Juha Laurila – författare

Usually firms introduce new technology in an incremental way, wisely seeking to minimise the adverse effects which business and employees might face. However, this is not always the case. Sometimes technological discontinuities occur when radically different technological systems and working practices are implemented, with the possibility of widespread disruption and conflict. This book looks at this topical issue through the experiences of the international giants of the Finnish paper industry - an industry at the cutting edge of fundamental technological innovation.

In recent decades an extensive array of changes and innovations have taken place in and across work organizations and networks of organizations and workers, facilitated by new technologies and technological forms. This has initiated an interest in technological change as one of the conditions for organizational action and researchers have begun to draw inspiration from a wider spectrum of conceptual issues, perspectives and theoretical traditions.This book is interested in the level of praxis and how this might be understood and theorized. It brings together a comprehensive collection of empirically-grounded and theoretically-informed research projects from studies of organizational practice which explore a number of technological changes in a variety of contexts. These are informed by contemporary debates within and across theoretical approaches including the sociology of technology, work and organizations, actor network theory, technology as text and metaphor, processual and political perspectives, social and business network-based approaches to the analysis of technology and innovation, and the social construction and shaping of technology.This book will be essential reading for researchers and advanced students within the field of technology, work and organizations and also organization studies and management studies.