It's been a while since my last post, so I thought I'd link to something related to my professional doctorate. As part of the literature review section, I came across an article which referred to something called the 'Barley's Technology effect'. Barley wrote a seminal article in 1986 related to the installation and structuring of two CT units in two different imaging departments.
Of particular interest to Barley was the different outcomes for each of the imaging departments, despite having similar organisational structures. Undertaking s subsequent search for other primary based research studies, looking at the effect of introducing technology within the workplace, has resulted in finding a number of articles by Stephen Barley. All the work by Barley relates to understanding the interactions of people within cultures / organisations, following the introduction of technology and / or the symbolic influences within the workplace. Barley's work is cited in numerous research papers and provides a very useful platform for the critical evaluation of work within this field.
