Using Technology to

Transform the Organization

JENNY F. ALPE, LPT
Information Technology in the workplace
3 Principal innovations during the Industrial
Revolution:
• substitutions of machines for human skills
and effort
• the substitution of inanimate for animal
sources of power-the steam engine-creating
an unlimited source of energy
• the substitution of new raw materials,
especially minerals, for vegetable and animal
substances
Technology Revolution
• we have seen the rapid adoption of many
innovations including mainframe
computers, minicomputers, personal
computers, networks, the Internet and
World Wide Web, assembly language,
higher level languages, fourth generation
languages, spreadsheet programs, word
processors, packaged programs, and Web
browsers.
Technology Revolution
• companies use IT as a new source of
energy for processing and accessing
information. This technology helps the
organization collect, store, retrieve,
and apply knowledge to solve
problems; IT converts the raw material
of information into usable knowledge.
• changed the economy, creating new
industries and ways of doing business.
Contributions of IT
• Provides new ways to design organizations
and new organizational structures.
• Creates new relationships between
customers and suppliers who electronically
link themselves together.
Contributions of IT
• Presents the opportunity for electronic
commerce, which reduces purchasing cycle
times, increases the exposure of suppliers
to customers, and creates greater
convenience for buyers.
• Enables tremendous efficiencies in
production and service industries through
electronic data interchange to facilitate
just-in-time production.
Contributions of IT
• Changes the basis of competition and
industry structure, for example, in the
airline and securities industries.
• Provides mechanisms through groupware
for coordinating work and creating a
knowledge base of organizational
intelligence.
• Makes it possible for the organization to
capture the knowledge of its employees and
provide access to it throughout the
organization.
Contributions of IT
• Contributes to the productivity and
flexibility of knowledge workers.
• Provides the manager with electronic
alternatives to face-to-face
communications and supervision.
• Provides developing countries with
opportunities to compete with the
industrialized nations.
Transforming Organization
• T-Form or Technology-Form
organization - an organization that uses
IT to become highly efficient and effective
• The firm has a flat structure made
possible by using e-mail and groupware
(programs that help coordinate people
with a common task to perform) to
increase the span of control and reduce
managerial hierarchy. Employees
coordinate their work with the help of
electronic communications and linkages.
• Supervision of employees is based on
trust because there are fewer face-to-
face encounters with subordinates and
colleagues than in today's organization.
• Managers delegate tasks and decision
making to lower levels of management,
and information systems make data
available at the level of management
where it is needed to make decisions. In
this way, the organization provides a fast
response to competitors and customers.
Some members of the organization
primarily work remotely without having a
permanent office assigned.
The company's technological
infrastructure
• features networks of computers. Individual
client workstations connect over a network
to larger computers that act as servers. The
organization has an internal Intranet, and
internal client computers are connected to
the Internet so members of the firm can
link to customers, suppliers, and others
with whom they need to interact. They can
also access the huge repository of
information contained on the Internet and
the firm's own Intranet.
Technology-enabled firms
• feature highly automated production and
electronic information handling to minimize
the use of paper and rely extensively on images
and optical data storage. Technology is used to
give workers jobs that are as complete as
possible. In the office, companies will convert
assembly line operations for processing
documents to a series of tasks that one
individual or a small group can perform from a
workstation. The firm also adopts and uses
electronic agents, a kind of software robot, to
perform a variety of tasks over networks.
INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY AND THE
MANAGER
Managers are involved in a wide range of decisions about technology,
decisions that are vital to the success of the organization.
Managers are challenged with decisions
about:
• The use of technology to design and
structure the organization.
• The creation of alliances and partnerships
that include electronic linkages. There is a
growing trend for companies to connect
with their customers and suppliers, and
often with support service providers like
law firms.
Managers are challenged with decisions
about:
• The selection of systems to support different
kinds of workers. Stockbrokers, traders, and
others use sophisticated computer-based
workstations in performing their jobs.
Choosing a vendor, designing the system, and
implementing it are major challenges for
management.
