Conference Theme

Within the last five years we have seen the rapid deployment of some relatively new technologies, for example, Enterprise Resource Planning systems (SAP, BAAN, PeopleSoft, etc.), the Internet and Intranets. These technologies follow a wave of advancements in new information technologies that are precipitating profound changes in how organizations carry out their activities. These technologies are enabling a wide range of social transformations such as: (a) global distribution of work; (b) radical re-engineering of organizational work processes; (c) interorganizational partnerships and collaborations; and (d) networked and virtual organizational structures. These radical social transformations of organizations are taking place at such speed that they are overwhelming for academic researchers. In this regard we are interested in field studies that discuss social and organizational issues around the implementation and use of these new technologies in organizational processes. We encourage you to submit both traditional and critical empirical research that includes (but is not limited to): investigations of management and worker conflicts, power shifts, dislocation of workers, work reorganization, global distribution of work, worker responses, information security and access rights. Questions of interest are: