Impacts of IT on Organizations, Individuals, and Society:

1
Chapter 17

• Impacts of IT on Organizations, Individuals, and
  Society
• (The dark side of technology)

2
Overview for Today

• Overview of Privacy Issues
• Impacts on Organizations
• Impacts on Individuals
• Impacts on Society

3
A Framework of Ethical Issues

• Privacy personal information you are required to
  reveal, employer surveillance, information that
  you keep to yourself
• Accuracy who is responsible, how can we be sure,
  accidental vs. intentional errors, who is
  responsible for errors
• Property information ownership, appropriate
  prices for exchange, use of proprietary databases
• Accessibility who is allowed, provisions for
  persons with disabilities, what information are
  you privileged to obtain

4
Readily Available Personal Data

• Variety of sources
• Experian, cable sat TV, video stores, library,
  telephone, credit cards, warrantee cards, leases,
  prescriptions, screening tests
• Ask a new set of Questions
• Where is info stored? Who controls access? Are
  records accurate? How do you fix errors? How long
  does it take?
• But the computer says...

5
Some Privacy Questions

• How private is a telephone conversation?
• How private is an e-mail you send?
• Your web surfing habits?
• Carnivore Echelon projects
• Govt sponsored Clipper Chip (1992)
• Want Pizza?
• Electronic Voting

6
Proposed Privacy Policy

• Data Collection should be done only for
  legitimate business need, should be adequate,
  relevant and not excessive, individuals should
  give consent, consent can be implied
• Data Accuracy sensitive data should be verified
  before it is entered into a database, should be
  accurate kept current, data should be made
  available to the individual for correction
• Data Confidentiality security should be
  implemented, 3rd party access should be
  restricted - except as required by law, should
  not be disclosed for purposes other than it was
  collected

7
Other Data Issues

• Who is responsible for offensive material on
  Internet news groups?
• What can you do about it?
• International flow of data
• Some countries closely regulate data flow across
  their boarders Which ones? Why?
• Who owns the data and whose laws apply?
• Data transmitted by Polish company through a US
  satellite to a British company

8
Organizational Structure Changes

• Organizations are flatter
• 1990s downsizing enabled by computers
• Increased mgmts span of control
• Changes in authority
• Centralization is sometimes the natural result of
  smaller/flatter organizations
• Redistribution of power/influence (both ways)
• Ambiguity
• Roles become vague as computerization spreads
• Employee satisfaction, compensation, status

9
Organizational Personnel

• The Corporate Ladder
• Used to take a long time to climb
• Today younger tech people shortcut the system
• How does this affect salary, emp development
  programs, career paths?
• Supervisory Roles Metrics
• More opportunity for electronic supervision
• Remote supervision, emphasis on task completion
  (performance measurment clip)

10
Abuse of Metrics
11
Organizational Management

• Automated Decision Making
• Requires less experience, less reliance on
  experts, redistributes power among mangers
• Resulting Organizational Changes
• More people participate in decision making,
  decreased FTF communication, shorter chain of
  command, problems and opportunities more quickly
  identified (e-mail status)
• Managers spend more time
• In the field, planning rather than putting out
  fires

12
Impacts on Individuals

• Benefit to one is a curse to another
• Some jobs become more enriched
• Others become more boring
• Dehumanization
• Computers reduce the human element, loss of
  identity, become just another number
• Coming back the other way... (bank deposit clip)
• Technical solutions often overlook interpersonal
  relationships

13
Impacts on Individuals

• Psychological Impacts
• Telecommuting, e-commerce, distance learning

14
Individual Health/Performance

• Job Stress
• Computers increase the speed of business
• Results in greater workloads
• Are people able to keep up?
• How do you prevent burnout?
• Job Skills
• Video game surgery clip
• 1990 Gulf War

15
Individual Health/Safety

• Ergonomic Design
• Decrease negative impacts of keyboards, chairs,
  desks, monitors, environments

16
Individual Health/Safety

• Repetitive Motion Strain
• Monitor radiation concerns for eyesight,
  pregnancy
• Carpal tunnel syndrome responsible for lawsuits
• Deans office assistant

17
Societal Impacts of IT

• Quality of Life Improvements
• Speech vision recognition and AI are creating
  new employment opportunities (Americans with
  Disabilities Act of 1994)
• Use of robotics in dangerous environments
  inspecting bridges, cleaning subways, welding,
  ironworks, etc.
• More leisure time (leisure through technology)
• Health Care Improvements
• Expert systems aid diagnosis, planning and
  assisting during surgery, pill sized cameras
• Crime Fighting
• Tracking gang members, visualizing patterns,
  locating missing children (Texas schools RFID
  article)

18
The Digital Divide

• Gap between people who have access to technology
  and those that dont
• The Haves vs. the Have Nots
• Is the gap widening or closing?
• Within the US? Abroad?
• Is this a real problem?
• Excons face digitial divide article
• An alternative view

19
IT Effects upon Employment

• Loss of Income (download clip, automating labor)
• IT does displace jobs
• It also creates (more) new jobs, but leaves those
  w/o experience behind
• Automation -gt productivity -gt lower cost -gt
  competition -gt lower cost again -gt higher demand
  -gt more jobs!
• What working groups are the victims of IT (levels
  of mgmt, levels of skill sets)?
• Advantage of replacing people with machines is
  increasing
• Will it lead to more or less employment?

20
Increased Unemployment

• Need for human labor (laborers management
  alike) will decrease
• Skills needed for many jobs will decrease
• Banking Insurance industries have laid off
  millions
• Underemployment of talent
• Per-capita consumption is limited, may stop
  growing
• Reengineering efforts reduce demand for labor
• Internet e-commerce cause loss of marketing
  jobs

21
Increased Employment

• Automation historically leads to increased
  employment new jobs markets
• Industrialized nations have lower unemployment
• Full automation will take many decades
• Many job tasks cannot be automated
• Low cost goods services stimulates demand,
  automation alone cant keep up
• Downsizing restructuring are almost over,
  organizations are healthier more productive

22
So Which is it?

• Increased or Decreased Employment?
• Why?
• Any holes in these arguments?

23
Important Concepts to Know

• What are relevant questions concerning privacy
  and ethics as they relate to our personal data?
• How has IT impacted the structure and operation
  of Organizations?
• What are impacts of IT upon Individuals?
• In what ways has IT impacted Society as a whole?
• Will there more or less employment due to IT?

24
For Next Time

• Project Presentations Start Monday April 21st