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QUESTION:

"In considering the influence that technology in general or any single technology has over human affairs, it is ... necessary to consider not only the technology and its presumed "imperatives," but also the key human agents of the technology, the organisations in which they operate, and how these influence the course of technological change" (Rudi, 257).

Introduction
Over the years, technology has become a developing existence in companies and inevitably, companies are trying to integrate technology into their work processes. Today, technology has become a necessity in a company and it has been viewed often as an improvement in the efficiency of the workplace by companies. However, there has been a number of different views as to how technology will impact the organizations, the management and the employees.
Modern and critical perspectives will be taken to provide different insights on how technology is been viewed and understand. Since critical theory perspective is focused on challenging the modern theory perspective, we will be able to have a greater depth of understanding on technology environmental relationships.
The modernist theory emphasize on the need for power and control for profit maximization. The critical theory on the other hand, provide a social perspective on how technology has an impact to the workers and the working environment. In this essay, we will take a look at how the development of technology is perceived differently by different factors namely the modernist and critical perspectives.
Modernist Theory
Modern theory perspective believes in objectivism and that objective truths are vital in the management of an organization (Green & Crother, 2004). Modernist seeks truths that are objective and honest.
First and foremost, employing the use of electronic technologies such as surveillance can enlarge the managerial power where it is used to monitor the workers and keep track of their work behavior. (Volti Rudi 2012). An example can be found in the device called the Business Microscope which will send information on the duration that each staff spends out of their seats even to the extent of the duration they spent in the toilet.(John Hall, 2014) This displayed a high level of agency theory whereby managers are given the power of supervision so that they will act according to the owner's best interest. Also, by making use of surveillance control, the management will be able to access the workers' performance and based on their performance, the performing staffs will be rewarded accordingly. In the modernist point of view, the usage of surveillance technology might be a good way to monitor and keep track of every staff's movements to ensure that they do not skive. From the critical theory point of view however, the staffs are working under a very stressful working environment as they are constantly being "spied on" by the management. Although a working environment whereby everyone in the workplace are working to their fullest is achieved, the staff will not be happy working there and leads to individual resistance to the work place like playing absenteeism, looking for other work that has a greater autonomy.
Secondly, how the organization runs is dependent on the type of technology complexity that was used. Simple production technologies like mass-production requires routinized processes, defined job scope, and hierarchical authority that is able to keep a close watch (Volti Rudi 2005) which shows a high level of bureaucratic theory as there is a need for rules and regulations to keep the workers in place. In other words, mass production is heading more towards strict supervision orientation. Other production technologies that requires a higher skill level on the other hand like unit production and continuous process production, has more flexibility and the worker-management communication does not have to go through a hierarchy (Volti Rudi 2005) which further proves the presence of bureaucratic theory and the organization must employ the appropriate kind of control towards their workers in order to be successful.
From the modernist perspective, the use of machine for specialization has allowed the replacement of dispensable low skilled workers which will improve the productivity and efficiency as machines do not have human related factors like fatigue, sickness or procrastination. It also increase the management power as having machineries means that the need for skilled workers will be less significant.(Volti Rudi 2012) This can be linked to market theories as eventually, based on the output, the machineries will be able to produce significantly better than human labor.
Critical theory
To a certain extent, critical theory perspective also believes in objectivism. In critical theory, the interests of managers and owners seems to place greater significance of focus on profit maximization and productivity.
Innovative technologies were produced to maximize the productivity and to also increase the managerial power (Volti Rudi 2012) which demonstrated the exploitation of labor since more production can be achieved with the new technologies adopted, the workers become dispensable. With the adoption of new technology integrating into the workplace, workers become perturbed about the loss of their jobs caused by the machines and other technological changes.(Volti Rudi 2012). Workers will be working at the mercy of the management for the fear of being fired from their job anytime the management wish to do so. This means that management can extend the working hours or reduce the wages of the workers without any form of resistance from the workers. At the end of the day, management can get the workers to produce even more than the wages they earned. Workers will not get any profits earned from the production as it will go the owners instead.
Some parts of the manufacturing process proved to be difficult to automate and hence, some of the companies had discard the idea of using machinery to assemble and utilize human labor instead who have proven to be cheaper, swifter and more exact than machineries (Volti Rudi 2012). This shows the exploitation of labor by the management in order to gain more profit as labor cost is cheaper and can even proved to be better than using machines in some of the areas. Workers are exploited as profits go to the owner instead. They are only paid with wages. However, there will still be machines that can outdo human labor and sometimes, they are even cheaper than human labor and these lowered cost of production can leads to a lower price for the consumers to purchase, and owners of the company earning more profit as the sales will increase. (Volti Rudi 2012).
Nevertheless, although technology has caused unemployment due to the replacement of machines with human labor, it has helped to create job opportunities as well. Companies will need people of a certain level of expertise to operate the machineries. However, sometimes the lack of these employment opportunities can be caused by workers not having the appropriate skills to operate machineries or it could be because the of the company not willing or cannot afford to pay the workers as workers who are of a higher expertise will tend to demand higher wage.(Volti Rudi 2012).
In the critical theory point of view, unskilled workers are dispensable which was displayed on one of the scientific management strategies as by deskilling the workers, each workers will specialized in one particular field that are often minor, boring and constant work which requires just the appearance of a worker at the workstation and the readiness to do repetitive tasks. (Volti Rudi 2012). For one thing, it has led to a major source of widening income inequalities as deskilling the workers would mean that the workers will be paid at a lower wage as there will always be someone to replace if they are unhappy with the wage and overall, the efficiency of the whole manufacturing process(assembly line) would increase significantly and the profits reaped in from the sales would go solely to the owners making them richer. The ways to accomplish repetitive task is through the assembly line in which Henry Ford has pioneered. The theory that Ford has pioneered involves having the work coming to workers and this successfully resulted in a much lower production cost and in turn leading to the price of the goods reasonably priced. (Volti Rudi 2012). In the modernist point of view, this theory that Ford has created has displayed market theories as it has proven to be the "best practice" , efficient and cost saving in the manufacturing process. In the critical point of view however, although this theory proves to be successful, the work itself was repetitive and taxing on the body and hence, presented a high level of labor exploitation whereby although manufacturing process become more efficient, the extra profit earned will not go to the workers but the owners instead.
Although deskilling the workers might prove to be efficient at some point, in the long run, there is still a need for skilled worker as there can be unexpected situations and breakdowns that will require the skilled workers to look into.(Volti Rudi 2012).
Lastly, men used to be the dominating gender in the technology field. Women tends to depends on men when it comes to technology due to their lack of technological skills. (Wajcman J 2002). Today, we can see an increase in the number of women that are orientating their career towards the technological sector. However, some women chose their technological field according to their lifestyle. An example can be seen in the telemarketing field whereby workers are allowed to work at home due to technological advancement such as computers and webcams. As mothers tend to spend more time on taking care of their children than the father, it is not surprising there will be a greater majority of female teleworkers than male teleworkers so that the mothers will be able to take care of their children while working at the same time and thus earning extra income for the family. (Volti Rudi 2012). However, there has been beliefs that femininity was often being interpreted as incompatible with technology as it is a masculine field. (Wajcman J 2002). This shows a high level of sexual division of labor as it has been viewed that women are not suited to be in the technology field at all and men are seen as having a higher technological skill level than women and companies will tend to favor hiring male employees rather than female. (Wajcman J 2002)

