ‘knowledge’ and ‘control’ rationalities are included in a revised theorization of the technical change process.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ArgyrisC., and SchonD. (1978). Organizational Learning (Addison Wesley, London).
2.
BrunnsonN. (1982). The irrationality of action and action rationality: decisions, ideologies and organisational actions. Journal of Management Studies, 19(1), 29–44.
3.
BrymanA. (1984). Organizational studies and the concept of rationality. Journal of Management Studies, 21(4), 391–408.
4.
BuchananD.A., and BoddyD. (1983). Organizations in the Computer Age (Gower, Aldershot).
5.
BuchananD.A., and BoddyD. (1986). Managing New Technology (Gower, Oxford).
6.
ChildJ. (1988). On organizations in their sectors. In ‘Offence and Defence: A Symposium with Hinings, Clegg, Child, Aldrich, Karpik, and Donaldson’. Organization Studies, 9(1), 1–32.
7.
ChildJ., and SmithC. (1987). The context and process of organizational transformation – Cadbury Limited in its sector. Journal of Management Studies, 24(6), 565–93.
8.
ChildJ., GanterH.D., and KieserA. (1987). Technological innovation and organizational conservatism, in New Technology as Organizational Innovation, PenningsJ., and BuitendamA. (eds) (Ballinger, Cambridge, MA), pp. 87–115.
9.
ClarkJ. (ed.) (1993). Human Resource Management and Technical Change (Sage, London).
10.
ClarkK.B., and FujimotoT. (1991). Product Development Performance: Strategy, Organization and Management in the World Auto Industry (Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA).
11.
ClarkP., and StauntonN. (1989). Innovation in Technology and Organization (Routledge, London).
12.
ClarkK.B., HayesR.H., and LorenzC. (1986). The Uneasy Alliance: Managing the Productivity–Innovation Dilemma (Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA).
13.
CohenM.D., MarchJ.G., and OlsonJ.P. (1972). A garbage can model of organizational choice. Administrative Science Quarterly, 17, 1–25.
14.
CoombsR., SaviottiP., and WalshV. (1992). Technological Change and Company Strategies (Academic Press, London).
15.
CurrieW.L. (1989). The art of justifying new technology to top managementOmega, 17(5).
16.
DodgsonM. (1989). Introduction: technology in a strategic perspective, in Technology Strategy and the Firm: Management and Public Policy, DodgsonM. (ed.) (Longman, London) pp. 1–10.
17.
DosiG. (1982). Technological paradigms and technological trajectories. Research Policy, 11(3).
18.
DosiG., FreemanC., NelsonR., SilverbergG., and SoeteL. (eds) (1988). Technical Change and Economic Theory (Pinter, London).
19.
FinchamR., and RhodesP. (1992). The Individual, Work and Organization (Wiedenfeld and Nicholson, London).
20.
FleckJ. (1993). Configurations: crystallising contingency. International Journal of Human Factors in Manufacturings, 3(1), 15–36.
21.
FreemanC. (1990). The case for technological determinism, in Information Technology: Social Issues. A Reader, FinneganR., SalamanG., and ThompsonK. (eds) (Hodder and Stoughton, London) pp. 5–18.
22.
FreemanC., and PerezC. (1988). Structural crises of adjustment, business cycles and investment behaviour, in Technical Change and Economic Theory, DosiG., FreemanC., NelsonR., SilverbergG., and SoeteL. (eds) (Pinter, London) pp. 38–67.
HarrisM. (1992). Strategic choice and the sources of technological change, unpublished PhD thesis, London University.
25.
HarrisM. (1996). Organizational politics, strategic change and the evaluation of CAD. Journal of Information Technology, 11, 51–8.
26.
HarrisM. (1997). Technological knowledge, strategic choice and the neo-Schumpeterian school, in Innovation, Organizational Change and Technology, McLoughlinI., and HarrisM. (eds) (Thompson Int., London) pp. 29–41.
27.
