Technological Change and Organizational Action

In recent decades an extensive array of changes and innovations have taken place in and across work organizations and networks of organizations and workers, facilitated by new technologies and technological forms. This has initiated an interest in technological change as one of the conditions for organizational action and researchers have begun to draw inspiration from a wider spectrum of conceptual issues, perspectives and theoretical traditions.This book is interested in the level of praxis and how this might be understood and theorized. It brings together a comprehensive collection of empirically-grounded and theoretically-informed research projects from studies of organizational practice which explore a number of technological changes in a variety of contexts. These are informed by contemporary debates within and across theoretical approaches including the sociology of technology, work and organizations, actor network theory, technology as text and metaphor, processual and political perspectives, social and business network-based approaches to the analysis of technology and innovation, and the social construction and shaping of technology.This book will be essential reading for researchers and advanced students within the field of technology, work and organizations and also organization studies and management studies.

About the Author

David Preece is Professor of Technology Management and Organization Studies in the Business School, the University of Teesside. His current research interests include organizational change in the UK public house retailing sector and constructing, using and talking about company intranets. Juha Laurila is a Senior Research Fellow (The Academy of Finland) in Management and Organization at the Helsinki School of Economics, Finland. His current research interests include institutional and social movement theory and technological change in business firms.