Letting “The System” Do the Work

Abstract

Review of a multiyear computerization project at a government agency reveals the ways in which technological changes both empower and vitiate the people and processes they are designed to improve. Although the transformation of this agency's data-processing operations resulted in increased knowledge, productivity, and staff skills, the implementation of the changes affected different kinds of staff in distinct ways, particularly those who controlled the technology, those who used the technology to construct database tracking systems, and those who "consumed" the information provided in those databases. In particular, the technological changes engendered a greater visibility of work processes, thus sharply challenging the existing organizational hierarchy, which, in turn, undermined much of the potential of the changes.Rapidly evolving computer technology is generally presumed to promise increased effectiveness and efficiency in both public-and private-sector organizations. This is so as much in the office environment as in the manufacturing one. The usual analytic questions lie with the nature of the promise (particularly its potential to reduce costs and increase autonomy and flexibility), the achievability of that promise from a purely technological viewpoint, and the interaction of that technological promise with the existing social context. That social context influences, constrains, facilitates, and is in