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Information Technology in the Police Context: The “Sailor” Phone

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  • Peter K. Manning

    (School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824)

Abstract

This paper examines the use of the cellular telephone in police agencies as an example of ‘low tech’ innovation in information technology. It draws on qualitative data, including interviews, focus group discussions, and first-hand observations in American police agencies to illustrate the impact of cellular phones on the social organization of police work in the early 1990s. Dramaturgical analysis---the study of the selective use of messages to communicate to an audience---frames the study (Goffman [Goffman, E. 1959. The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life . Doubleday, New York.], Burke [Burke, K. 1962. A Grammer of Motives and a Rhetoric of Motives . Mendan Publishing, Cleveland, OH.). Dramaturgy reveals how the emergent meanings of information technology arising from changes in communication and symbolization shape work processes and authority. Significant differences in response to and use of the technology are discovered, and are best understood as consistent with the impressions members of the organization wish to convey to particular audiences. Technology both shapes and is shaped by organizational routines and structures. A natural history approach, which traces the changing impacts of technology, is needed to further specify studies of organizational adaptation to changes in information technology.

Suggested Citation

  • Peter K. Manning, 1996. "Information Technology in the Police Context: The “Sailor” Phone," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 7(1), pages 52-62, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:inm:orisre:v:7:y:1996:i:1:p:52-62
    DOI: 10.1287/isre.7.1.52
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