Frank Blackler
Biographic Data
| ID | 355879 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Frank Blackler |
| GIVEN NAMES | Frank |
| FAMILY NAME | Blackler |
| SIGNATURE | BLACKLER F |
| AFFILIATIONS | Lancaster University |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 206 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 12 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1975 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Power, politics, and intervention theory
Accounts of “double stimulation” and “ascent from the abstract to the concrete” as discussed in classroom and workshop studies tend to overlook the dynamics of power and politics. Such dynamics are more obvious in less controlled settings. Two reports of collective learning in work settings illustrate the point. In one, the “germ cell” of a new approach was heavily contested as people manoeuvred to establish the legitimacy of their contrasting po…
Chief Executives and the Modernization of the English National Health Service
The popular image of an empowered, proactive leader fails to reflect the reality of senior managers’ roles in public sector organizations in the UK at the present time. This point is developed through a study of senior chief executives in the English National Health Service (NHS) between 2000 and 2002 when, in response to perceptions that the Service was in crisis, the New Labour government introduced a ten-year modernization programme backed by …
On the Life of the Object
Feuerbach] does not see how the sensuous world around him is not a thing given direct from all eternity, remaining ever the same, but the product of industry and of the state of society; and, indeed, in the sense that it is an historical product, the result of the activity of a whole succession of generations, each standing on the shoulders of the previous one, developing its industry and its intercourse, modifying the social system according to …
Organizing Processes in Complex Activity Networks
This paper analyses practice as activity and develops a frame-work for analysing organizations as networks of activity systems. The approach is applied in a study of a high technology company. Key tensions in the organization are outlined and a comparative study of three strategy development teams is described. Activity theory provides the means to analyse organizations as distributed, decentred and emergent knowledge systems. It is suggested tha…
Managing Experts and Competing through Innovation
An activity theoretical analysis is presented of an organization that is operating in a rapidly changing sector and whose competitiveness depends significantly upon the design skills of its engineers. The company designs high-technology make-to-order products. Like other organizations that compete through knowledge and innovation, the prosperity of this company depends upon its organizational learning, that is, upon the effectiveness with which i…
Knowledge, Knowledge Work and Organizations
There is current interest in the competitive advantage that knowledge may provide for organizations and in the significance of knowledge workers, organ izational competencies and knowledge-intensive firms. Yet the concept of knowledge is complex and its relevance to organization theory has been insuf ficiently developed. The paper offers a review and critique of current approaches, and outlines an alternative. First, common images of knowledge in…
Information technologies and organizations
Lessons from the past decade concerning the impact of the new information technologies on organizations are reviewed and an analysis is offered of possible approaches that psychologists interested in new technologies might develop. The paper begins with an assessment of predictions made in the late 1970s that the technologies would lead to job deskilling and increased organizational centralization. Lessons about the effective management of inform…
Alternative models to guide the design and introduction of the new information technologies into work organizations
There is an important need for a wider public recognition of psychological approaches to the design and introduction of the new work systems based on microelectronics. The economic and political climate in the UK has not been very supportive of social science orientations, however, and approaches which have been influenced by psychological theory have been limited in their effects. Contributions made by ergonomics, socio‐technical theory and part…
Evaluation and the Impact of Information Technologies on People in Organizations
Micro-electronic-based technologies will have profound effects on the relationships between people, machines, work, and productivity. Present policies towards them, however, place an overwhelming emphasis on technological and economic considerations. An “innovation approach” to the diffusion of technology predominates, linked to a unitary concept of organization, an antagonistic view of participation and efficiency, and a short-term “cost substit…
Social Psychology and Developing Countries
Organizational Psychology
Theory and practice within organizational psychology have been greatly influenced by humanistic psychology in general and theories of self-actualization in particular. Yet the concept of self-actualization is problematic, and may encourage a misguided view of people as exploiting each other and their environments in a hedonistic quest for satisfaction. Applied in an organizational context such an interpretation of the human condition would demean…
The impending crisis in job redesign
While job redesign ideas are currently attracting widespread interest, threats to their future acceptability can be identified. First, concerning relevant analysis and research, a confusion of terminology exists in the field and the practical implications of job redesign theory may not be fully understood. While considerable rhetoric has been associated with presentations of job redesign ideas, research designs have been weak with the claimed res…
Knowledge, Knowledge Work and Organizations
There is current interest in the competitive advantage that knowledge may provide for organizations and in the significance of knowledge workers, organ izational competencies and knowledge-intensive firms. Yet the concept of knowledge is complex and its relevance to organization theory has been insuf ficiently developed. The paper offers a review and critique of current approaches, and outlines an alternative. First, common images of knowledge in…
On the Life of the Object
Feuerbach] does not see how the sensuous world around him is not a thing given direct from all eternity, remaining ever the same, but the product of industry and of the state of society; and, indeed, in the sense that it is an historical product, the result of the activity of a whole succession of generations, each standing on the shoulders of the previous one, developing its industry and its intercourse, modifying the social system according to …
Social Psychology and Developing Countries
Chief Executives and the Modernization of the English National Health Service