HarrisM., and HowellsJ. (1994). Power and Knowledge in the Analysis of Technical Change: A Critical Review of the Neo-Schumpeterian School. Paper presented to the EASTT Conference, Budapest, August 1994.
28.
HillS., HarrisM., and MartinR. (1997). Flexible technologies, markets and the firm: strategic choices and FMS, in Innovation, Organizational Change and Technology, McLoughlinI., and HarrisM. (eds) (Routledge, London).
29.
HowellsJ. (1995). A socio-cognitive approach towards innovation. Research Policy, 24, 883–94.
JonesB. (1990). New production technology and work roles: a paradox of flexibility versus strategic control?, in The Strategic Management of Technological Innovation, LoveridgeR., and PittM. (eds) (John Wiley, Chichester).
32.
LoveridgeR., and PittM. (1990). The Strategic Management of Technological Innovation (John Wiley, Chichester).
33.
LukesS. (1974). Power: A Radical View (Macmillan, London).
34.
MacKenzieD. (1992). Economic and sociological explanation of technical change, in Technological Change and Company Strategies, CoombsR., SaviottiP., and WalshV. (eds) (Academic Press, London) pp. 25–48.
35.
McLoughlinI., and ClarkJ. (1994). Technological Change at work (2nd edn) (Open University Press, Milton Keynes).
36.
McLoughlinI., and HarrisM. (eds) (1997). Innovation, Organizational Change and Technology (Thompson Int., London).
37.
MansellR. (1994). Management of Information and Communications Technologies: Emerging Patterns of Control (Aslib, London).
38.
NelsonR., and WinterS. (1982). An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).
39.
PavittK. (1984). Sectoral patterns of technical change: towards a taxonomy and a theory. Research Policy, 13, 83–94.
40.
PavittK. (1990). Strategic management in the innovating firm, in MansfieldR. (ed.), Frontiers of Management (Routledge, London) pp. 79–95.
41.
PerezC. (1983). Structural change and assimilation of new technologies in the economic and social systems. Futures, 15, 357–75.
42.
PettigrewA.M. (1973). The Politics of Organizational Decision Making (Tavistock, London).
43.
PettigrewA.M. (1985). The Awakening Giant (Blackwell, Oxford).
44.
PioreM.J., and SabelC. (1984). The Second Industrial Divide: Prospects for Prosperity (Basic Books, New York).
45.
ReedM. (1985). Redirections in Organizational Analysis (Tavistock, London).
46.
ReedM. (1989). The Sociology of Management (Harvester Wheatsheaf, Brighton).
47.
RosenbergN. (1982). Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge).
48.
ScarbroughH., and CorbettJ.M. (1992). Technology and Organization: Power, Meaning and Design (Routledge, London).
49.
Scott MortonM. (ed.) (1991). The Corporation in the 1990's (Oxford University Press, Oxford).
50.
SenkerP. (1994). Implications of CAD/CAM for management, in Implementing New Technologies, RhodesE., and WieldD. (eds) (Blackwell, Oxford) pp. 338–48.
51.
VossC.A. (1986). Implementing manufacturing technology: a manufacturing strategy approach, in Managing Advanced Manufacturing Technologies, VossC.A., (ed.) (IFS, Kempston).
52.
WeickK. (1969). The Social Psychology of Organizing (Addison Wesley, Reading, MA).
53.
WhittingtonR. (1987). Environmental Structure and Theories of Strategic Choice, Working Paper, Department of Social and Economic Studies, Imperial College, London.
54.
WillcocksL., and HarrisM. (1990). Managing for Change: Information Systems in Central Government. Report for the Central Computing and Telecommunications Agency (CCTA), HM Treasury.
55.
WillcocksL., and MasonD. (1987). Computerising Work: People, Systems Design and Workplace Relations (Paradigm Press, London).
56.
WillmanP. (1996). Appropriability of technology and internal organization, in Innovation, Organizational Change and Technology, McLoughlinI., and HarrisM. (eds) (Routledge, London).
