To the Reader

In “The tragedy of ISM” we researched the competencies and skills that are required for effective and efficient use of Information Technology (IT), by the means of six office workers who are trying to survive in today’s complex information society. The authors, the scriptwriters group as presented in ‘Note’, found that not only technical IT skills are important. General interpersonal skills and social networking skills within groups, friendships and organizations are increasingly indispensible. IT management is indeed regarded as one of the core forces that drive business forward and bring value to organizations.

Dramatis Personae

A Manager who has invested a fortune in IT system
A Manager who is about to invest in an ITsystem
A Manager who has no money and cannot invest in IT systems
A desperate employee who does not know how to use IT
An experienced employee who knows how to use IT
A geeky IT specialist

 

Scene: Two rich companies and one, not so rich company.

 

Prologue

One of the most significant trends since the 1990s has been the sharp increase in global business activities. Information technology as the key industry of the modernization since last century is becoming an indispensable part in the process of globalisation. The explosive growth of the internet and the World Wide Web has been of equal or even greater significance. The development of information technology brings people not only opportunities, but also risks and challenges.

People always have to think about how to make full use of these opportunities and solve the problems and avoid the risks, especially when they are living in the so competitive world. For the business people, this is also a process of how they gain competitive advantages and how they create values in the global market. There are many different ways for people to add value to the business. In business, value is mostly determined by the customers. Business value should be added to these 3 parts: the customer franchise management, the new products or services, and the channel management.

 

Why I think the information technology is important?

Information technology is playing a more and more important role in our modern life. IT industry is getting involved in almost all the areas of our life, people can hardly imagine the days without mobile phones or computers. Then here come the questions: why we think the information technology is so important? What exactly the information technology is?

According to the definition from Information the Information Technology Association of America (ITAA), the information technology is “the study, design, development, implementation, support or management of computer-based information systems, particularly software applications and computer hardware.” IT deals with the use of electronic computers and computer software to convert, store, protect, process, transmit, and securely retrieve information. The information technology is a series of advanced technologies or applications for people to access, manage the information. In the business sector, an advanced developed information technology and information management means greater worldwide standardization of computing platforms, vastly increased global information flows; and all of these provide people chances to enhance the human competencies and variety of enrichment and collaboration.

 

 

To understand the information management, it is essential to understand the agendas of information technology as people attempt to extend their global reach throughout the economies and customers of many countries in the global market. Information technology agendas reflect current trends in the global economy: greater integration of mature markets, newly emerging markets, common currencies (e.g., the Euro), new trading partners, and the overriding impact of the Internet and its related technologies in stimulating global business activity. The information technology industry also reflects the customers’ needs in the global market. Since this is very useful and important for the global business today, we realize the importance of the information technology.

 

IT skills

To use information technology to provide people competencies and variety of collaboration, people have to grasp some essential IT skills. For different work, people need to master different IT skills, but there are also some basic IT skills, which should be familiar for almost everyone. There seem to be 4 basic skills in the information management and technology management: orchestration; appropriation; enrichment; and collaboration. In general, orchestration means the ability to map the information flows to the clients’ needs. Appropriation can be described as the ability to convince the different clients to use the internet in a business context. Enrichment is the ability to help the clients use the services to produce value. Collaboration means the ability of teams or groups to work together to solve the clients’ problems.

In the following posts, we will try to find out, how people use information technology to enhance the human competencies and what skills will be needed for using the information technology to enhance business benefits and create values in organizations.

 

Enjing Zhan

Prologue – continued

Acceptance

People are holding different attitudes towards the explosive development of information technology. Nowadays, the information technology is widely used in our modern life, but it doesn’t mean that, the information technology is also widely accepted among the users. User acceptance can be considered as the demonstrable willingness within a user group to employ information technology for the tasks it is designed to support.

According to Rogers (1995) innovation diffusion theory, there are 5 key characteristics of a technology which determine its acceptance of users: relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability.

1. Here the relative advantage means the extent to which information technology can offer improvements over available tools. The more improvements the information technology can offer to the users, the easier for them to accept the technology. If an IT application is with relative advantages and has a wider extent of improvements, there will be no doubt that it will be more popular and wider accepted by the users.

2. The compatibility here means the consistency of information technology with social practices and norms among its users. The compatibility with existing practices and beliefs makes the information technology application much easier be accepted by the users. It is more convenient and safer for the users to use an IT application with compatibility with existing practices and beliefs.

