Technology and Programmability

Joan Woodward has had a significant and lasting impact on the study of organizations, conducting pioneering empirical research into the relationship between technology, organizational structure, and firm performance. Her framework for assessing technology and programmability achievements, particularly given the time and place, represents a significant and original contribution to our knowledge of organizations and forms an important part of the foundations of modern contingency theory. Woodward’s work was a springboard for much subsequent research. Her ideas have been widely debated, empirically tested and challenged, and still remain an important part of the foundation of organizational theory. Not everything that Woodward ...