Avaliação participativa de tecnologia e sustentabilidade organizacional [Participative technology assessment and organisational sustainability]

Technology Assessment (TA) considers the knowledge on (possible ou probable) technological effects in the processes of decision making and exploring potencial technological risks with secondary effects. Besides that, it is a scientific process with the aim of contributing the public and political opinion formation relative to social aspects of science and technology. That formation is done in an interactive and communicational mode. It overtakes the legitimacy and technology conflicts problems. TA is dealing with a political process either it is related with a parliamentary level decision on the introduction or limitation of new technologies, or at the level of participative processes of entities interested in the labour sphere. In this study, it is concluded that the TA processes at the level of organization of work can aim to fulfill higher levels of productivity and performance of installed equipment, or even to increase the quality of the product or the production process. That does not mean necessarily increases in income of workers and employees. That is why the participation of these actors is also so fundamental to this process.