New technology in the likeness of old organizations.

As part of a social science research tradition that has focused on the rela tion between techniques and organizations, this empirical analysis of how a firm in the tertiary sector introduced groupware sheds light on the cogenc y of the games played by actors and on the issues related to power that cry stalize around technology. The new technology has revived arguments based o n technical determinism, but these are brought under question. For one thin g, technology and organization are 'coconstructed'; they determine each oth er. There is no simple, one-way impact from technology to organizations. Fo r another, new technology is not 'automatically' adopted. Depending on acto rs' strategies and social interests, it is put to selective uses. (C) 2001 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.