• The adoption of groupware or group-decision
support systems for workers who share a
common task. In many firms, the records of
shared materials constitute one type of
knowledge base for the corporation.
• Determining a World Wide Web strategy. The Internet
and World Wide Web offer ways to provide information,
communicate, and engage in commerce. A manager
must determine if and how the firm can take advantage
of the opportunities provided by the Web.
• Routine transactions processing systems. These
applications handle the basic business transactions, for
example, the order cycle from receiving a purchase order
through shipping goods, invoicing, and receipt of
payment. These routine systems must function for the
firm to continue in business. More often today managers
are eliminating physical documents in transactions
processing and substituting electronic transmission over
networks.
• Personal support systems. Managers in a variety of
positions use personal computers and networks to
support their work.
• Reporting and control. Managers have traditionally
been concerned with controlling the organization
and reporting results to management, shareholders,
and the public. The information needed for
reporting and control is contained in one or more
databases on an internal computer network. Many
reports are filed with the government and can be
accessed through the Internet and the World Wide
Web, including many 10K filings and other SEC-
required corporate reports.
• Automated production processes. One of the keys to
competitive manufacturing is increasing efficiency and
quality through automation. Similar improvements can
be found in the services sector through technologies
such as image processing, optical storage, and workflow
processing in which paper is replaced by electronic
images shared by staff members using networked
workstations.
• Embedded products. Increasingly, products contain
embedded intelligence. A modern automobile may
contain six or more computers on chips, for example, to
control the engine and climate, compute statistics, and
manage an antilock brake and traction control system.
THE CHALLENGE OF
CHANGE
Information technology has demonstrated
an ability to change or create the following:
• Within organizations
• Create new procedures, workflows,
workgroups, the knowledge base, products
and services, and communications.
• Organizational structure
• Facilitate new reporting relationships,
increased spans of control, local decision
rights, supervision, the formation of divisions,
geographic scope, and "virtual" organizations.
• Interorganizational relations
• Create new customer-supplier relations,
partnerships, and alliances.
• The economy
• Alter the nature of markets through electronic
commerce, disintermediation, new forms of
marketing and advertising, partnerships and
alliances, the cost of transactions, and modes of
governance in customer-supplier relationships.
• Education
• Enhance "on campus" education through
videoconferencing, e-mail, electronic meetings,
groupware, and electronic guest lectures.
• Facilitate distance learning through e-mail,
groupware, and videoconferencing.
• Provide access to vast amounts of reference material;
facilitate collaborative projects independent of time
zones and distance.
• National development
• Provide small companies with international presence
and facilitate commerce.
• Make large amounts of information available,
perhaps to the consternation of certain governments.
• Present opportunities to improve education.
SIX MAJOR TRENDS IN
ORGANIZATION
1. The use of technology to transform the
organization
• This ability of information technology to
transform organizations is one of the most
powerful tools available to a manager
today.
2. The use of information processing
technology as a part of corporate strategy
• Firms that prosper in the coming years
will be managed by individuals who are
able to develop creative, strategic
applications of the technology.
3. Technology as a pervasive part of the
work environment.
• From the largest corporations to the
smallest business, we find technology is
used to reduce labor, improve quality,
provide better customer service, or change
the way the firm operates.
4. The use of technology to support
knowledge workers.
• The personal computer has tremendous
appeal. It is easy to use and has a variety of
powerful software programs available that
can dramatically increase the user's
productivity. When connected to a
network within the organization and to the
Internet, it is a tremendous tool for
knowledge workers.
5. The evolution of the computer from a computational
device to a medium for communications.
• Computers first replaced punched card
equipment and were used for purely
computational tasks. From the large
centralized computers, the technology evolved
into desktop, personal computers. When users
wanted access to information stored in
different locations, companies developed
networks to link terminals and computers to
other computers. These networks have grown
and become a medium for internal and
external communications with other
organizations.
6. The growth of the Internet and World
Wide Web.
• The Internet offers a tremendous amount
of information on-line, information that
you can search from your computer.
Any Questions?