Design Rules Volume 2 : Chapter 1 —Introduction to the Book

The purpose of this book is to present a theory of technical systems that can help us better understand the demands technology places on organizations. New technologies in general require new patterns of activity and reward some patterns over others. Quoting Brian Arthur:"When a novel technology enters the economy, it calls forth novel arrangements—novel technologies and organizational forms. The new technology or new arrangements in turn may cause new problems … . The whole moves forward in a sequence of problem and solution." My goal in this book is to shed light on the ways new organizations arise to meet the requirements and respond to the rewards implicit in new technologies.In this introductory chapter, I first motivate the investigation by describing three organizational “surprises,” which I believe can be attributed to new technologies. This book seeks to build a detailed and general theory that accounts for the surprises. It also seeks to explain how technology shaped organizations before the advent of the digital era