IT and changing professional identity: Micro-studies and macro-theory
✍ Scribed by Walsham, Geoff
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1998
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 68 KB
- Volume
- 49
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0002-8231
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
This article explores linkages between the use of information technology and changes in the self-identity of professional groups, in terms of how they see and describe themselves in relation to their work and that of others. Three micro-level studies are described, involving the work of loan managers in a particular bank, insurance brokers in the London Insurance Market, and professional salespeople in a pharmaceutical company. Results from the case studies are analyzed using concepts from the macro-level social theory of the sociologist Anthony Giddens. It is argued that such theory can help to us to generalize the results from micro-level studies and, conversely, that micro-studies of IT and social transformation are needed to add in the IT dimension to macro-level theories. The article offers a modest starting point for the investigation of IT and social transformation across multiple levels of analysis.