The Coevolution of Technology and Organization

Abstract

Abstract Consider three examples of technological competition and selection: Machine tooling technology. During World War II, two distinct technologies for automated machine tooling emerged. Numerically controlled (NC) machines replaced the series of shop-floor worker movements with mathematical equations developed by engineers, while record-playback (RP) machines recorded the movements of the shop-floor worker on paper tapes. NC machines were much more technology-intensive and cost-intensive than RP machines, but the academic-militaryindustrial complex of MIT, GE, and the Air Force propelled NC technology to completely dominate RP technology. (Noble, 1984) Electrical supply systems. During the late nineteenth century, both alternating current and direct current electrical supply systems served to deliver electricity to consumers. Each had different advantages: AC systems were able to span greater geographic distances, whereas DC systems were more cost-efficient in densely populated areas. In different countries, electrical supply systems took different forms due to the political ideologies and their attendant regulation (Hughes, 1983). In the U.S., the victory of AC systems over DC systems resulted more from Edison’s decision to pull financial support from his DC technology development than from any inherent weaknesses in the technology. (David, 1987)