3. Complexity here can be considered as how difficult it is for the uses to use or learn the IT application. It is obviously that the users prefer the IT application with low complexity. It is very important for the users whether the information technology application is easy for them to use or handle. No one will prefer to accept a more complex IT application.

4. The trialability means the opportunity to try an information technology application or an IT innovation before committing to use it. These opportunities provide the users time to get use of the IT application or the IT innovation. During the trial, the users can find out the advantages and the disadvantages of the IT application or IT innovation, and then they can make decision whether to use it. Nowadays there are more and more information technology companies which provide the trial opportunities to the users.

5. The observability here can be defined as the extent to which the technology’s gains are clear to see. For the users, an information technology application with fine observability might be much more acceptable. The users may clear see the benefits or risks from the information technology with fine observability.  

Additionally, usability is another characteristic of information technology which may have influence to the acceptance. Usability is always linked to the qualities of the information technology. Information technology with great usability emphasis on how can make the users operate a technology effectively, efficiently and satisfactorily.

In general, the information technology applications or IT innovation which affords relative advantages, compatibility with existing practices and beliefs, low complexity, potential trialability, and observability, will be more extensively and rapidly accepted than an IT application or innovation with the opposite characteristics. In particular, three of these characteristics seem to have the greatest influence in the acceptance of information technology: relative advantage, compatibility, and lack of complexity. For a brief summing-up, an acceptable information technology is one that appropriately satisfies the requirements of its users for utility, usability, and cost.

 

Enjing Zhan.

Act1: Catch the value if you can – Scene 1

A manager who has invested a fortune in IT

 

If you are a manger, who has already invested a fortune on information technology system, how can you catch the value from information technology system? There are several information systems which are applied by organizations, such as ‘Customer relationship management’(CRM) system, which is a multifaceted process, mediated by a set of information technologies, focuses on creating two-way exchanges with customers so that firms have an intimate knowledge of their needs, wants, and buying patterns; Supply chain management (SCM) system, which is the process of planning, implementing and controlling the operations of the supply chain as efficiently as possible; Enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, which attempts to integrate several data sources and processes of an organization into an unified system. Certainly, others IT methods also should be used, such as web service.

 

Organizational investments in information technology systems could support planning, decision-making, and communication process to organization. However, IT systems cannot improve organizational performance if they aren’t used correctly. Unfortunately, resistance to end-user systems by managers and professionals is a widespread problem. To better predict, explain, and increase user acceptance, mangers need to better understand why people accept or reject IT. Therefore, the technology acceptance model (TAM), which is currently the dominant referent theoretical frameworks explaining user acceptance of IT was introduced. Many researches have found that as individuals gained direct experience with a system over time, they relied less on social information in forming perceived usefulness and intention but continued to judge a system’s on the basis potential status benefits resulting from use. Thus, training needs to be given to employees by managers. Technology training is often the first time most employees have direct hands-on experience with new software and therefore provides employees with information to assess usability. However, Training is important not only to facilitate learning how to use a new technology but also to manage employee perceptions and attitudes about the new technology.

 

It is found that perceived ease of use and two motivators (intrinsic rewards and perceived usefulness) are strongly correlated with user information technology success. Managers should teach users how to use specific applications and how to use different options that allow them to have control or that encourage them to explore the capabilities of the system. The provision of opportunities to gain experience in using IT system, specifically, for new or inexperienced users, would be beneficial in encouraging increased user IT success. In addition, a successful manager should make sure that IT systems are updated in time and adapt to new circumstance. In order to provide effective training to employees, mangers should combine the IT development with Human Resource Management. Firstly, mangers should employ right IT specialists who could provide effective IT training. Secondly, mangers should build a harmony atmosphere within organization which is suitable for employees to study, and let them know who can help them when problems occur. Finally, mangers should introduce a feasible and effective monitoring and evaluation system. It enables they could control the process of IT training.

 

 

Jun Wu Li

 

 

 

 

Act1: Catch the value if you can – Scene 2

A Manager who is about to invest in IT

 

You may be building up happy expectations to your new business life…yeah! New fancy systems are coming to your department!!!! Systems will help all employees carry out their projects, their works in more efficient ways. Everything will be fine, life will be changed drastically, you may not cry anymore for no-win situation in your department! The great systems will make EVERYTHING fine.

 

Well, please hold on! As much as its benefit, there are several potential risks for using IT. Systems are not the answer to life. As long as every single employee who will be concerned in IT are not well posted and prepared, systems might not bring any profits to the organization and end up just wasting the cost. Therefore in order to make use of IT effectively, assessing and mitigating potential risks for IT is inevitable.

