ORGANIZATIONAL TECHNOLOGY AND PROCESSES

A grounded theoretical approach was adopted to investigate the relationships between organizational technologies (knowledge, operations, material) and the processes of adaptive monitoring and exploi-Uve manipulation. The relationships are explored through a heterogeneous sample of 68 local and nonlocal business corporations located in California. Environmental monitoring and manipulation were found under certain conditions to be associated with organizational technology: knowledge technology was related significantly and negatively to monitoring and manipulation in nonlocal corporations, and to manipulation in local organizations; operations and material technologies were related significantly and negatively to monitoring and manipulation in nonlocal corporations; and, for local organizations, monitoring was related positively to manipulation. These findings are consistent with ideas of contingency theory: environmental monitoring and manipulation occur most of ten for organizations existing in uncertain or unpredictable environments; technological certainty, routine operations, and standardized materials are characteristic of organizations in stable environments.