INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN THE POLICE CONTEXT - THE SAILOR PHONE

his paper examines the use of the cellular telephone in police agencie s as an example of 'low tech' innovation in information technology. It draws on qualitative data, including interviews, focus group discussi ons, and first-hand observations in American police agencies to illust rate the impact of cellular phones on the social organization of polic e work in the early 1990s. Dramaturgical analysis-the study of the sel ective use of messages to communicate to an audience-frames the study (Goffman 1959, Burke 1962). Dramaturgy reveals how the emergent meanin gs of information technology arising from changes in communication and symbolization shape work processes and authority. Significant differe nces in response to and use of the technology are discovered, and are best understood as consistent with the impressions members of the orga nization wish to convey to particular audiences. Technology both shape s and is shaped by organizational routines and structures. A natural h istory approach, which traces the changing impacts of technology, is n eeded to further specify studies of organizational adaptation to chang es in information technology.