 

Introducing IT systems is accompanied by huge risks for organizations. If systems are not used by the end users properly, it will rather bring miserable disadvantages. Therefore do not let the IT professionals everything about systems! Do not let them designing or purchasing systems without your consulting! Strong commitments through ongoing monitoring and assessment from the manager are necessary.

 

Bellow are factors one should consider, as well as miserable disasters that might be brought to you…

 

Validity of Systems:

Communication between the IT technicians, the managers, and the end users is necessary. The information system should be the one that is related to the principles of work for the company. It is quite critical to recognize and focus on how systems can enhance the organization profits. Systems and software themselves are not everything; the kind of value they can bring to work is the key.

 

Performance:

Have you consulted any of your employees on the possible implementation of a new information technology system? Would they be happy to have a new system? Would they accept such change? Some of them have been doing work on their own ways for many years. They might have developed their own know-how. New information technology would imply for your employees that they have to adapt their way of working. Change is accompanied by pains, troubles and hesitations. Some of them might not want to rely on systems, as it often does not enhance the human aspects of an organisation. Most of the time, these systems do rational choices; however, are rational choices always right? Do figures or data always show the truth? Therefore again…are you really sure that your employee will use this system?

 

Manageability:

Does every one have the required knowledge for such a new technology? This is a simple question, but WOULD YOU AND YOUR EMPLOYEE KNOW HOW TO USE IT? Or would the staff hesitate to open thick manuals that explain how to make use of such systems? Are terminologies in the dictionary not too difficult for them to understand? Are employees complaining about the complexity of systems, shouting “this is neither practical nor realistic!”? Are IT technicians giggling that employees are stupid as they do not know even how to open up systems? These are the questions that deeply influence the acceptance of systems, and therefore, should be considered in advance.

 

Sociability:

What if, due to the introduction of an IT system, conversations between employees fade away? Everyone might be sitting in front the PC, entirely relying on communication through the system. It might take ages to make decisions on tiny issues, that might have been solved in a second through interpersonal, direct communication. What if your office becomes like a ghost town? No more face to face discussions, no more laughing…

 

Security:

How can you protect your data in the system? Back-up technologies and protection are to be considered during the process of evaluating whether to acquire a new IT system. Risks are both internal and external. As for external risks, hackers and system attack should be considered. What will you do if your system is attacked by outside hackers? What if the IT specialists are all in vacations and no one is not available? Will you log into it and fight with strange hackers? If systems break down, your important data will be lost and might not be recovered! Do you have enough backup possibilities?

As regards to internal factors, what if one of your employee accesses the database and leaks confidential information? Remember the scandal during the big war of the US presidential election campaign? Employees might access your database illegally and sell personal information to outsiders. In this sense, the moral of employees is crucial. Their attitude should be considered because they are required to successful use of systems. Unauthorized access to systems, illegal use of information and the awareness of the security are important issues, indeed.

 

Cost:

It is quite complicated to judge if systems can lead to effective performance in the organization. Do you have enough confidence and numerical evidence that it will bring advantage, like efficiency and effectiveness to your company? Does the cost of systems meet the profitability for the organization? Is the cost of such systems is justified by future increased profitability?

 

How to solve these issues?

I hope now you understand the risks that introducing systems has. If the concept and the principle of systems cannot be understood by the end users, systems do not bring any benefit to the organization. One has to be aware of that issue and constant communication is necessary. As for the employees, training could be one of the solutions for these dilemmas, especially acceptance of IT and security.

(For further information please see Jun’s post “The pride and prejudice of employees”)

 

 

Kanako Noji

 

Act1: Catch the value if you can – Scene 3

A Manager who has no money

Process centric applications, ERP, CRM, SCM, SOAP, WDSL, UDDI…my head is aching and burning, and I feel as if I just came back from a journey on the moon where I had to learn extraterrestrial language. Back on earth now, in my tiny little office all I can think about is that I threw away my money for this fancy information systems seminar my very successful CEO friend Kana dragged me in. I cannot afford any of these sophisticated technologies, anyway! What is behind the rush about all these applications? To be honest, most of them sound like common sense applied for computer geeks. Why do they have to complicate things so much? Isn’t it in the end all about managerial good practices adapted to technology? Communication, orchestration all these words that end with –ion, welcome back to business school.

I have to admit, though, that I did never thought as much about optimizing processes, effective communication, or even the impact of the relationships that my employees have between each other on this company. Apart from the gossip in front of the coffee machine about the other’s new pink skirt…? I don’t know if they even have any. Or if I have any relationship to them apart from the monthly salary check, that by the way – in my humble opinion – is much too high.

