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Impacts of IT on Organizations, Individuals

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Title: Impacts of IT on Organizations, Individuals


1
Chapter 16
  • Impacts of IT on Organizations, Individuals
    Society

2
Learning Objectives
  • Understand the major impacts of information
    technology on organizations, individuals, and
    society.
  • Consider the potential dehumanization of people
    by computers and other potential negative impacts
    of information technology.
  • Identify the major impacts of information
    technology on organizational structure, power,
    jobs, supervision, and decision making.
  • Identify some of the major societal impacts of
    the Web.
  • Understand the role and impact of virtual
    communities.

3
Case Wearable Computers
  • For years, many mobile employees were unable to
    enjoy the new technologies designed to make
    employees work or feel better.
  • The use of wireless devices that can communicate
    with each other and with remote IS is increasing
    very rapidly (m-commerce).
  • Such systems could easily include GPS (global
    positioning systems).
  • So far only a few companies make and sell
    wearables for mobile workers, but this is
    expected to change in the future.

4
Does IT have only Positive Effects?
  • While our society generally embraces IT, there
    are many people who believe that humankind is
    threatened by the evolution of technology.
  • We must be aware of ITs effect on us as
    individuals and as members of organizations and
    society.Questions arise, such as
  • Will society have any control over the decisions
    to deploy technology?
  • Where will technology critics be able to make
    their voices heard?
  • Who will investigate the costs and risks of
    technologies, and who is going to pay for that
    investigation?

5
Structure, Authority Job Content
  • Flatter Organizational Hierarchies
  • An increased span of control.
  • Blue-to-white Collar Staff Ratio
  • The number of professionals and specialists could
    decline.
  • Special Units
  • Technology center, e-commerce center, etc.

6
Structure, Authority Job Content (cont.)
  • Centralization of Authority
  • Greater empowerment and decentralization.
  • Power and Status
  • Online knowledge bases may reduce the power of
    certain professional groups.
  • Job Content
  • If job content changes, people may need training,
    re-skilling.

7
Personnel Issues
  • Employee Career Ladders
  • The use of IT may short-cut a portion of the
    learning curve.
  • Changes in Supervision
  • Electronic supervision.
  • Other Considerations
  • Job qualifications, training, worker satisfaction.

8
The Managers Job
  • IT changes the way Managers make decisions in the
    following ways
  • Automation of routine decisions (e.g,. frontline
    employee).
  • Less expertise required for many decisions.
  • Less reliance on experts to provide support to
    top executives.
  • Empowerment of lower and medium levels of
    management.
  • Decision making undertaken by non-managerial
    employees.
  • Power redistribution among managers, and power
    shifts down the organization.

9
Organizational Changes
  • The use of computer-assisted communication
    technologies leads to the following
    organizational changes (Huber,1990)
  • A large number and variety of people
    participating in decision making.
  • A decrease in the number and variety of people
    participating in traditional face-to-face
    communication.
  • Fewer organizational levels involved in
    authorizing actions.
  • More rapid and accurate identification of
    problems and opportunities, so better decisions
    are made.
  • Organizational intelligence that is more
    accurate, comprehensive, timely, and available.
  • Shorter time required to authorize actions and
    make decisions.

10
Impacts of Individuals at Work
  • Job Satisfaction
  • Dissatisfied Managers
  • Dehumanization Psychological Impacts
  • Isolation and the Internet

11
Impacts of Individuals at Work
  • Information Anxiety
  • Frustration with the quality of the information
    available on the Web.
  • Too many sources online.
  • Frustration with the guilt associated with not
    being better informed.
  • Impacts on Health Safety
  • Job Stress
  • Repetitive Strain Injuries
  • Ergonomics

12
IS the Individual
13
Social Impacts
  • Opportunities for People with Disabilities
  • Quality of Life Improvements
  • Potential positive uses of Robots
  • E.g., Case Laying Fiber Optic Cables.
  • E.g., Case Cleaning Train Stations in Japan
  • Improvements in Health Care
  • Crime Fighting and Other Benefits

14
Technology Crime
  • One of the major debates surrounding IT involves
    situations in which police are using technology
    to reduce crime.
  • Scanning Crowds for Criminals.
  • Casinos use face recognition systems to identify
    undesirables.
  • The U.K. police have, since 1998, been using a
    similar system in East London borough with 300
    cameras.
  • Many banks, gas stations, convenience stores, and
    even elevators use the system.

15
Cultural Lag
  • Ogburns Cultural Lag Thesis
  • An inherent conflict exists between the rapid
    speed of modern technological advances and the
    slower speed at which ethical guidelines for
    utilization of new technologies are developed.
  • A failure to develop broad social consensus on
    appropriate applications of modern technology may
    lead to
  • breakdowns in social solidarity
  • the rise of social conflict.

