Cultural Norms and Institutional Influences Shape the Way in Which Technologies Are Used in the Workplace. Examples Demonstrate How Regional Cultural Differences in Attitudes and Value Systems Might Vary the Work

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In today’s day and age most people would agree that the use of technology contributes tremendously to the functioning of a society. As well, they would agree that among the most productive aspects which shape the working environment would indeed be the use of technology. Studies have shown, however, that technology alone is not what shapes the demands of the workplace but that the workplace is influenced by the impact of institutions and cultural norms. Sociologists Stephen Vallas, William Finlay and Amy Wharton in their text The Sociology of Work have offered examples as to the ways in which institutional influences and cultural attitudes such as value systems vary the experience of the workplace in spite of the use of technologies. In their first example, Vallas, Finlay and Wharton illustrate the differences in how work is organized, assigned and perceived by employees in two exact same workplaces that are located in two different countries. They emphasize that regional cultural groups are rooted in deep traditional understandings of the customs they deem appropriate for the roles they perform in the workplace. Their 1978 Gallie study shows that people who worked in machinery operated mills in both France and Britain responded differently to (1) the workplace management system, (2) the attitude toward management authority and (3) the concepts about the role labor unions ought to play in the workforce. They responded differently to these factors as a result of French and British work customs despite having had the exact same technologies introduced to their workplaces (Vallas, Finlay and Wharton, p.11). Where managers in French mills assumed the decision-making process; workers challenged manager’s rights to control the production process; and labor unions mobilized workers to challenge authority figures, British mill managers worked by a system of checks and

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