The Dynamism of The Alt.elite and The Organizational Change : The use of information technology in an antiquarian booksellers association

抄録

In this paper, we discuss how self-reflective individuals change organizations by using information technology in a conservative booksellers association. Individuals who are information conscious try to change their environments with the transformation of self-identities and the legitimation of selves. We use three key concepts within this study; (1) alt.elites who counter authority with new technologies or skills, (2) identification, which is identity as a process, and (3) legitimatization, which is the dynamic mechanism distinguishing the self from others and authorizing it. Alt.elites in the association introduced information technology despite meeting with stiff resistance from other members. Through the process of the introduction, the alt.elites have been changing the relationship between the self and others in the internal and external environment of the organization, leading to the legitimatizing the selves in the cultural, economical and management spheres. Finally the alt.elite changed the organization.