Before this seminar, I never thought of search engines being part of the information system ‘gang’, either. True, I spend hours searching for an old clients file in the attic, but all I could always think of is: I need to get a secretary, so I do not have to waste my time searching these things anymore. Never came the idea to my mind to acquire – as this nice dressed up IT salesperson used to kindly express – a personalised Knowledge Management Tool, worth more than my annual turnover. I certainly cannot afford that. Still, it is a good idea to think of a system to bring back order into the chaos on the attic. I could hire my daughter for that. She is looking for a summer job. For the rest of our searching/seeking of meaning, let’s just make a small effort to read through the guide to Google search (http://www.google.co.uk/support/?hl=en) during the next coffee break.

Or – process centric applications. It just sounds too familiar with operations management. Don’t you think? Listen: analyse business processes, find the most efficient one, keep it until you know better and let everybody know. Totally copied! Ha! Nevertheless, we do forget that. It is so simple to note what every employee considers best practice for each situation they encounter, and it makes it so much easier for new members of the organisation to integrate effectively! Post-it on my desk: ask everybody to update their respective how-to guide. No special technology needed. No fancy information system.

However, one of the classes we were able to enjoy explained Social Network Analysis (SNA) Systems. They measure flows between people, groups, organisations, computers, websites, and all kinds of other information and knowledge processing ‘entities’. To sum it up, it is a visual and mathematical analysis of human relationships. Applied, one can figure their degree of connectivity; identify central ‘nodes’ in the social network. Basically, this SNA helps to visualise what is going on? Who knows? Who are the ‘key connectors’ in the network? The principle is very easy. Ask everybody who they communicate with, who they socialise with and draw up your little network.

I do not need a mathematical analysis for that. We are only a team of 12. I could easily figure it out myself, even without sending questionnaires to everybody or analysing their e-mail communication flows. Still, it makes sense. Imagine you are the newly recruited manager of a large organisation (in terms of employees) and you have no idea about the informal organisation in your company. This kind of social network analysis might actually accelerate your effective integration into the team, as well as help you shape your future strategic management decisions. Ron Burt, Professor of Sociology and Strategy at the Chicago Graduate School of Business, points out in his article “Structural holes and good ideas” (2004), that source of innovation can be found with the help of such SNA. He explains that people, who are connected across groups, are more likely to have new ideas, due to their larger information access. According to him we manager should appreciate more our social capital. So, I should perhaps reconsider to fire that girl who never talks to anybody, and is always on the telephone with her boyfriend… Theoretically, she is the definition of a bridge over the hole between two networks – her boyfriends’ and ours! I could even go further and follow Steward’s advice who argues that: (Explanation: le vide = emptiness, hole, silence)

(Stewart 1996, p. 165): “Le vide has a huge function in organizations. (…) Shock comes when different things meet. It’s the interface that’s interesting (…) If you don’t leave le vide, you have no unexpected things, no creation. There are two types of management. You can try to design for everything, or you can leave le vide and say, ‘I don’t know either; what do you think?’”

Imagine her shock if I ask her that question? Seriously, I should consider that.

On the other hand, such social networks can influence the implementation and adaptation process of change. And believe me, I do want to change the way of doing things here. I do want to be able to buy a new plant for my office without thinking: can I afford that? Do I really need that?

According to Krackhardt and Stern’s findings in 1988 (a long time ago already!), “(…) friendship ties within an organisation will help generate positive response to change in organisations by fostering trust and shared identity.” Very wise, indeed! So, by analysing how my company is organised informally, I can identify information flows between the people and then take appropriate measures to enhance each others understanding and – if not already existent – create shared values, and in the best case: trust. Thereafter, decisions inspired by the social capital of my company, that will imply change might be adopted more easily. So nice!

I have to say, that I am amazed. Did you ever think that computer geeks – enclosed, un-socialised, supposedly uncivilised freaks could think of such social networking theories?

The whole story becomes even better when I tell you that such social network systems are available for free – online. All the skills you needed to access them are simple internet-user skills, and of course you need to know they exist. Facebook and Myspace apart, there is a long list of network systems, that apply these Social Network Analysis mathematics, available for nearly every industry sector, business sector, type of organisations. Our beloved geeks developed algorithms, that would analyse and count the interconnectivity of each and everyone on the network, helping us end-users to find the specific node in the network – the source of information – we need more quickly and easier. My dear friend Kanako described in the post before the risks that are still implied with such information systems, everybody knows the horror story of ID-theft. Still, these are very useful inventions indeed.

