Dissertation Research: Recovering the Organizational Significance of Technology

这项科学、工程及科技社会研究的科学及社会论文改善补助金，将支持大学采用及实施新资讯系统的比较个案研究的资料收集。本研究从社会学组织分析的新制度主义和科学技术研究的行动者网络理论两个角度进行探讨。数据主要来自对中西部大型研究型大学官员的采访。有两个问题。第一，为什么高等教育机构采用新的信息系统；第二，如果一所大学选择采用PeopleSoft这样的新信息系统，会产生什么后果？新制度主义者认为，为了在一个领域被视为合法的参与者，组织会相互模仿对方的行动。在不确定的情况下，当对合理性和合法性的关注迫使管理者为他们的决定负责时，组织特别可能相互模仿。行动者网络理论将解释的注意力从采用新技术的组织转移到新技术的提供者。它提出的问题是：新信息系统的供应商如何设法说服大学管理者，他们的组织问题最好通过采用PeopleSoft来解决？对于新制度主义者来说，由于采用一项技术主要是为了合法性，因此其实施后的影响没有被理论化，并且被认为是无关紧要的。但对于行动者网络理论家来说，一项新技术的实施有望对组织实践和结构的变化施加重大压力。大学（如PeopleSoft）采用新的信息系统，为实证评估提供了将这两种理论方向结合在一起的机会。该研究将揭示技术如何与工作实践相关，并对科学和技术研究以及组织社会学做出重大贡献。这个PeopleSoft（和其他信息系统）的比较案例研究将帮助大学更明智地选择，因为他们将越来越多的官僚任务外包给私人市场供应商。此外，通过从面临实施新信息系统困难的大学员工那里征求经验（通过个人访谈），论文将产生信息和理解，这可能有助于组织更好地适应未来的技术入侵。

This Science and Society Dissertation Improvement Grant in the Social Studies of Science, Engineering, and Technology will support data collection in a comparative case study of the adoption and implementation of new information systems by universities. The study is explored with guidance from two perspectives: neo-institutionalism from organization analysis in sociology, and actor network theory from science and technology studies. Data primarily come from interviews with officials at large Midwestern research universities. Two questions are asked. First, why do organizations of higher education adopt new information systems; and secondly, what consequences result from a university choosing to implement a new information system like PeopleSoft?? Neo-institutionalists suggest that organizations copy each other's moves in order to be perceived as legitimate players in a field. Organizations are especially likely to mimic each other in conditions of uncertainty, when concerns about rationality and legitimacy force administrators to account for their decisions. Actor network theory shifts explanatory attention away from the adopting organization, and toward the provider of new technologies. It asks: how do vendors of new information systems manage to convince university administrators that their organizational problems are best solved by adopting, for example, PeopleSoft? For neo-institutionalists, because the adoption of a technology is done primarily for legitimacy, its post-implementation effects are undertheorized and thought to be inconsequential. But for actor network theorists, the implementation of a new technology is expected to exert significant pressure for change in organizational practices and structures. The adoption of a new information system by universities (like PeopleSoft) allows for an opportunity to bring together these two theoretical orientations for empirical assessment. The study will reveal much about how technologies are related to work-practices, and make significant contributions both to science and technology studies and to the sociology of organizations. This comparative case study of PeopleSoft (and other information systems) will help universities to choose more wisely as they outsource an increasing number of bureaucratic tasks to private market vendors. Moreover, by soliciting experiences (through personal interviews) from university employees who have faced the difficulties of implementing a new information system, the dissertation will yield information and understandings that might help organizations better accommodate future technological intrusions.