Evaluation and the Impact of Information Technologies on People in Organizations

Abstract

Micro-electronic-based technologies will have profound effects on the relationships between people, machines, work, and productivity. Present policies towards them, however, place an overwhelming emphasis on technological and economic considerations. An “innovation approach” to the diffusion of technology predominates, linked to a unitary concept of organization, an antagonistic view of participation and efficiency, and a short-term “cost substitution” approach to evaluation. One alternative is suggested by the emphasis in the organization theory literature that organizations are social rather than rational systems containing a plurality of interest groups. On this view, it is as unrealistic to attempt to segregate technical and economic considerations from social and psychological ones, as it is to separate short-term effects from long-term outcomes. Evaluation is seen as a central part of a complex and incremental planning process. Yet this approach is often presented as little more than a strategy to minimize possible resistance to the introduction of the technologies. There is an important need to seek to influence opinion and practice to ensure that the technologies are used to increase peoples' opportunities for self-determination at work rather than simply to seek for ways in which the new technologies can smoothly be introduced. Drawing from attempts over the past 20 years to improve the quality of working life through the promotion of job redesign theory, a general approach to the issue is outlined. It is argued that psychological and social planning is an essential part of the introduction of the new technologies, that evaluation should focus on developing goals, processual issues, and incremental change rather than on how far predetermined objectives are reached. Appropriate evaluation of the new technologies is an activity of importance, offering opportunities to help ensure that psychological and social issues are given attention comparable to that received by technical and economic concerns.