Technology as Folklore: A Study of Change Through New Technology

We are in the second year of a three year, longitudinal, field-based study of work group life and technology change. Our view is that present organizational life has two dominant characteristics. The first characteristic is an increasing interdependence between members of the organization to do work. The second characteristic is the increasing dependence on information technology to support work. The interaction of these two forces becomes a key issue confronting the modern organization. In that context, this research seeks to describe: • How is client/server computing effecting technology-supported, group-based, work? • How are these effects shaped by organizational, temporal and social structures? This study focuses on chronicling the change in I/T infrastructure at one large academic organization. This change is viewed from a multi-theoretic perspective. We have the opportunity to observe and document the move of a large academic organization as it embraces the client-server computing infrastructure. Present, interim, findings include: (1) technical changes are difficult, social and organizational changes are more difficult; (2) change requires they maintain two systems; (3) there are two types of users and they are both important; (4) the technologists are now in the middle of the value chain