How couldn’t I know about that? My life could be so much easier by now! Connectivity is key in business! It is not for nothing that the Germans call it “Vitamin B”. Cheers Kana, your seminar wasn’t that bad after all!

(If you are interested further, you can find links to such organisational social networks on our “search” tap under http://www.netvibes.com/scriptwriters2008#search).

Christine Weingut

Act2: The pride and prejudice of employees

Scene1: An experienced employee who knows how to use IT, A desperate employee who does not know how to use IT

 

As an employee, maybe you have good competence of information technology; maybe you completely do not know what information technology is. Well, how can you gain benefits from IT? Let us discuss employees’ information technology usage within organizations.

 

As an experienced employee who knows how to use IT, although more researchers have underlined relationship between “facilitating conditions” for information technology adoption (e.g., user training, technical support resource availability on employees’ technology use), they had not provided a complete explanation of employees’ IT usage.  According to McGrath and Krackhardt (2003), the role of other individuals within the work context that shapes employees’ learning, values, and behaviour should be considered. Their founding indicated that an employee’s co-workers exert an important influence on IT usage. As one’s individual friendship ties are spread more widely throughout the organization, one identifies more with the organizational entity and is more willing to engage in cooperative and altruistic behaviours necessary to make the change work for the organization. An experienced employee should pay more attention on communication. They can deeply enhance their IT competence more easily from communication with other colleagues and network. One issue need to be mentioned specially. For the experienced employee who knows how to use IT, the security issue need to be paid more attentions, such as the ID steal, hacker.   

 

As a new or inexperienced employee, perhaps you fear IT. This is because, you do not have enough confidence to control the technology, or you may suspect whether you can get benefit from IT. Well, how can you become an IT user and obtain benefit form IT? In terms of the technology acceptance model (TAM), which a key purpose is to provide a basis for tracing the impact of external factors on internal beliefs, attitudes, and intentions, the basis principle of IT should be gained immediately. Significantly, belief which involves perceived usefulness and perceived ease should be built as well. In order to reach this object, training should be taken in the early stage. Simultaneously, communication also should not be ignored. Through communication with others colleagues, direct knowledge and experience could be obtained, especially form the employees who have good IT competence.

 

 

 

 

Jun Wu Li

 

Act3: Les Misérables de IT

Scene1: A geeky IT specialist

 

Could you tell me the reason why you decided to become an IT technician? Is that because you do not have to talk to the others? Or is that because the program can be made by you alone, without being disturbed from the others?

 

Yes, you might have all of information of systems and software. But do you know how to apply those systems to business questions?

 

According to Mukhopadhyay et.al (1995), information technology (IT) is one of the essential issues in management nowadays. The dispute, if IT has brought positive impact to the organization, still remains open to be argued. Some systems do not work in a proper way due to their complexity or poor design. Now the distance between IT and management is getting closed, the meaning of value and management is also necessary to be redefined through carrying out business by using IT.

 

What is value that is brought by IT?  Values cannot be measured in efficiency. Values are in effectiveness, in service rather than the product itself.

 

Data itself cannot generate anything. The process that makes data resulted in business action is necessary. How can data be used for business activities to ad value? Obviously there should be several steps in this flow. At first, data is processed to information, and then information is interpreted and understood to knowledge. In this stage, judgement of “good” or “bad” should be added by human being. Finally based on knowledge, decisions are made. That is, knowledge might not be created, perhaps it already exists and only needs to be stimulated though information?

 

Likewise, the question what systems, software and applications can bring to the company, still remains. What kind of value does an organization need?  It can be replaced by another question: what is the role that systems, software and applications play in an organization? Information systems and applications will have their own meaning of existence. Needless to say, it is human being to use them. Are systems easy to understand for the end users? Does it have enough validity and reliability? Is it realistic? In order to make such useful systems that play a significant role to the core management, it is inevitable to communicate with the clients or colleague directly. The ability to understand and interpret the client`s needs correctly through discussions is required. Giving advice from IT technician’s point of view is important.

 

Interpreting and judging information is still necessary skill to be developed even though IT has been enhanced. IT cannot replace the interpersonal and basic skills. The key is not in system. Focusing on systems and software does not make any sense, grasping the whole picture of the organization through system is the objective.

 

 

Kanako Noji

Epilogue

You may find further information on: http://www.netvibes.com/scriptwriters2008#Search

As well as a lovely webcast illustrating ‘The Tragedy of ISM’: http://www.jumpcut.com/view/?id=92E075CC17FE11DD930A000423CF381C