Alain Rallet
U. of Paris XI

Rallet

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(Tuesday, 1st January 2002)

Title : Information Technologies and Organizational Changes

The relationships between Information and Communication Technologies and organizations are one of the most frequent explanations of the famous "productivity paradox". In this respect, ICTs present two main characteristics. As other General Purpose Technologies such as the steam engine or electricity, their impact on economic performance is expected to be achieved in the long term. Moreover, in the more recent stage of their development ("the network age"), they can be analyzed as "technologies of coordination", i.e. technologies directly linked to the shaping of organizational architectures and organizational efficiency. The latter needs to enter the analytical "black box" of organizations more deeply in order to propose theoretical frameworks able to link the analysis of technological and organizational change, to define adjusted methodologies and have relevant data. The workshop will offer a survey of the recent literature on the topic.