The Ideology of Professionalism and Work Computerization: An Institutionalist Study of Technological Change
从制度主义视角研究一家健康维护组织的工作计算机化过程，分析专业主义意识形态如何影响技术采纳、承诺升级及个体担忧的压制。
This paper examines the process of work computerization in a Health Maintenance Organization from an institutionalist perspective. It investigates how one element of the institutional environment, viz., the ideology of professionalism, became a powerful presence and continually influenced the process of work computerization in the organization. Using ethnographic methods of participant observation and in-depth interviews, the paper identifies the different local meanings of professionalism held by organizational members. It then examines how the ideology of professionalism became institutionalized within the organization through a combination of micro-and macro-level forces. The paper also looks at the consequences of this ideology for the computerization process. Mainly, it shows how the ideology of professionalism facilitated a climate of acceptance toward computers, escalated commitment to the technology and was partly responsible for the suppression of individual concerns regarding work computerization. Finally, implications for organization theory and research are drawn.