Nothing Special   »   [go: up one dir, main page]

Skip to main content
Log in

From high tech to human tech: Empowerment, measurement, and social studies of computing

  • Published:
Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) Aims and scope Submit manuscript

“We are seeking high achievers. And high achievers love to be measured, because otherwise they can't prove to themselves that they are achieving. Measuring them says you care about them.”-Robert Noyce of Intel, cited by Quinn (1992, p. 273).

Abstract

“Empowerment” has become a pervasive term of art in business practice, particularly in the United States. The term traces its roots to the organizing models evolved by populist social movements, but within business discourse it refers to an emerging organizational philosophy that largely replaces conventional hierarchies with nominally autonomous teams. Proponents of empowerment frequently cite information technology as a crucial enabler of this shift without, however, spelling out fully the logic of the connection. A reconstruction of this logic provides evidence for the emergence of a novel vision of work-discipline, the empowerment and measurement regime. This regime is discussed in relation to market dynamics, Taylorism, and research on the social organization of information technology and its use.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Adler, P. S. (1993): Time-and-motion regained.Harvard Business Review, vol. 71, no. 1, pp. 97–108.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agre, P. E. (1994): Surveillance and capture: Two models of privacy.The Information Society, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 101–127.

    Google Scholar 

  • Agre, P. E. (1995): Accountability and discipline: A comment on Suchman and Winograd.Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW), vol. 3, no. 1, pp. 31–35.

    Google Scholar 

  • Allen, J. (1994): Mutual control in the newly integrated work environments.The Information Society, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 129–138.

    Google Scholar 

  • Armstrong, D. M. (1992):Managing by Storying Around. New York: Doubleday.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bachrach, P. and Botwinick, A. (1992):Power and Empowerment: A Radical Theory of Participatory Democracy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bannon, L. (1991): From human factors to human actors: The role of psychology and human-computer interaction studies in systems design. InDesign at Work: Cooperative Design of Computer Systems, eds. Joan M. Greenbaum and Morten Kyng. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barker, J. R. (1993): Tightening the iron cage: Concertive control in self-managing teams.Administrative Science Quarterly, vol. 38, no. 4, pp. 408–437.

    Google Scholar 

  • Barnard, C. I. (1962):The Functions of the Executive, Cambridge: Harvard University Press. (Originally published in 1938).

    Google Scholar 

  • Bendix, R. (1956):Work and Authority in Industry: Ideologies of Management in the Course of Industrialization. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berk, J. and Berk, S. (1993):Total Quality Management: Implementing Continuous Improvement. New York: Sterling.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blanchard, K., Carew, D. and Parisi-Carew, E., eds (1990):The One Minute Manager Builds High-Performance Teams. New York: Morrow.

    Google Scholar 

  • Block, P. (1981):Flawless Consulting: A Guide to Getting Your Expertise Used. Austin: Learning Concepts.

    Google Scholar 

  • Block, P. (1987):The Empowered Manager: Positive Political Skills at Work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowers, J. (1992): The politics of formalism. InContexts of Computer-Mediated Communication, ed. Martin Lea. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf, pp. 232–261.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boyett, J. H., Schwartz, S., Osterwise, L. and Bauer, R. (1993):The Quality Journey: How Wining the Baldrige Sparked the Remaking of IBM. New York: Dutton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Braverman, H. (1974):Labor and Monopoly Capital: The Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Butler, S. M. ed. (1990):Agenda for Empowerment:Readings in American Government and the Policy Process. Washington, DC: Heritage Foundation.

    Google Scholar 

  • Button, G. (1990): Going up a blind alley: Conflating conversation analysis and computational modelling. InComputers and Conversation, eds. Paul Luff, Nigel Gilbert, and David Frohlich. London: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Button, G. (1993):Technology in Working Order: Studies of Work, Interaction, and Technology: London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Byham, W. C. (1988):Zapp!: The Lightning of Empowerment. New York: Harmony.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clarke, R. A. (1989): Information technology and dataveillance.Communications of the ACM, vol. 31, no. 5, pp. 498–512.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clement, A. (1994): Computing at work: Empowering action by “low-level users”.Communications of the ACM, vol. 37, no. 1, pp. 53–63, 105.

