The Effect of Culture on Technological Change: The Case of American Military Organizations

International audienceWhile highlighting the very specific nature of ICT with regards to other technologies, this article examines the many-sided relations between cultural values and ICTs use for grasping the cultural aspect of the technological change process in organizations. From the structurationist approach, the paper concentrates on the different kind of uses related to situated culture. The case of military organizations is used here to explore the cultural dimension of the information revolution is occurred within military organizations. The article underlines both the strong influence of situated culture on ICTs uses and the plurality of use ways. Culture is able to induce distorted uses of technology that can enhance as hinder the efforts of change. It is also possible to observe some situations where military technical communities embrace a technology and its expected use and, at the same time, profoundly examine its new cultural pattern. Every situation is single, depending on the background and the cultural pattern of the organization concerned