Three approaches to technology in science and their organizational correlates

Three alternative approaches to organizational technology and their application to science and university departments are examined. Perrow's model of organizational goals provides the framework for generating and testing hypotheses regarding standardized units of production and their correlates on the one hand, and stability and change on the other hand. The results and implications of Perrow's model to the science system are discussed and elaborated. Enough evidence is provided to suggest that the notion of technology might be intuitively well understood, but its construct validity is incomplete and needs further investigation. Even in the sciences, with a limited selection of fields, one finds considerable differences among the three approaches to technology.