KNOWLEDGE WORKERS AND RADICALLY NEW TECHNOLOGY

IN A STUDY OF THE PREDICTORS OF SUCCESS AND FAILURE IN IMPLEMENTING TE CHNOLOGY, THE AUTHOR EXAMINES THE INTRODUCTION AND USE OF PROFILING, A N expert system intended to aid the insurance sales process at four in surance companies. Lutheran Brotherhood, National Mutual, Prudential, and Sun Alliance tried to get more than 5,000 field salespeople to imp lement Profiling. The study results indicate that in implementing a ra dically new technology, managers need to assemble ''constellations'' o f actions, consider the political ramifications throughout the organiz ation, manage the momentum of the project, and work to achieve economi es of scale.