Explaining the relationship between organizational use of technology and broader social influences

What is it about?

Technology use needs to be set in its wider organizational and social context. Technology can in turn reinforce and carry elements of that context. Ideas drawn from critical realism, especially Margaret Archer's concept of 'morphogenesis' can help. In this framework, actors operate in contexts that emerged from previous rounds of social interaction but, having emerged, provide both constraints and opportunities for organizational actors. These factors thus shape organizational use of technology. However, this framework has, in Archer's work, nothing to say about technology. However technology can 'fix' certain elements of what we term social structure, thus steering organizational action.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

The morphogenetic approach provides an alternative to perspectives which either give too much power to technology (technological determinism) or focus entirely on how technology is perceived. Ideas drawn from critical realism have started to gain purchase in the broader field of organization studies. In information systems, the focus has tended to be on more philosophical debates, whereas Archer's work draws on social theory to add a sociological dimension.

Perspectives