Martin Harris

Technology, innovation and post‐bureaucracy: the case of the British Library

Purpose – In recent years it has been argued that the widespread adoption of new information and communication technologies (ICTs) presages the “end” of bureaucracy and its replacement by new and more flexible organisational forms. The purpose of this paper is to question contemporary accounts of “the network enterprise” and “the virtual organisation”, arguing that these are founded on a logic which abstracts innovation from its institutional and organisational context.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a case study analysis of the British Library to explore the relationship between ICTs and new organisational forms.Findings – The case study evidence suggests that there is a need to go beyond the binary opposition of “bureaucratic” and “post‐bureaucratic” forms. The evidence also shows that the bureaucratic form was associated with the institutional legacies, expertise and practices that are crucial in fostering innovation.Originality/value – The paper shows that the bureaucratic context offers ...

Post bureaucracy and the politics of forgetting

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the imputed “fall” and subsequent “reinvention” of the BBC during the 1990s, relating a managerialist “politics of forgetting” to the broader ideological narratives of “the post bureaucratic turn”.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws on a wide range of primary and secondary sources, combining case study analysis with long‐term historical perspectives on organisational change.Findings – The paper shows the ways in which public sector professionals contested “post bureaucratic” pressures for marketisation and organisational disaggregation.Originality/value – The paper shows the ways in which large‐scale technological, regulatory and organisational change was mediated by cultural continuities and recurrent “surges” of managerial control.

F. W. Taylor and the legacies of systemization

F. W. Taylor (1856–1915) is a seminal figure in the history of industrial society and a key reference point for the study of technology, work and the organization of production. This paper locates Taylors work in the broad historical development of formal systems and ‘rational’ management. The paper notes the historical continuities that link the ‘technologies of control’ which emerged in US industry during Taylors lifetime and those which appear in contemporary work organizations. This is counterpoised with recent comment on the information technology and the ‘end’ of Taylorist work practices.

ICT and institutional change at the British Library

The new information and communications technologies (ICTs) have stimulated a wide-ranging debate on the future of learning institutions in the age of the ‘network society’. Recent academic commentary has tended to equate globalized information networks with commodification, the delocalization of learning, and threats to the public service traditions of higher education. This paper investigates the extensive programme of digitisation now under way at the British Library (BL), one of the worlds largest knowledge providers and a key player in the UK research libraries network. The findings presented in the paper do not reflect the belief that the spread of global information networks will undermine the public service remit of large knowledge providers such as the BL – but the evidence does show that these providers are becoming more connected to other players in the digital environment, with inherently complex, and potentially far-reaching implications for the production of knowledge in the emergent ‘network society’.

Children’s services in the age of information technology: What matters most to frontline professionals:

Summary The last two decades have seen information systems featuring prominently in calls for the modernisation of the UK social care system. However, critics have maintained that these systems are of limited value to social care professionals whose design and implementation is driven by a preoccupation with performance management and a culture of professional audit and accountability, precepts of ‘managerialism’. However, this area of research has often suffered from lack of focus on how technological changes affect public administration and service delivery and often characterises technology as a politically neutral tool detached from its socio-political context whilst also ignoring the strategic predispositions of human service professionals. Findings This research was conducted in three local authorities in England. Using the ‘technological affordance’ perspective, we contend that the way social workers interact with Integrated Children’s System is shaped by the discord between socio-historically evolved professional values epitomising the social work profession and managerialist reforms promoting standardised ways of performing it. Application Integrated Children’s System has transformed social work from an art to a technical activity, dominated by unimaginative and routinised working practices. Social workers are becoming peripheral figures and this is where social work needs to be reclaimed. Policymakers need to rethink taken for granted assumptions that practitioners would replace their professional expertise with technology and realise that the effective use of Integrated Children’s System depends on bureau-professionalised judgements of social workers. Whilst specific patterns of technology usage can be developed and institutionalised, real objectives of children’s social services should not be sacrificed.