Organizational Politics, Strategic Change and the Evaluation of CAD

Abstract

This paper uses a ‘case in sector’ analysis to investigate the extent to which the success criteria imposed by cost accounting constrains the ability of engineers to acquire and make effective use of computer aided design (CAD). The paper examines two periods of CAD investment in a sample of UK manufacturers. In the first ‘early adoption’ period CAD proposals were made by junior engineers on a locally initiated ‘bottom up’ basis. Proposals were made according to the dictates of conventional cost benefit analysis, engineering and accounting priorities were separate, and senior management were not involved. In the second ‘general adoption’ period there was a general uptake of CAD throughout the sector. The paper demonstrates that the evaluation of CAD was influenced not just by the rival claims of accountants and engineers, but also by long run changes in the operating environment, and by the control devices employed by senior management. The findings bear out the view of technological change as a socially negotiated process. However, it would appear that the oranizational practices associated with CAD evaluation are continually re-negotiated in the light of dynamic organizational interests and changes in the broader sectoral context.