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Loveable networks – a story of affection, attraction and treachery

Peter Dobers (Gothenburg Research Institute, Go¨teborg University, Gothenburg and Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden)
Lars Strannegård (Center for Advanced Studies in Leadership (CASL), Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm, Sweden)

Journal of Organizational Change Management

ISSN: 0953-4814

Article publication date: 1 February 2001

1023

Abstract

In an increasingly connected age, information technology can be argued to have become more politicized. The attempts to establish network technologies to promote the development of an information society are tokens of an increasingly vested interest that politics has in information technologies. Recognition of the entanglement of politics and technology is crucial in understanding contemporary organizational change. Instead of taking organizational stability for granted, we assume organizational change to be the norm. In this paper, we point to the many organizing efforts needed to prevent technologies from drifting away into non‐existence. We present two cases of IT ventures – one seemingly failed and one seemingly successful. Together, they illustrate the point that technological networks, as stable as they may seem, can only survive as long as they permanently fascinate actors from other techno‐economic networks and thereby attract their unconditional love, affection and commitment.

Keywords

Citation

Dobers, P. and Strannegård, L. (2001), "Loveable networks – a story of affection, attraction and treachery", Journal of Organizational Change Management, Vol. 14 No. 1, pp. 28-49. https://doi.org/10.1108/09534810110367084

Publisher

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MCB UP Ltd

Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited

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