16
IT Society
  • Hearst (1999) presents three different views on
    how IT and
  • society are changing one another
  • View 1 Becoming socialized means learning what
    kinds of behavior are appropriate in a given
    social situation.
  • View 2 Newly internetworked IT allows people
    acting in their own self- interest to
    indirectly affect the experiences of other
    people.
  • View 3 There is a move away from a
    hierarchical society into a society in which
    boundaries are more permeable.
  • glocalization- simultaneously being intensely
    global intensely local

17
Virtual Society
  • The term virtual society refers to all components
    that are part of a societys culture based on the
    functional rather than the physical structure.

18
IT Employment Levels
  • A major attribute associated with automation is
    the replacement of people by machines.
  • There is no doubt that many people have been
    displaced by automation, but many more have
    gained employment due to automation.
  • Computers encourage competition, which leads to a
    decline in prices.
  • Lower prices mean higher demand, which, in turn,
    creates more jobs.
  • The computer industry itself has created millions
    of new jobs.

19
Is Mass Unemployment Coming?
20
Digital Divide
  • Digital Divide the gap between those that have
    information technology and those that do not.
  • Within countries and among countries.
  • In 2001, only 5 of the worlds population used
    the Web, and the vast majority of this 5 was
    located in the developed world.
  • Yet the Web has the potential to turn poor
    countries such as India into economic powerhouses
    dissolve rigid social barriers.
  • Cyber cafes - One instrument for closing the
    digital divide.

21
Globalization Free Speech
  • International Implications
  • Many countries, willingly or unwillingly,
    knowingly or unknowingly, are being westernized
    as a result of information about western ways of
    life and values flowing freely across borders.
  • Challenge to Free Speech
  • The problem of Internet pornography is very
    serious
  • Some countries take an entirely different line
    with respect to freedom of speech

22
Social Responsibility
  • Social Responsibility.
  • Organizations need to be motivated to utilize IT
    to improve the quality of life in the workplace.
  • Social Services and Privacy.
  • Conflicting public pressures may rise to suppress
    the use of IT because of concerns about privacy
    and Big Brother government.
  • E.g. Hong Kong ID Cards

23
Virtual Community
  • A virtual community is one in which the
    interaction is done by using the Internet.
  • Also known as an Internet community or an
    electronic community.
  • An Internet community may have millions of
    members and as a result could have significant
    effects on e-markets.
  • GeoCities (geocities.com) has grown to many
    million members in less than two years.

24
Elements of the Virtual Society
25
Types of Virtual Communities
  • Communities of Transactions - facilitate buying
    and selling.
  • Communities of Interest or Purpose - people have
    the chance to interact with each other on a
    specific topic.
  • Rugby365.com gets rugby fans, and music lovers go
    to mp3.com.
  • Communities of Relations or Practice - are
    organized around certain life experiences,
    situation, or vacations.
  • Communities of Fantasy - participants create
    imaginary environments.

26
Business Aspects of E-communities
  • Value creation arises in virtual communities
    because the community brings together consumers
    of specific demographics and interests.
  • This presents opportunities for transacting
    business, and for communicating messages about
    products and services.
  • E-communities can attract advertising revenues
    from advertisers eager to communicate their
    messages to a specific target audience.
  • Opportunities also arise for collecting valuable
    marketing information.
  • demographics and psychographics of members

27
Value Creation in Virtual Communities
28
The IRM Model
29
Lessons Learned
  • The major concern of most organizations today is
    how to transform themselves to a new
    organization adaptable to the new economy.
  • The key to survival is the ability to properly
    and quickly adapt to changes in the environment.
  • Change in the business environment is
    demonstrated not only in the increased
    competition and globalization, but also in
    industry structures, distribution channels,
    production systems, and more.
  • IT can also save organizations, helping them to
    adjust and survive.
  • IT is the major driver of the new economy.

30
Digital Economy Ready
  • Actions organizations can take to become
    digital-economy ready
  • Build strategic information systems and use
    innovations such as electronic auctions and
    exchanges.
  • Create effective and efficient communication and
    collaboration networks.
  • Examine possible new models and initiatives of
    e-commerce
  • Examine supply chains.
  • Make a continuous effort to increase
    productivity, quality, security, and
    effectiveness in every facet of the
    organizations operations.

31
Digital Economy Ready (cont.)
  • In moving to a digital-economy-ready status,
    carefully plan IT systems in coordination with
    the business plans they intend to support.
  • Increase recognition of knowledge, its creation,
    preservation, storage, and dissemination.
  • Support managerial decisions with IT and
    especially the Web.
  • Have the ability to process a large amount of
    data.
  • Facilitate innovation and creativity in digital
    economy applications by using intelligent
    systems.

32
Digital Economy Ready (cont.)
  • Carefully address the economies of IT in general
    and e-commerce in particular, including
    outsourcing, when moving to the new economy.
  • Properly build and deploy information systems
    that will provide for internal efficiency and
    connect to the many business partners.
  • Manage the increasing information resources in
    both business units and a centralized IS
    department.
  • Address organizational, personal, and
    socioeconomic issues associated with the increase
    use of IT.

33
Managerial Issues
  • Supporting the disabled.
  • Culture is important.
  • The impact of the Web.
  • Making money from electronic communities.
  • Information anxiety may create problems.
  • IT can cause layoffs.
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