HUMAN NATURE, EMPOWERMENT, PRIVACY, AND PARADIGMS
IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STUDIES
Carolyn Wilson Green
Texas A&M – Kingsville – San Antonio System Center
(210) 680-2430
[email protected]
Mary Jane Saxton
ABSTRACT
The power and flexibility of information gathering and
monitoring technologies enable organizations to pursue very
different implementation objectives. Decisions concerning
how technology will be used to empower or restrict
behavior and access to information arise from fundamental
assumptions about the nature of individuals and how they
should interact with one another. A revision to Burrell and
Morgan’s sociological paradigm (1979) is proposed as a
means of clarifying the positions represented in today’s
debates over information technology usage. Two additional
dimensions describing beliefs about human nature are
presented:
altruism-self-interest
and
homogeneityheterogeneity. Examples of the four different perspectives
on human relations are drawn from philosophy,
organizational theory, and contemporary management
practice and prescriptions concerning empowerment and
limitations of power are explored.
HUMAN NATURE, EMPOWERMENT, PRIVACY,
AND PARADIGMS
IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY STUDIES
Information technology advances continue to
expand the range of options organizations have for
gathering information and monitoring system activity. The
tool-like quality of information technology can obscure the
fact that applications of the technology may be anything but
neutral in their impacts on power distributions and conflict
in organizational settings. Decisions concerning how
technology will be used to empower or restrict behavior and
access to information arise from fundamental assumptions
about the nature of the individuals who make up the social
system and how they should interact with one another.
Conflict in Burrell and Morgan’s Paradigms
Burrell and Morgan’s (1979) framework has
become a standard of reference for organizational studies
and discussions of methodological pluralism (e.g., Arndt,
1992; Gower and Legge, 1988; Hirschheim and Klein,
1989; Hammer, 1990; Anderson and Barrera, 1995). A
difficulty arises, however, when one looks more closely at
the issues of conflict and power in the framework’s radical
change-regulation dimension. The regulation paradigms
focus on the maintenance of the status quo and the radical
change paradigms focus on liberation from the dominating
forces of the status quo. What the paradigms don’t
distinguish between is theoretical perspectives that see
conflict and coercion as temporal realities that can be
overcome by radical transformation or emancipation and
those that see conflict and coercion as permanent realities
that may be reshaped by revolutionary action, but never
eliminated.
Anthropological Framework Extension
The extension of Burrell and Morgan’s framework
focuses on the anthropological aspects of social science
perspectives.
Its formulation is designed to permit
classification of social theories in terms of their beliefs
about desirable distributions of power – specifically, who
should be empowered and whose power should be limited.
The result is a framework based upon two key assumptions
concerning human nature: (1) whether unfettered human
behavior is more likely to be altruistic or self-interested and
(2) whether this propensity is homogeneously or
heterogeneously distributed.
Combinations of these
assumptions are used to define four perspectives relevant to
power distribution prescriptions -- pessimistic, optimistic,
elitist, and populist – each of which is expected to take
different approaches to questions concerning empowerment,
limitations on power, and privacy rights (see Figure 1).
Perspectives
The quadrant labeled “pessimistic” represents the
view that all people, when left to their own devices, will
choose courses of action motivated primarily by their own
interests. This propensity to seek personal gain at other’s
expense is believed to be homogeneous, i.e., shared by all
human beings. The pessimist prescribes universal
limitations on personal power in an effort to prevent the
amassing of power (and the exploitation that would result)
by any group or individual. Such views are found in the
work of Calvin (1993), Fayol (1949), and Jaques (1976).
By contrast, the view referred to as “optimistic”
holds that all people, when unhindered by external
constraints, will seek courses of action that are as beneficial
to others as to themselves.
The optimist believes that
human nature is such that individuals will recognize the
necessary connection between their own and others’
interests and choose to act accordingly. The optimist
recommends the empowerment of all members of a social
system so that they will be able to express their natural
human desire to find personal fulfillment in the good
fortune of others.
Proponents of this view include
Shaftesbury (1977), McGregor (1966), and Kohn (1990).
The quadrant labeled “elitist” represents the view
that although the majority are motivated by their own selfinterest to the detriment of the interests of others, there is a
minority who seek the good of others, recognizing that the
good of the whole is of greater value than their own
personal gain. The elitist prescribes limits on the power of
the majority and enhanced power for the more enlightened
few. This view is found in the works of Plato (1992), Mill
(1985), and Badaracco and Ellsworth (1989).
The quadrant labeled “populist” corresponds to the
belief that the majority are motivated by a desire to seek the
good of others and recognize that their own best interests
are linked with those of their fellows. The populist
recognizes an elite group, however, that is motivated by its
own self-interest. This elite group uses its relatively greater
power and resources to pursue personal gain at the expense
of the majority. The populist calls for empowerment of the
majority and restrictions on the power of the elite. Such
views are expressed in the works of Marx (1978), Clawson
(1980), and Nirenberg (1993).
Extension of the Burrell and Morgan Framework
Incorporating the anthropological views described
above into Burrell and Morgan’s framework produces a
framework characterized by eight perspectives rather than
the four identified in the original model (see Figure 2). The
upper quadrants (labeled as “Radical Change” in Burrell
and Morgan’s model) are relabeled as “Conflict” quadrants,
a more general term consistent with Burrell and Morgan’s
definition of the dimension. The result is a framework that
recognizes two major variants on the social perspectives
concerned with conflict. The first (those associated with a
pessimistic view of human propensities) call for limitations
on the power of all members in a social system. The second
(those associated with the populist perspective) call for
empowerment of the majority while limiting the power of
the currently powerful elite. The lower quadrants recognize
two major variants on the social perspectives concerned
with regulation – an elitist variant that calls for limits on the
power of most members of society and an optimistic variant
that calls for empowerment of all.
Figure 1: Anthropological framework
Self-interest
Elitist
Pessimistic
Limit power
of most
Limit power
of all
Heterogeneous
Homogeneous
Populist
Optimistic
Empower most
Empower all
Altruism
Figure 2: Extended Framework
Conflict
Radical
Structuralist
Radical
Humanist
Subjective
Variants
Variants
Pessimistic
Populist
Pessimistic
Populist
Interpretivist
Functionalist
Variants
Variants
Optimistic
Elitist
Optimistic
Elitist
Objective
Regulation
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