Technology and organization: Contingency all the way down

Abstract

In her research studies, Woodward (1958) found that those firms that were organized according to the logic of their production technologies were more successful (on a set of economic measures) than those that did not. On the conceptual front, this acknowledgment of contingency in organizational life was particularly valuable in helping management scholars shift away from assumptions and expectations of “one best way to organize.”¹ It also helped to counter reductionist claims of technological determinism, the view that technology is an independent force that has determinant and universal social impacts.

Citation

Orlikowski, W.J. (2010), "Technology and organization: Contingency all the way down", Phillips, N., Sewell, G. and Griffiths, D. (Ed.) Technology and Organization: Essays in Honour of Joan Woodward (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 29), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 239-246. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X(2010)0000029017