Information technology and ideology

Title
Information technology and ideology
Publication Date
2002
Author(s)
Saravanamuthu, Kalathevi
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Routledge
Place of publication
United Kingdom
DOI
10.1080/02683960210145977
UNE publication id
une:12038
Abstract
The scientific origin of information technology (IT) does not make it a neutral witness to the ongoing struggle over how scarce resources are used for generating more wealth. This paper argues that the manner in which the technology is used for capturing, reporting and disseminating information reflects the underlying dialectic of control among competing organizational stakeholders as they contest the logic of capitalist priorities. IT's politically intrusive role in the struggle for control is discussed through a critique of a people-oriented information system methodology, Multi view 2, which fails to problematize the struggle over workplace ideology. The paper highlights the significance of this shortcoming by analysing capital's ideological use of business process re-engineering for gaining workers' consent to their own exploitation. This 1990s' innovation portrays the subjugation of social interests in favour of the relentless pursuit of profit as a coherent social approach to transforming labour relations. In conclusion, it is proposed that IT's social role should be an emancipatory one, which, given the competitive-interdependent context of work, should facilitate the emergence of multiple worldviews.
Link
Citation
Journal of Information Technology, 17(2), p. 79-87
ISSN
1466-4437
0268-3962
Start page
79
End page
87

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