SIG: People, Technology and Organisations (PTO)

Dr Jo Luck
Convenor

Archived SIG - no longer active

This SIG has amalgamated with the BOL and the GSS SIGs to become the new PETO SIG (May, 2011)

Purpose

To investigate the relationships among people, technology and organisations.

As both technologies and organisations undergo dramatic changes in form and function it is desirable to examine the roles and influences of technologies in organisations. Technologies can constrain people and organisations as well as enable them. For example, a computer is a powerful tool that can be used to assist people complete their work or study but, it forces people to act in certain ways and it may prevent people from doing certain activities that they want to do in the manner that they would like to do them. This is one reason why the use of technologies to support work and study practices is more complex than managers and technology vendors would have us believe. As something that constrains and enables people, technologies are important actors in the power struggles among different groups in society.

This SIG adopts a socio-technical focus to investigate how people, technology and organisations interact. This SIG will be of interest to researchers who wish to examine how people interact with technologies in their work and study practices.

Strategic Deliverables

Owing to the pervasive presence of technologies in modern society the research generated from this SIG aligns with all six goals of CQUniversity's Strategic Plan 2010-2013: learning and teaching; research and innovation; engagement; access, participation and success; people and performance; and resources, systems and infrastructure. It is imperative that we understand the role of technologies in our work and study practices given that technologies are capable of enabling or disenabling the university's goals.

Members 

PTO currently has 24 Members (Last updated March 2011)

Additional Detail

This SIG will research the interplay among people, technology and organisations. Projects undertaken as part of this SIG include:

1. Australian Undergraduate Students and Information Technology.
2. Course design and delivery implications of university students' perceptions of the usefulness of information and communication technologies for learning.
3. Authentic tasking in the curriculum.
4. Work structures and technologies affect on each other.
5. Knowledge management as a consequence of the work people do and the technologies they use.
6. Organisational issues with respect to learning and teaching.
7. ISL 2.0
8. Organisational change issues with respect to technology.