Occupational cultures as a challenge to technological innovation

Abstract

This paper explains conflict over technological process innovation in cultural terms, drawing primarily on a case study of electric power distribution and strategies to automate its operation. The paper shows how different occupational cultures, "operators" and "engineers," use different mental models or cognitive representations of technology that are adaptive to their particular work contexts, but which give rise to conflicting evaluations of technological innovation. While these cultural groups may be motivated by a common interest in the successful performance of the technical system, they value different sets of criteria for system design and promising modifications. Despite the apparent contradiction, each perspective is internally consistent and rational. The paper argues that it is beneficial for management to consider these diverse perspectives carefully when planning technological innovation.

Memory objects in project environments: Storing, retrieving and adapting learning in project-based firms

“…A key issue that needs to be addressed when looking at ways to represent knowledge lies in the fact that different people, and in particular people with different educational and occupational backgrounds, have different ways to represent knowledge, which are adaptive to the knowledge manipulations needs of their occupations (e.g., Dougherty, 1992;von Meier, 1999;D'Adderio, 2003). 'Pragmatic' approaches have been particularly effective in investigating the properties of objects that mediate problem-solving activities requiring the collaboration of individuals with different objectives and ways of framing problems.…”

Organizational Green IT Adoption: Concept and Evidence

“…One stream of such studies focuses on the relationship between organizational culture and IT adoption [58][59][60][61][62][63]. For example, Hoffman and Klepper [60] found that organizations with mercenary cultures (i.e., low in sociability and high in solidarity) perform better than organizations with more networked cultures (i.e., high sociability and low solidarity) in technology assimilation.…”

Managing Cultural Variation in Software Process Improvement: A Comparison of Methods for Subculture Assessment

“…Tan et al has compared the predisposition of people to report bad news in software projects and documented the moderating effect of national culture on organizational climate (whether reporting bad news results in reward or punishment) and information asymmetry (whether hiding bad news is feasible over time) [62]. At the level of communities of practice, Meier has drawn attention to the need for management to take occupational cultures into account when planning technological innovation; conflicts may otherwise arise due to different mental models or cognitive representations of technology [43]. At the level of organizational cultures and subcultures, Huang et al have shed light on how cultural variations during implementation of company-wide information systems may challenge knowledge sharing and collaboration among groups [25].…”