Summary
Contents
Subject index
This book provides one of the first clear-headed assessments of information technology and organizational transformation. Its virtue is not so much in its recognition of the importance of the subject; speculations on this topic have been rampant for more than a decade. Rather, it is unusual and unusually useful, because it avoids speculation in favor of conceptually coherent accounts grounded in empirical study of actual organizations. The chapters contained in this volume move beyond the superficial glorification of information technology as an extraordinary instrument of social change, and straight to the heart of the mechanisms of change as they play out in everyday organizational life. In the process, they reaffirm that the real story of information technology in organizations is more about people than about technology. Taken together, they provide an important contribution to the intellectual foundations of one of the most interesting developments in decades.
The Role of Information Technology in the Transformation of Work: A Comparison of Post-Industrial, Industrial, and Proto-Industrial Organization
The Role of Information Technology in the Transformation of Work: A Comparison of Post-Industrial, Industrial, and Proto-Industrial Organization
It has become commonplace in the literature on the workplace of the late twentieth century to describe the profound changes occurring as a third revolution and modern society as post-industrial (Bell 1989; Mills 1991). Four recent interrelated changes in the organization of work that seem to mark this third industrial revolution are (1) a flattening of the hierarchy; (2) the disaggregation of functions or outsourcing; (3) an increased use of flexible, dynamic networks or partnerships; and (4) decentralization of the location of work (Huey 1994; Malone and Rockart ...
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