Digital Organizing

This textbook offers a lively and topical discussion of how digital technologies impact various aspects of organizations, such as structure, knowledge, collaboration, communication, identity, legitimacy and power. Taking a critical and nuanced approach, this engaging textbook introduces readers to central themes in organization studies and reflects on how changes brought about by digitalization have important implications for private, public and voluntary organizations, and on practical disciplines such as strategy, management, innovation and entrepreneurship. Contemporary case studies drawn from a wide range of international organizations demonstrate the real-world relationship between digital technologies and organizing. In addition to providing a comprehensive account of the role of technology in shaping organizational features, Digital Organizing concentrates on one particular type of digital technology, namely those with a developed user interface - such as social networking, wikis and collaboration software. The authors argue that these 'second generation' digital technologies, which offer almost seamless navigation and interaction, entail a unique redistribution and realignment of knowledge, expertise, resource and human resources that lead to a fundamental shift in the way organizations are structured and arranged. Updated to take into account the societal changes that have occurred regarding home working since the pandemic, this is an essential textbook for final year undergraduates, postgraduates and MBA students taking a module in technology and organization. It is also suitable for any student of organizational studies wanting to understand more about the role that the digital plays in contemporary organizing.