Conclusion
In conclusion, although technology from a stand point of view is a huge leap forward from the conventional human labor, both the modern and critical perspectives had provided very different aspects of interpretations. From modern theory perspective, development of technology is been related to power, profits and control structure whereby the adoption of technology will be the most efficient way to maximizing profits. From the critical theory point of view however, provides an understanding on how the adoption of technologies will impact on the workers and the environment negatively despite profits maximized.
(1761 words)

Reference List
Volti Rudi, (2012). An introduction to the sociology of work and occupations.. 2nd ed. New York: Thousand Oaks. pp 77- 94

Volti Rudi, (2005). Society and technological change . 5th ed. New York: Worth Publishers. pp 287-295

John Hall (2014). Is your boss watching you? Surveillance device tracks employees' movements in the office, sends details of conversations and even times their toilet breaks . [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2552858/Workplace-surveillance-device-tracks-employees-movements-office-sending-boss-details-conversations-colleagues-long-time-spend-toilet.html. [Last Accessed 19/02/14].

Wajcman J, (2002). The Challenge to Social Theory. 1st ed. : Current Sociology. pp 347-363

Crother, D & Green, M 2004, Organisational theory, Charted Institute of Personnel and Development, London [ONLINE] Available at: http://books.google.com.sg/books?id=SHzeKFIuAGQC&dq=organisational+theories&source=gbs_navlinks_s>