Structuration theory and new technology: analysing organizationally situated computer‐aided design (CAD)

It is becoming generally established that modern research and writings need to acknowledge the organizational context that surrounds the use of a technology (see Rachel & Woolgar, 1995; Westrup, 1996). However, previous efforts have been criticized for their failure to accumulate consistent research findings or develop coherent theoretical frameworks (Markus & Robey, 1988). Part of the problem is that a wide diversity of perspectives is adopted by organizational researchers, and fundamental issues behind these perspectives have yet to be properly examined and resolved (see Burrell & Morgan, 1979); this paper adopts the perspective that some resolution of these issues is possible, or at least should be sought. One approach is to adopt the theoretical framework, built on Giddens' structuration theory (Giddens, 1990), as presented by Orlikowski and Robey (1991), and to use it to analyse a new technology case, that of computer‐aided design/draughting.