How Do Technologies Change Organizations?

This chapter proposes a model of when and how new technologies will bring about changes in organizational structures and cultures. It argues that the key to such transformations lies in whether technologies alter roles and role relationships. Unless both roles and role relations change, new technologies are unlikely to have a significant effect on how organizations are structured. To determine whether roles and role relations have changed, it is useful to adopt a dramaturgical approach to analyzing encounters. Specifying the scripts that characterize encounters typical of the setting under investigation is central to such an analysis. The approach is illustrated by means of case studies of medical imaging and of how the Internet has begun to change the way car salesmen related interact with customers.