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Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/2451/14212
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| Title: | Information Technology and Occupational Structure |
| Authors: | Laudon, Kenneth C.
Marr, Kenneth L. |
| Issue Date: | Apr-1995 |
| Publisher: | Stern School of Business, New York University |
| Series/Report no.: | IS-95-04 |
| Abstract: | A central tenet of much popular and scholarly literature is that
computers -and more broadly speaking "information systems"-
bring about significant change in organizations. Some scholars focus on
changes in organizational structure- the division of labor and its
coordination through authority and power (Blau, 1976; Danziger, et. d.,
1982; Laudon, 1976; 1986; Keen 1981; Kling and Iacono, 1984; Orlikowski
and Robey, 1991; Robey, 1981; Walton, 1989; Barley 1986; 1990) . Others
focus on IT induced changes in the design of work (Zuboff, 1984; Bikson,
et. al., 1985: Kraut, et. al., 1987; Sproull and Kiesler, 199 1; Turner,
1984; Iacono and Kling, 1987). Still others have argued that IT
significantly alters occupational structure in organizations--the
distribution of employment among occupations and skill classes of
workers (Braverman, 1984; Kling and Turner, 1987; Berndt, et. al., 1992;
Howell and W e , 1993; Cyert and Mowry, 1988; 1989). In general, the
impact of IT on occupational structure of firms and organizations is a
neglected area of empirical research despite the fact that scholars have
strong opinions, and convincing theories, about such occupational
shifts. In this paper we report the results of a twenty year
longitudinal study of occupational structure in three of the largest and
most intensive organizational users of IT in the United States. For
benchmarking purposes we also examine occupational change at the
aggregate society level and in the federal government sector over a
twenty year period. The results of our research question the claim that
IT brings about significant change in occupational structure. While the
organizations we examine did experience significant change in
occupational structure during periods of intense computerization, these
changes did not conform to theoretical predictions and they were
inconsistent from one organization to another. We conc1ude that
organizational occupational structures are quite stable in the face of
massive IT change and claims that IT brings about
"revo1utionaryâ changes in organizational structure have
little empirical foundation even though there may be isolated cases
where such rapid and drastic changes do occur. |
| URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/2451/14212 |
| Appears in Collections: | IOMS: Information Systems Working Papers
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