Organizing Technologies

Organization theory and management studies tend to underrate the importance of material and technological resources in accomplishing organized activities. Given the pervasive influence of technology in everyday life in organizations, surprisingly little attention is paid to the entanglement of technologies and practices of organizing. In organizations, a wide variety of technologies, ranging from more conspicuous technologies such as computers and industrial robots to more infrastructural tools such as laboratory animals and accounting systems, are mobilized on a day-to-day basis to accomplish organized activities. Some of these technologies are subject to continuous discussions and controversies while others remain taken for granted or simply ignored. Organizing Technologies presents theories about technology and its recursive ability to both shape its users and to be shaped by its very use, outlining an analytical model where technologies serve three broad functions within organizations: to produce goods and services, to enhance administrative work, and to connect and co-align organizations within networks, supply chains, or distribution systems. In the final chapter, a number of images of technology are discussed, helping students of the technologies of organizing to comprehend the materiality and permeability of technologies as well as their role in organizations