A Decision-Making Approach to Technological Change
{'Code': '04050200', 'Directorate': {'Abbreviation': 'SBE', 'LongName': 'Direct For Social, Behav & Economic Scie'}, 'Division': {'Abbreviation': 'SES', 'LongName': 'Divn Of Social and Economic Sciences'}}
{'SignBlockName': 'Shelton White', 'PO_EMAI': 'swhite@nsf.gov', 'PO_PHON': '7032920000'}
One of the key aspects of the economic competitiveness of a                     nation's industry is its organization of production work,                       particulary in the face of industry-wide changes in                             technology.  How do organizations actually make decisions                       about developing or acquiring and then deploying new                            technology?  How do differences in organizational                               structure, organizational politics and change processes                         affect the utilization of new technology?  What effects on                      the acceptance and benefits of new technology does the                          timely involvement of shopfloor management, workers, and                        different layers of middle and upper management have?  This                     research will pursue these and related questions.  The                          proposals offers a preliminary theory of the politics of                        organizational decision-making around new technology and                        proposes to test the propositions of this theory in a                           detailed examination of twelve cases of technological                           change in four major U.S. - based manufacturing firms (one                      each from the aerospace, automotive, electronics and steel                      industries).  The individual cases will be compared to                          official company policy and with one another to generate a                      profile of each company's practice.  These profiles will                        then be compared against briefer profiles obtained from                         other companies in the same industry and across industries                      to learn how generalizable to a wider segment of American                       industry are the conclusions from these case studies.                           This study of organizational decision making should                             contribute to a social scientific understanding of the                          processes which shape the organization of work, to ongoing                      efforts to transform labor-management relations and to                          policy deliberations surrounding the impacts of                                 technological change.  Access to the firms involved grows                       out of an extraordinary larger joint program betgween                           participating companies and the Schools of Management and                       Engineering at MIT ("Leaders in Manufacturing" program).
{'FirstName': 'Robert', 'LastName': 'Thomas', 'PI_MID_INIT': 'J', 'PI_SUFX_NAME': None, 'PI_FULL_NAME': 'Robert J Thomas', 'EmailAddress': None, 'NSF_ID': '000455405', 'StartDate': '05/01/1989', 'EndDate': None, 'RoleCode': 'Principal Investigator'}
{'Name': 'Massachusetts Institute of Technology', 'CityName': 'Cambridge', 'ZipCode': '021394301', 'PhoneNumber': '6172531000', 'StreetAddress': '77 MASSACHUSETTS AVE', 'StreetAddress2': 'NE18-901', 'CountryName': 'United States', 'StateName': 'Massachusetts', 'StateCode': 'MA', 'CONGRESSDISTRICT': '07', 'CONGRESS_DISTRICT_ORG': 'MA07', 'ORG_DUNS_NUM': '001425594', 'ORG_LGL_BUS_NAME': 'MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY', 'ORG_PRNT_DUNS_NUM': '001425594'}
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{'Code': '1331', 'Text': 'Sociology'}
{'url': 'https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/download?DownloadFileName=1988&All=true', 'xml': '8822130.xml'}