Resources,Cognition and Action:An Study on Technology Application Mecha-nism of Social Organization
The digital transformation of social organizations is an a crucial means to achieve sustainable development.It is essentially the interactive relationship be-tween digital technology and organizations.In the research paradigm of the interac-tion between technology and organization,development perspectives such as techno-logical determinism(TD),technology structuration(TS),and the reciprocal-structuration theory have emerged.Among them,the reciprocal-structuration theory emphasizes understanding the interactive relationship between technology and orga-nization from the perspective of the agency of actors.Specifically,this interactive re-lationship is constructed by technology providers,agents,and users around the im-portance of technology in uncertain contexts.However,in this uncertain contexts in-volving multiple actors,the assumption of actor agency cannot guarantee that action will always occur.Latour's concept of"the agency of objects"emphasizes understanding actions from the results of their occurrence.This post-hoc analytical perspective holds that any entity that has an impact on the pluralistic connectivity network can be under-stood as an actor with agency.As a digital technology of"objects",the reason for its active action is actually the intention of the technology user in action,which is pre-sented through technology as a carrier.Therefore,understanding an organization's digital transformation from the perspective of technological agencies means paying attention to how the organization achieves its own development needs through trans-formation.In fact,the the digital transformation cycle of organizations tends to be long,es-pecially in the resource environment where social organizations are located,which is full of uncertainty.It is still unknown how technology can exert its agencies to meet the needs of organizational development.Therefore,returning to the practical con-text of technological application,analyzing the mechanism of organizational technol-ogy application from the perspective of technological agency is of practical impor-tance.This study adopts a case study method,taking the digital transformation of a social work organization in East China as the research case.As a typical social work organization,the core members of the organization all have professional back-grounds in social work,and the development of the organization has long focused on smart home care services.Since 2016,the organization has experienced the introduc-tion of the technical team to improve management efficiency,the launch of the new system to promote organizational image in evaluation scenarios,the establishment and differentiation of the technical department to optimize the system,and the accu-mulation of digital management experience.The organization started its transforma-tion early,went through a long process and has rich experience in transformation.This study starts from the process of organizational digital transformation and builds a three-dimensional analysis framework of"resources-cognition-action"to analyze how technology can play an active role in effectively operating within the organiza-tion.This framework outlines the three key stages of organizational technology ap-plication:firstly,in the initial stage of technology introduction,organizational mem-bers initiate system development based on the subjective expectation that technology can improve organizational management efficiency(performance legitimacy),al-lowing the organization to expand long-term care insurance service business(market resources).When the efficiency of organizational management is improved,the le-gitimacy of technology is initially generated within a limited scope within the organi-zation.Secondly,in the process of technological research and development,faced with the weakening of performance legitimacy due to uncertainty,the organization temporarily suspended this uncertainty through authoritative commands(task legiti-macy)and continued to invest organizational resources in launching the system.With the help of digital evaluation,the new system unexpectedly drives organiza-tions to update audience needs,expand community identity,promote organizational image,and expand their social networks(social resources).At this point,the instru-mental value of technology is evident across the entire organization,and the legiti-macy of performance is recovering,starting to grow in the same direction as the le-gitimacy of tasks,and driving the continued generation of technological legitimacy.Technology can take root in the organization and become a part of its structure.Thirdly,with the establishment and differentiation of the technical department,tech-nological rigidity has emerged within the organization:on the one hand,the forma-tion of cross team collaboration models and the normalization of system iteration;on the other hand,the technical execution standards within the organization are continu-ally refined,and other organizational behaviors are regulated,leading to an increase in member belonging and loyalty,and an increasing recognition of the trend towards organizational technicalization throughout the organization.The legitimacy of value is constantly generated through this technological rigidity,and organizations move towards technological maturity through continuous integration and leveraging of technological resource advantages.On the surface,the successful application of tech-nology by an organization is due to the active role of technology in assisting the or-ganization in effectively responding to the uncertainty of environment,meeting its multiple resource extraction needs.Essentially,it is the generation,confirmation,and strengthening process of technological legitimacy experienced during the phased application of technology.Returning to the reality,the increasing emphasis on digital technology by A social work organization is closely related to the changes in China's current institutional environment.Finally,through the analysis of this typical case in this study,we hope to provide reference for the digital transformation of similar organizations.
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