Valuing Technology: Organisations, Culture and Change (Management of Technology and Innovation) - Softcover

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

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415192110 ISBN 13: 9780415192118

Publisher: Routledge, 1999

Synopsis

A stimulating blend of the theoretical and substantive, this book demands a radical redefinition of 'technology acquisition'.

About this title

Review:

"The authors of" Valuing Technology ...suggest that adding IT to an organization, and finding "value" in that technology, is a complex process that happens as much at the frontline work site as it does at the upper levels of management.American Journal of Sociology "September 2001 ."

Synopsis:

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.

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0415192110
• ISBN 13: 9780415192118
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272