    Google Scholar 

  • Collins, J. C. and Porras, J. I. (1995):Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. New York: HarperCollins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Conrad, C. (1990):Strategic Organizational Communication: An Integrated Perspective. Fort Worth: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cyert, R. M. and March, J. G. (1963):A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Davidow, W. H. and Uttal, B. (1990):Total Customer Service: The Ultimate Weapon. New York: Harper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Derrida, J. (1978):Writing and Difference, translated from the French by Alan Bass. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drucker, P. F. (1988): The coming of the new organization.Harvard Business Review, vol. 66, no. 1, pp. 45–53.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edwards, P. (1995):The Closed World Computers and the Politics of Discourse. MIT Press.

  • Edwards, R. (1979):Contested Terrain: The Transformation of the Workplace in the Twentieth Century. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feigenbaum, A. V. (1983):Total Quality, Control, third edition. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feenberg, A., (1991)Critical Theory of Technology. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fisher, K. (1993):Leading Self-Directed Work Teams: A Guide to Developing New Team Leadership Skills. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fligstein, N. (1990):The Transformation of Corporate Control. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Flores, F. Graves, M., Hartfield, B. and T. Winograd (1988): Computer systems and the design of organizational interaction.ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 153–172.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forsythe, D. (1993): Engineering knowledge: The construction of knowledge in artificial intelligence.Social Studies of Science vol. 23, no. 3, pp. 445–477.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foucault, M. (1988): Technologies of the self. InTechnologies of the Self: A Seminar with Michel Foucault, eds. Luther H. Martin, Huck Gutman and Patrick H. Hutton. Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Frey, R. (1993): Empowerment or else.Harvard Business Review, vol. 71, no. 5, pp. 80–82, 84, 86–89, 92, 94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedman, A. L. (1977):Industry and Labour: Class Struggle at Work and Monopoly Capitalism. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Friedmann, J. (1992):Empowerment: The Politics of Alternative Development. Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Garfinkel, H. (1984):Studies in Ethnomethodology. Polity Press. (Originally published in 1967.)

  • Gasser, L. (1986): The integration of computing and routine work.ACM Transactions on Office Information Systems, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. 205–225.

    Google Scholar 

  • George, J. F. and King, J. L.. (1991): Examining, the computing and decentralization debate.Communications of the ACM, vol. 34, no. 7, pp. 63–72.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilbreth, F. B. (1912):Primer of Scientific Management. New York: Van Nostrand.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilbreth, L. M. (1921):The Psychology of Management: The Function of the Mind in Determining, Teaching and Installing Methods of Least Waste. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gordon, D. M., Edwards, R. and M. Reich (1982):Segmented Work, Divided Workers: The Historical Transformation of Labor in the United States. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grant, R. A., Higgins, C. A. and R. H. Irving (1988): Computerized performance monitors: Are they costing you customers?Sloan Management Review, vol. 29, no. 3, pp. 39–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Guillén, M. F. (1994):Models of Management: Work, Authority, and Organization in a Comparative Prespective. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Habermas, J. (1987):The Theory of Communicative Action, volume 2: Lifeworld and System: A Critique of Functionalist Reason. Boston: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hales, M. (1986): Management science and the ‘second industrial revolution’. InRadical Science Essays, ed. Les Levidow. London: Free Association Books, pp. 62–87.

    Google Scholar 

  • Halpern, D., Osofsky, S. and M. I. Peskin (1989): Taylorism revisited for the 1990s.Industrial Management, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 20–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haraway, D. (1991):A cyborg manifesto: Science, technology, and socialist-feminism in the late twentieth century, inSimians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature. London: Free Association Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Henderson, A. (1991): A development perspective on interface, design, and theory. InDesigning Interaction: Psychology at the Human-Computer Interface, ed. John M. Carroll. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hirschhorn, L.. (1984):Beyond Mechanization: Work and Technology in a Postindustrial Age. Cambridge: MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Holmes, W. G. (1938):Applied Time and Motion Study. New York: Ronald Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jablonski, J. R. (1992):Implementing TQM: Competing in the Nineties through Total Quality Management. Second edition. Albuquerque: Technical Management Consortium.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, H. T. and R. S. Kaplan (1987):Relevance Lost: The Rise and Fall of Management Accounting. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, H. T. (1992):Relevance Regained: From Top-Down Control to Bottom-Up Empowerment. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, R. S. ed. (1990:Measures for Manufacturing Excellence. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, R. S. and D. P. Norton (1993): Putting the balanced scorecard to workHarvard Business Review, vol. 71, no. 5, pp. 134–149.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kearns, D. T., and D. A. Nadler (1992):Prophets in the Dark: How Xerox Reinvented Itself and Beat Back the Japanese. New York: Harper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kling, R. and W. Scacchi (1979): Recurrent dilemmas of routine computer use in complex organizations. InProceedings of the AFIPS National Computer Conference 48 Arlington, VA: AFIPS Press, pp. 107–115.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kunda, G. (1992):Engineering Culture: Control and Commitment in a High-Tech Corporation. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawler III, E. E. (1992):The Ultimate Advantage: Creating the High-Involvement Organization. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leavitt, H. J. and T. L. Whisler (1958): Management in the 1980's.Harvard Management Review, vol. 36, no. 6, pp. 41–48.

