Power, Technology and Flexibility in Organizations

Abstract

This paper critically reviews arguments about technology and their relationship to some positions which have recently been established in the sociological analysis of power. These positions reformulate the relationship between concepts of power and concepts of the organization. Each is seen as integral to the other rather than power being a merely contingent feature of some organizations. Emphasis is placed upon notions of practices and disciplines, ideas developed in order to link power and knowledge. The conception of organization analysis offered is as a cultural study, with power/knowledge inextricably intertwined in central focus. The paper reviews four broad positions in the debates on flexible manufacturing and articulates the conceptions of power and organization upon which each is premised. At the core of the paper, however, are issues surrounding the conceptualization of power.

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