Information Technology and Work Organization

49.1 Abstract New kinds of information technology (IT) are increasingly affecting the ways in which people work. In this chapter, we discuss the relationship between IT and work organization. We first discuss theories about technology, organizations and the link between the two. We suggest four perspectives on organizations-rationalist, information processing, motivational and political-which can be used to interpret organizational structure. Using these four perspectives, we review the results of empirical studies of the use of IT to suggest what changes have been seen in the past and can be expected in the future. We conclude with some suggestions about the kinds of future research that will be useful and some implications for the design of systems, work and organizations.

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