The popular image of an empowered, proactive leader fails to reflect the reality of senior managers’ roles in public sector organizations in the UK at the present time. This point is developed through a study of senior chief executives in the English National Health Service (NHS) between 2000 and 2002 when, in response to perceptions that the Service was in crisis, the New Labour government introduced a ten-year modernization programme backed by …
Organizational Psychology
Theory and practice within organizational psychology have been greatly influenced by humanistic psychology in general and theories of self-actualization in particular. Yet the concept of self-actualization is problematic, and may encourage a misguided view of people as exploiting each other and their environments in a hedonistic quest for satisfaction. Applied in an organizational context such an interpretation of the human condition would demean…
Evaluation and the Impact of Information Technologies on People in Organizations
Micro-electronic-based technologies will have profound effects on the relationships between people, machines, work, and productivity. Present policies towards them, however, place an overwhelming emphasis on technological and economic considerations. An “innovation approach” to the diffusion of technology predominates, linked to a unitary concept of organization, an antagonistic view of participation and efficiency, and a short-term “cost substit…
The impending crisis in job redesign
While job redesign ideas are currently attracting widespread interest, threats to their future acceptability can be identified. First, concerning relevant analysis and research, a confusion of terminology exists in the field and the practical implications of job redesign theory may not be fully understood. While considerable rhetoric has been associated with presentations of job redesign ideas, research designs have been weak with the claimed res…
Organizational Psychology
Theory and practice within organizational psychology have been greatly influenced by humanistic psychology in general and theories of self-actualization in particular. Yet the concept of self-actualization is problematic, and may encourage a misguided view of people as exploiting each other and their environments in a hedonistic quest for satisfaction. Applied in an organizational context such an interpretation of the human condition would demean…
Social Psychology and Developing Countries
Evaluation and the Impact of Information Technologies on People in Organizations
Micro-electronic-based technologies will have profound effects on the relationships between people, machines, work, and productivity. Present policies towards them, however, place an overwhelming emphasis on technological and economic considerations. An “innovation approach” to the diffusion of technology predominates, linked to a unitary concept of organization, an antagonistic view of participation and efficiency, and a short-term “cost substit…
Alternative models to guide the design and introduction of the new information technologies into work organizations
There is an important need for a wider public recognition of psychological approaches to the design and introduction of the new work systems based on microelectronics. The economic and political climate in the UK has not been very supportive of social science orientations, however, and approaches which have been influenced by psychological theory have been limited in their effects. Contributions made by ergonomics, socio‐technical theory and part…
Information technologies and organizations
Lessons from the past decade concerning the impact of the new information technologies on organizations are reviewed and an analysis is offered of possible approaches that psychologists interested in new technologies might develop. The paper begins with an assessment of predictions made in the late 1970s that the technologies would lead to job deskilling and increased organizational centralization. Lessons about the effective management of inform…
Knowledge, Knowledge Work and Organizations
There is current interest in the competitive advantage that knowledge may provide for organizations and in the significance of knowledge workers, organ izational competencies and knowledge-intensive firms. Yet the concept of knowledge is complex and its relevance to organization theory has been insuf ficiently developed. The paper offers a review and critique of current approaches, and outlines an alternative. First, common images of knowledge in…
Managing Experts and Competing through Innovation
An activity theoretical analysis is presented of an organization that is operating in a rapidly changing sector and whose competitiveness depends significantly upon the design skills of its engineers. The company designs high-technology make-to-order products. Like other organizations that compete through knowledge and innovation, the prosperity of this company depends upon its organizational learning, that is, upon the effectiveness with which i…
Organizing Processes in Complex Activity Networks
This paper analyses practice as activity and develops a frame-work for analysing organizations as networks of activity systems. The approach is applied in a study of a high technology company. Key tensions in the organization are outlined and a comparative study of three strategy development teams is described. Activity theory provides the means to analyse organizations as distributed, decentred and emergent knowledge systems. It is suggested tha…
On the Life of the Object
Feuerbach] does not see how the sensuous world around him is not a thing given direct from all eternity, remaining ever the same, but the product of industry and of the state of society; and, indeed, in the sense that it is an historical product, the result of the activity of a whole succession of generations, each standing on the shoulders of the previous one, developing its industry and its intercourse, modifying the social system according to …
Chief Executives and the Modernization of the English National Health Service
The popular image of an empowered, proactive leader fails to reflect the reality of senior managers’ roles in public sector organizations in the UK at the present time. This point is developed through a study of senior chief executives in the English National Health Service (NHS) between 2000 and 2002 when, in response to perceptions that the Service was in crisis, the New Labour government introduced a ten-year modernization programme backed by …
Power, politics, and intervention theory
Accounts of “double stimulation” and “ascent from the abstract to the concrete” as discussed in classroom and workshop studies tend to overlook the dynamics of power and politics. Such dynamics are more obvious in less controlled settings. Two reports of collective learning in work settings illustrate the point. In one, the “germ cell” of a new approach was heavily contested as people manoeuvred to establish the legitimacy of their contrasting po…
Computer Science (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Epistemology (6 works) · Political science (6 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Economics (5 works) · Engineering (5 works) · Knowledge management (5 works) · Business (4 works) · Information Systems Theories and Implementation (4 works)