This textbook provides an accessible theoretical analysis of the organizational impact of information technologies. It seeks to examine and comment upon the myriad ways in which actors, organizations, and environments are represented through these technologies. Contemporary threats to organizational form and stability are considered alongside the potential that information technologies offer to both exacerbate and overcome them. It examines, amongst others, issues surrounding the material and symbolic aspects of information systems; risk and prediction; systems implementation and systems success; knowledge management practices; accountability and other management practices; computerized modelling; and the virtual organization. To this end it deploys a number of different theoretical lenses including: · systems theory · social constructivism · labour process theory · post-structuralism · actor network theory These offer complementary and contrasting insights into the computerization of managerial work. In order to ensure that the book is both relevant and approachable to students from a range of backgrounds these theories are applied to real examples of the development and implementation of information systems. This combination fosters practical knowledge that is theoretically informed. The book thus aims to bridge the gap between the abstractions of current theories of organization and the grounded material that forms the bulk of Information Systems literature. It thus offers a novel way into the ongoing debates surrounding technological change and the perennial problems of managerial control. It has been designed to support theoretically informed Information and Technology courses at the advanced undergraduate and postgraduate levels, and will also be of interest to academics in the fields of Management, Information Technology, Sociological, and Cultural studies.

Autorentext

Simon Lilley is a Reader in Information and Organization at the Management Centre, University of Leicester. Simon studied for his first degree, in psychology, at University College London. His PhD, which considers the impact of computerisation on the management of oil refineries, was awarded by Edinburgh University, being funded by the ESRC as part of their Programme on Information and Communication Technologies. Simon has taught previously at the Universities of Keele, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and Lancaster, at the International Business School, Budapest, and at the Manchester School of Management, UMIST. Geoffrey Lightfoot is a Visiting Reader in Critical Organization Studies, University for Humanistics, Utrecht and a Visiting Lecturer in the Department of Management, Keele University. Geoffrey studied for his first degree, in social science, with the Open University. His masters in Economic History was taken with the London School of Economics and Political Science. His PhD, which investigated financial management practices of small firm owner-managers, was awarded by Kingston University. Geoff has taught at Kinston University, Keele University, and the University for Humanistics, Utrecht. Paulo Amaral M. N. is an Associate Lecturer in the Department of Management, Keele University. Paulo studied for his undergraduate degree, in Economics and Business, at the University of Turin, Italy, and has taught at Keele University in Management Information Systems, Entrepreneurship, Accounting, Marketing and Management.