An original project for a taxonomy of organisation-technology became over time
an exploration of some of the meanings and contexts of technology. The
exploration began with the critique of selected instances of landmark
theorising and empirical research on the technology concept.
The critique raised issues in epistemology and methodology which caused this
writer to address the philosophy of the social sciences and the philosophy of
technology at certain points: the question of technological determinism;
language and metaphor; ideology; construct validity. Chapters One and Two
of this thesis reflect the quest for connections in meta-theory, as the
remaining chapters reflect the quest for meanings and contexts of technology
in organisation and society.
The case studies of landmark theory and research on technology led into more
of a generic enquiry into the nature and claims of a contingency theory of
organisation and management. An analysis of landmark cases and of contingency
theory suggested that a formalist or empiricist approach to technology and
organisation had produced no clear conceptualisation of technology, nor of any
other contextual or performance factors. No panacea for organisation-design
has emerged from this quarter.
A rather broader arena of the division and re-combination of labour was then
approached. Analysis suggested that technology and the division of labour are
not mere surrogates of managerial control but arenas continually contested by
organisation and society participants. They are not givens with resident
characteristics to be read out but occasions of choice ongoingly negotiated.
Whereas the thesis began with notions of a static and cognitivist taxonomy it
developed into a study of certain images of technology, with the valencies of
technology deriving from its various contexts of meanings and matrices of
values. The thesis concludes with the view that formalism of much
contemporary organisation-theory needs to be amplified by a broadly
phenomenological understanding.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/219123 |
| Date | January 1990 |
| Creators | Leivesley, Robert, n/a |
| Publisher | University of Canberra. Management |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | ), Copyright Robert Leivesley |
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