Technology and Programmability

Fundamentals

Joan Woodward is best known for her book Industrial Organization: Theory and Practice. This [Page 844]volume marked an important turning point in the history of organizational theory, establishing the important links among technology, organizational structure, and business success. First published in 1965, it challenged classic scientific management principles and theories, revealing findings that represent a major contribution to the foundation of contingency theory. Contingency theory scholars moved organizational theory beyond the “one best way” view of scientific management and began to explore how organizational outcomes are contingent on various characteristics of the organization and its environment, in this case, the technology used in production.

Woodward’s groundbreaking field study was conducted while she was part of the Human Relations Research Unit at the South East Essex Technical College. The Human Relations Research Unit had been set up in 1953 with support from a number of national agencies, with the aim of enhancing the performance of industry and commerce in Great Britain through the application of social science. Through the field study, Woodward examined the relationship between technology and organizational structure using a sample of 100 small and medium manufacturers in South East Essex. The preliminary results of this research were first published by the British government’s Department of Scientific and Industrial Research in 1958 in a 40-page booklet. Although she is now best remembered for her 1965 book, this 1958 volume had already exerted a considerable influence on key U.S. scholars by the time Industrial Organization: Theory and practice appeared.

In her research, Woodward first investigated the organizational structure of the selected firms and proposed a new typology of production systems, locating the firms on an 11-point scale of production systems, according to the complexity of technology representing the degree to which the production system was controllable and predictable, what she referred to as “programmable.” She distinguished three main categories in ascending order of technological complexity: (a) unit and small batch production, (b) large batch and mass production, and (c) the most complex process production and continuous flow. These three categories were then subdivided into nine subcategories of production systems from least to most complex.

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