This book provides one of the first clear-headed assessments of information technology and organizational transformation. Its virtue is not so much in its recognition of the importance of the subject; speculations on this topic have been rampant for more than a decade. Rather, it is unusual and unusually useful, because it avoids speculation in favor of conceptually coherent accounts grounded in empirical study of actual organizations. The chapters contained in this volume move beyond the superficial glorification of information technology as an extraordinary instrument of social change, and straight to the heart of the mechanisms of change as they play out in everyday organizational life. In the process, they reaffirm that the real story of information technology in organizations is more about people than about technology. Taken together, they provide an important contribution to the intellectual foundations of one of the most interesting developments in decades.

Preface - John King
Introduction - JoAnne Yates and John Van Maanen
PART ONE: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES ON INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION
Introduction - JoAnne Yates and John Van Maanen
The Role of Information Technology in the Transformation of Work - Susan J Winter and S Lynne Taylor
A Comparison of Post-Industrial, Industrial and Proto-Industrial Organization
Information Technology and Organizational Change in the British Census, 1801-1911 - Martin Campbell Kelly
Texas Politics and the Fax Revolution - Jonathan Coopersmith
PART TWO: THE RHETORIC OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION
Introduction - John Van Maanen and JoAnne Yates
Computerization Movements - Suzanne Iacono and Robert Kling
The Rise of the Internet and Distant Forms of Work
Politically Wired - Charles Bazerman
The Changing Places of Political Participation in the Age of the Internet
Information Technology in a Culture of Complaint - John R Weeks
Derogation, Deprecation and the Appropriationn of Organizational Transformation
PART THREE: THE PRACTICE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSFORMATION
Introduction - John Van Maanen and JoAnne Yates
Big Brother Goes Portable - Brian Pentland
Enduser Computing in the Internal Revenue Service
Information Technology in the Police Context - Peter K Manning
The ¿Sailor¿ Phone
Improvising Organizational Transformation over Time - Wanda J Orlikowski
A Situated Change Perspective
Transforming Work through Information Technology - Daniel Robey and Sundeep Sahay
A Comparative Case Study of Geographic Information Systems in County Government
Steps toward an Ecology of Infrastructure - Susan Leigh Star and Karen Ruhleder
Design and Access for Large Information Spaces