The new information and communication technologies : the driving force behind change or merely substitutes for change ?

• Francis PAVÉ
  Sociologue CNRS
  

Summary

When those in charge of the civil service want to improve productivity, they turn almost automatically to new information and communication technologies which are often seen to be the sole driving force behind change. It is hoped these technologies bring modernity, rationality and co-operation. In these circumstances, putting forward technological advantages remains one of the only possibilities for action in a civil service which can be changed by a decision to abandon managerial action. Francis Pavé explains that the change brought about by this technological breakthrough merely serves to shake up social mores without achieving any real improvements. Such improvements can only come about if the new information and communication technologies are only secondary to managerial action. This conclusion is also valid in private organisations, where too often new information and communication technologies merely play the role of substitutes for change, in spite of supposedly broader managerial margins for manoeuvre.

Summary translated from French by Rachel MARLIN.

• The entire article was written by Élisabeth BOURGUINAT.

To obtain this article, you can :

• download it for free in French (PDF help) or contact ecopar@paris.ensmp.fr (Reference VA030502).

The entire article appears in French in the Journal de l'École de Paris du management N° 38.