    Google Scholar 

  • Levitt, B. and J. G. March (1988): Organizational learningAnnual Review of Sociology, vol. 14, pp. 319–340.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lewin, K. (1951):Field Theory in Social Science: Selected Theoretical Papers, ed. Dorwin Cartwright. New York: Harper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lilienfeld, R. (1978):The Rise of Systems Theory: An Ideological Analysis New York: Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Luff, P. Gilbert, N. and D. Frohlich eds. (1990):Computers and Conversation. London: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lukács, G. (1971):History and Class Consciousness: Studies in Marxist Dialectics, translated by Rodney Livingstone. Cambridge: MIT Press (Originally published in German in 1923).

    Google Scholar 

  • Malone, T. W. and J. F. Rockart (1993): How will information technology reshape organizations?: Computers as coordination technology. InGlobalization, Technology, and Competition: The Fusion of Computers and Telecommunications in the 1990s, eds. Stephen P. Bradley, Jerry A. Hausman, and Richard L. Nolan. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, pp. 37–56.

    Google Scholar 

  • Maslow, A. H. (1954):Motivation and Personality. New York: Harper.

    Google Scholar 

  • McGregor, D. (1960):The Human Side of Enterprise. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mayo, E. (1933):The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilization New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Medina-Mora, R. Winograd, T. Flores, R. and F. Flores (1992): The action workflow approach to workflow management technology. InProceedings of CSCW-92, Toronto, 1992, pp. 281–288.

  • Meyer, C. (1994): How the right measures help teams excel.Harvard Business Review, vol. 72, no. 3, pp. 95–103.

    Google Scholar 

  • Miller, A. G. (1991): Transformations of time and space: Oaxaca, Mexico, circa 1500–1700. InImages of Memory: On Remembering and Representation, eds. Susanne Kuchler and Walter Melion. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Montgomery, D. (1987):The Fall of the House of Labor: The Workplace, the State, and American Labor Activism, 1865–1925. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mullender, A. and D. Ward (1991):Self-Directed Groupwork: Users Take Action, for Empowerment. London: Whiting and Birch.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, D. (1980):Frederick W. Taylor and the Rise of Scientific Management. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nelson, R. R. and S. G. Winter, (1982):An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Noble, D. D. (1989): Cockpit cognition: Education, the military, and cognitive engineering.AI and Society, vol. 3, no. 4, pp. 271–296.

    Google Scholar 

  • Norman, D. A. (1993):Things That Make Us Smart: Defending Human Attributes in the Age of the Machine, Reading. MA: Addison-Wesley.

    Google Scholar 

  • O'Reilly, C. (1989): Corporations, culture, and commitment: Motivation and social control in organizations.California Management Review, vol. 31, no. 4, pp. 9–25.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parker, M. (1985):Inside the Circle: A Union Guide to QWL. Boston: South End Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parsons, T. (1937):The Structure of Social Action: A Study in Social Theory with Special Reference to a Group of Recent European Writers. New York: McGraw-Hill.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pfaffenberger, B. (1988): The social meaning of the personal computer: or Why the personal computer revolution was no revolution.Anthropological Quarterly, vol. 61, no. 1, pp. 39–47.

    Google Scholar 

  • Quinn, J. B. (1992):Intelligent Enterprise: A Knowledge and Service Based Paradigm for Industry. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Riessman, F. (1986): The new populism and the empowerment ethos. InThe New Populism: The Politics of Empowerment, eds. Harry C. Boyte and Frank Riessman. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robinson, M. and L. Bannon (1991): Questioning representations. InECSCW'91: Proceedings of the Second European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, eds. Liam Bannon, Mike Robinson, and Kjeld Schmidt. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rose, N. (1990):Governing the Soul: The Shaping of the Private Self. London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Roszak, T. (1986):From Satori to Silicon Valley: San Francisco and the American Counterculture. San Francisco: Don't Call It Frisco Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sabel, C. F. (1982):Work and Politics: The Division of Labor in Industry. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, K. (1991): Riding the tiger, or computer supported cooperative work. InECSCW'91: Proceedings of the Second European Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work, eds. Liam Bannon, Mike Robinson, and Kjeld Schmidt Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schmidt, K. and L. Bannon (1992): Taking CSCW seriously: Supporting articulation work.Computer Supported Cooperative Work, vol. 1, nos. 1–2 pp. 7–40.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schutz, A. (1967):The Phenomenology of the Social World (translated by George Walsh and Frederick Lehnert). Evanston: Northwestern University Press (Originally published in German in 1932).

    Google Scholar 

  • Scribner, S. (1984): Studying working intelligence InEveryday Cognition: Its Development in Social Context eds. Barbara Rogoff and Jean Lave. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shaw, A. G. (1952):The Purpose and Practice of Motion Study. Manchester: Harlequin.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shores, A. R. (1990):A TQM Approach to Achieving Manufacturing Excellence. Milwaukee: Quality Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, H. A. (1947):Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization. New York: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simon, H. A. (1960): The New Science of Management Decision, New York: Harper and Row.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simondon, G. (1958):La Mode d'Existence, des Objets Techniques Paris: Aubier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Simons, R. (1995): Control in an age of empowerment.Harvard Business Review, vol. 73, no. 2, pp. 80–88.

    Google Scholar 

  • Star, S. Leigh (1989a): Layered space, formal representations and long-distance control: The politics of information.Fundamenta Scientiae, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 125–155.

    Google Scholar 

  • Star, S. Leigh (1989b): The structure of ill-strured solutions: boundary objects and heterogeneous distributed problem solving. InDistributed Artificial Intelligence, Volume II, eds. Les Gasser and Michael N. Huhns. San Mateo, CA: Morgan Kaufmann pp. 37–54.

    Google Scholar 

  • Stinchcombe, A. L. (1990):Information and Organizations Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suchman, L. and B. Jordan (1989): Computerization and women's knowledge. InWomen, Work and computerization: Forming New Alliances, eds. Kea Tijdens, Mary Jennings, Ina Wagner, and Margaret Weggelaar. Amsterdam: North-Holland.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suchman, L. (1992): Technologies of accountability: Of lizards and aeroplanes. InTechnology in Working Order: Studies of Work, Interaction, and Technology, ed. Graham Button London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Suchman, L. (1994): Do categories have politics?: The language/action perspective reconsidered.Computer-Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 177–190.

    Google Scholar 

  • Szasz, A. (1994):Ecopopulism: Toxic Waste and the movement for Environmental Justice. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taylor, F.W. (1923):The Principles of Scientific Management. New York: Harper.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thompson, P. (1989):The Nature of Work: An Introduction to Debates on the Labour Process, second edition. London: Macmillan.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trist, E. (1981).The Evolution of Socio-Technical Systems: A Conceptual Framework and an Action Research Program. Toronto: Ontario Ministry of Labour.

    Google Scholar 

  • Waring, S. P. (1991):Taylorism Transformed: Scientific Management Theory Since 1945. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weisbord, M. R. (1991):Productive Workplaces: Organizing and Managing for Dignity, Meaning, and Community. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wellins, R. S. Byham, W. C. and J. M. Wilson (1991):Empowered Teams: Creating Self-Directed Work Groups that Improve Quality, Productivity, and Participation. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

    Google Scholar 

  • Whalley, P. (1986): Markets, managers, and technical autonomy.Theory and Society, vol. 15, no. 2, pp. 223–247.

    Google Scholar 

  • Winograd, T. (1994): Categories, descriptions, and social coordination,Computer Supported Cooperative Work vol. 2, no. 3, pp. 191–197.

    Google Scholar 

  • Zimbalist, A. (1975): The limits of work humanization.Review of Radical Political Economics, vol. 7, no. 2, pp. 50–59.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Agre, P.E. From high tech to human tech: Empowerment, measurement, and social studies of computing. Comput Supported Coop Work 3, 167–195 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00773446

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00773446

Key words

Navigation