Technological Change
Technological change is exciting as much as it is daunting. The arrival of new digital tools affects consumption patterns, types of employment and working conditions, and can pose challenges to organizations and individuals alike. Indeed, although technological change is a factor for economic growth, it can also be an amplifier, or even a catalyst, of inequality. It is also a social change and interacts in complex ways: technology is both the source and the consequence of social transformation. To understand technological change and to harness its effects, this book studies transformations at different levels (societal, organizational and individual). In its analysis of the subject, it also draws on a number of disciplines of the human and social sciences, such as anthropology, sociology and psychology.
Table of Contents:
Introduction ix
Chapter 1. The Human and Social Sciences in the Face of Technological Change 1
1.1. Approaches to technological change 1
1.1.1. Technological determinism 2
1.1.2. Social constructivism 14
1.1.3. Joint structuring of technical and social aspects 19
1.1.4. Limitation of established distinctions 27
1.2. A brief history of technological change 27
1.2.1. How can we tell the story? 28
1.2.2. At the origins of the Industrial Revolution (from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance) 30
1.2.3. The First Industrial Revolution (end of the 18th Century) 32
1.2.4. The Second Industrial Revolution (late 19th Century to the 1910s) 34
1.2.5. The Computer Revolution (from the late 1960s to the 1990s) 36
1.2.6. The Digital Revolution (early 21st Century) 38
Chapter 2. Technological Change and Society 43
2.1. Powers, institutions and technological change 44
2.1.1. Fundamentals of political analysis and technology 44
2.1.2. The role of the State 45
2.1.3. Technological change in the age of globalization 50
2.1.4. The dark side of technology 52
2.2. Ethics in the face of technology 57
2.2.1. Ethical evaluation of technology 57
2.2.2. Three ethical issues under discussion 60
2.3. Technological change and diversity 66
2.3.1. Inclusive technology/exclusive technology 67
2.3.2. Technologies that reflect their designers 75
2.4. Technological change and ecology 78
2.4.1. Technology, an answer to ecological challenges? 78
2.4.2. Technology as a source of ecological degradation? 82
Chapter 3. Technological Change and Organization 87
3.1. Omnipresence of the technical object in work activities 87
3.1.1. The R&D function in the lead 88
3.1.2. Marketing challenged by digital transformation 89
3.1.3. Factory 4.0 90
3.1.4. e-HR 93
3.2. The interaction of technological and organizational systems 95
3.2.1. Technological change and organizational structure 95
3.2.2. Technological change, and financial and human resources for innovation 100
3.3. Technology as a liberator and control agent 104
3.3.1. Prescriptive and assistive technologies 104
3.3.2. Technological ambivalence: the same technology for empowerment and control purposes 111
3.4. Technological change as a social process 113
3.4.1. Changes in the social entity and management methods 114
3.4.2. Support for employees whose activities are threatened by technological change 121
3.4.3. The actors of technological change in organizations 127
Chapter 4. Technological Change and the Individual 135
4.1. Activity and technical object 136
4.1.1. The technical object in the activity system 136
4.1.2. The technical object and its mediations 138
4.2. The encounter between the individual and the technical object 142
4.2.1. The individual in the design phase 142
4.2.2. The individual in the adoption phase 144
4.2.3. The individual in the use phase 148
4.2.4. The individual between subject and object 151
4.3. Beyond the content of activities, a transformation of working structures 154
4.3.1. Variable effects depending on the technological equipment 154
4.3.2. The emergence of new work characteristics 155
4.3.3. The growth of telework 156
4.4. Technological changes and individual skills 158
4.4.1. Skills and their production 158
4.4.2. Digital skills as frames of reference 161
4.4.3. No digital skills outside the activity 163
Chapter 5. Experiencing Technological Change 165
5.1. Threats and opportunities associated with technological change in organizations 166
5.1.1. Overview of threats and opportunities associated with technological change 166
5.1.2. Threats and opportunities also concerning work organizations 168
5.2. Reconciling technical and social issues 171
5.2.1. Social or responsible innovations: definitions and examples 172
5.2.2. Responsible technological innovations within organizations 179
5.3. Managing responsible technological change 183
5.3.1. Organizational change management 183
5.3.2. The specificities of technological change 189
5.3.3. An integrative scheme for the management of responsible technological change 200
References 203
Index 219
About the Author :
Clotilde Coron is an Associate Professor at the IAE Paris – Sorbonne Business School, France, where she co-directs the Human Resources and Corporate Social Responsibility Master's degree. Her research focuses on the use of figures and data in Human Resources.
Patrick Gilbert is Emeritus Professor at the IAE Paris – Sorbonne Business School, Board Member of the AIPTLF (International Association of French Language Occupational Psychology) and the AGRH (French-speaking Association of the Management of Human Resources). His research focuses on the transformations of organizations.
