Information Technology and Change in Danish Organizations

The aim of this paper is to explore the relationship between organizational change and information technology (IT) in Danish manufacturing and service companies. The data material is a survey covering 1900 Danish companies. In the paper it is shown that there in a three-year period are major correlations between introductions of IT´s and movements towards more integrative organizations. These moves are evident in companies which in the three-year period both have introduced IT and changed their organizations. However in organizations which have introduced IT but reported that they have not changed their organizations, there also seem to be this movement compared to companies which have not done anything. Accordingly moves towards integrative organizations seem to a high degree to go hand in hand with introductions of IT. Three conclusions are deduced from these results. First, that Danish companies apparently have learned the lesson from the mideighties, to think in terms of organization instead of technology when implementing IT. Second, that the word IT apparently comprises powerful technical systems that, when faced, pushes companies towards organizational change. Third I consider if the organizational changes reflect a new learning paradigm or another paradigm labelled reliability.

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