COURSES:
The Development of Large-Scale Socio-Technical Systems

Syllabus -- PUBP/MGT/ISYE 6771A
 Management of Technology I (MOT-I): The External Environment 

Mondays 4:30-7:30 PM
D.M. Smith Building, Room 208
Prof. Hans K. Klein E-mail: hans.klein@pubpolicy.gatech.edu
School of Public Policy Office: D.M. Smith Building, Room 313, Georgia Tech

 Course Description 
MOT-I examines factors in the environment of the public agency or private firm that are essential to managing technology. Through an examination of federal programs in which public agencies, universities, and firms engage in collaborative development, the course will present a variety of analytical frameworks and practical methods for technology management.

The course is divided into two parts according to two conceptual themes: entrepreneurship and structure. The first part will employ a political science perspective on entrepreneurship, examining how development is shaped by participants' interests (e.g. firms' interest in profitability, federal agencies' interest in mission continuity, etc.) We will examine how entrepreneurial individuals or groups work with others in their environment to initiate and launch large technical systems. Analytical concepts include: coalitions, distributional equity, effectiveness, and political rationality. Practical techniques include: stakeholder analysis, negotiation, and budget bargaining.

The second part on structure will employ a sociological perspective, examining how institutions in the environment both impede and force innovation. Here we examine organizational rigidities, regulatory frameworks, and constitutional institutions. Analytical concepts include: dynamic conservatism, quality-based competition in regulated markets, forcing mechanisms, and system complexity. Practical techniques will include: project design, institutional design, and technology design.

Theory and methods will be illustrated with case studies of large technical systems. These are technology development programs that involve multiple actors in both the public and private sectors in the creation and implementation of multi-component, socio-technical entities. Examples of large technical systems include: commercial aircraft, the space shuttle, railways, naval weapons, the superconducting supercollider, nuclear power, and automated ground transportation. We will also examine the design of bicycles.

At course end participants should possess a solid repertoire of analytical concepts, practical methods, and historical knowledge of immediate relevance to the management of technology.

 Requirements and Assessment 
Class participants will be required to (closely) read 70-100 pages per week and to attend class regularly. The class will largely follow a seminar format in which everyone is expected to actively participate.

There will be two quizzes on the readings.

The major requirement will be a final group project in which students apply analytical concepts from the readings to a development project of their choice. This will require an in-class presentation.

Course assessment will be as follows:
Quiz 1 25%
Quiz 2 25%
Final project Paper and Presentation 40%
Class participation 10%

Office Hours
Mondays and Wednesdays 3 - 4:30 PM.

 Readings 
Most readings are on electronic reserve at the library ("Word"). Warning: Articles are scattered under various listings (MGT6771, PUBP6771, and ISYE6771.) To final all readings for the class, do a search by materials by my name: "Klein."

Listserv
Participants should subscribe to the course's electronic mailing list. Subscribe by sending the following message to listproc@list.gatech.edu

subscribe MOT_I_KLEIN <firstname lastname major degree>

e.g. subscribe MOT_I_KLEIN Hans Klein PubP MS

No subject line is needed.

WEEK 1 : Introduction (April 5)
In class video: The Pentagon Wars (video)

WEEK 2 : Federal Technoscience / Large Technical Systems (April 12)
Pinch and Bijker give us a way to think about technology design in terms of social groups, their frameworks of meaning, and their interactions. We can use this approach to understand system development. Lambright and Well define some of the major social groups in federal technology policy and their frameworks of meaning. Logsdon provides the history of a design process in the federal government. As you this history, think about who the actors are, what their meanings are, and how the final outcome reflects their interactions.

Pinch Trevor, and Bijker, Wiebe, "The Social Construction of Facts and Artifacts" in Bijker, Wiebe, Hughes, Thomas, Pinch, Trevor, eds., The Social Construction of Technological Systems (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1990), pp. 17, 28-50.

Lambright, W. Henry, Governing Science and Technology (New York: Oxford University Press, 1976), Chapter 1: "Science, Technology and the Policy Process: An Administrative Perspective."

Well, William G., Jr., Working With Congress: A Practical Manual for Scientists and Engineers (Washington, DC: AAAS, 1992), Chapter 3: "Congress at Work,"pp. 27-66.

Logsdon, John, "The Space Shuttle Program: A Policy Failure?," Science, May 1986.

WEEK 3 : Initiation of System Development (April 19)
How are programs begun? Lambright and Adams examine how individuals and groups in the public sector build coalitions to launch systems. Thomas looks at the dynamics within a private corporation. Can you recognize yourself in any of the actors in these accounts?

Lambright, Governing Science and Technology, Chapter 2: "Launching Technology."

Adams, Gordon, The Politics of Defense Contracting (New Brunswick: Transaction, 1981), Preface and Chaps: 1, 3, and 7.

Thomas, Robert, "Organizational Politics and Technological Change," Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 20, No. 4, January 1992, pp. 442-477.

WEEK 4 : Congress: Equity and Budgets (April 26)
The highest level of decision-making is Congress. Congress brings its own particular pattern of interests to development programs. Congress' most powerful lever of control is budgetary authorit. Program managers must be adept at negotiating over budgets.

Behn, R., "Policy Analysis and Policy Politics," Policy Analysis, Spring 1981, pp. 199-226.

Kuntz, Phil, "Pie In the Sky: Big Science Is Ready for Blastoff" in Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, 28 April 1990, pp. 1254-60.

Wildavsky, Aaron, The New Politics of the Budgetary Process (Boston: Scott, Foresman and Company, 1988), Chap. 3: "The Dance of the Dollars: Classical Budgeting."

WEEK 5 : Deployment (May 3)
Launching a technology program is difficult, but it is at least as difficult to deploy or implement the resulting technology.

Lambright, Governing Science and Technology, Chaps. 3 "Deploying High Tech"

Lambright, Governing Science and Technology, Chaps. 4: "Introducing Socio-Technology."

Jensen, Claus, No Downlink (selections)

WEEK 6 : Implementation and Its Discontents (May 10)
Having looked at the actions of agents as they advocate change, we now examine some of the structures of resistance that make change difficult. Resistance to change may reflect psychological, organizational, or technological factors.

Morrison, Elting, "Gunfire at Sea" in Tushman, Michael, and Moore, William, Readings in the Management of Innovation (Harper Business, 1988), pp. 165-179.

Schon, Donald, Beyond the Stable State (New York, Norton, 1973), Chapter 2: "Dynamic Conservatism."

Perrow, Charles, Normal Accidents: Living with High-Risk Technologies (New York: Basic Books, 1984), pp. 1-31, 86-100.

WEEK 7 : Structural Forces for Innovation (May 17)
Structures may promote as well as impeded innovation.

Mowery, David, and Rosenberg, Nathan, "The Commercial Aircraft Industry," in Nelson, Richard, ed., Government and Technical Progress (New York: Pergamon Press, 1982), pp. 101-161.

Salancik, Gerald, and Pfeffer, Jeffrey, "Who Gets Power -- And How They Hold On to It: A Strategic Contingency Model of Power," in Tushman, Michael, and Moore, William, Readings in the Management of Innovation (Harper Business, 1988), pp. 179-195.

WEEK 8 : Design of Structures (May 24)
Hirschman, Albert O., Development Projects Observed (Washington: Brookings, 1967), Introduction, Chaps. 2, 3, 4.

WEEK 9 : Group Presentations (May 31)
No reading.