Information%20Systems%20and%20Organisations

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Information Systems and Organisations

• Lecture 8
• The 21st Century Organisation

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Scope and Coverage

• This topic will cover
• Technology and changing organisational forms
• Commitment and control managing distributed
  work
• Evolving working practice and the network
  organisation

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Learning Outcomes

• By the end of this unit students will be able to
• Understand the way in which organisations and
  work are changing under the influence of
  technology
• Critically analyse working practices and control
  in the 21st century organisation

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Contents

• How technology is changes working practices and
  possibilities
• Contemporary and future organisational forms
• Changing relationships with the organisation
• Management of distributed work
• Emphasis People, Organisation and Technology

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How Technology Changes Work

• Most work in organisations is co-operative in
  nature at some time or other
• Eason identified important ways of characterising
  such work in terms of
• participants relative power and influence
• division of labour
• The classification scheme is on the next slide

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Classification
Co-operative Work Classification, (Eason,1996,
p40)
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Examples

• Type A Local division of labour and equality
  e.g. decide amongst each other who does what
• Type B Local division of labour and managed
  contribution (team members supervisor) e.g.
  fast-food restaurant
• Type C Predetermined division of labour and
  equality e.g. team of equal professionals
• Type D Managed team of specialists

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Transformation of Work Time Space
TIME TIME POWER AND INFLUENCE POWER AND INFLUENCE
SPACE Same (Synchronous) Different (Asynchronous) Division of Labour Equal Unequal
Same Location 1 2 Local A B
Different Location 3 4 Pre-determined C D
e.g. A traditional seminar ( 1 B )
... becomes an on-line forum ( 4 B )
Time-space and power-work type classification
transformation. Based on Hassall 1999 page 40.
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Technology Effects

• Automating work
• De-skilling and up-skilling work
• Distributing work
• Changing discretion of individuals when doing
  work
• Changing times when work can be carried out
  (whilst travelling perhaps)
• Changing location and synchronism of work tasks

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The Organisation Flow of Value Added
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Outsourcing Secondary Activities
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Concentrating on KEY Primary Activities
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Organisation - Part of Business Networks

• If the corporation embodied capital in the
  industrial age, then the b-web does the same for
  the digital economy. In b-webs, internetworked,
  fluid, sometimes highly structured, sometimes
  amorphous-sets of contributors come together to
  create value for customers and wealth for their
  shareholders. In the most elegant of b-webs, each
  participant focuses on a limited set of core
  competencies, the things that it does best.
• Business webs are inventing new value
  propositions, transforming the rules of
  competition, and mobilizing people and resources
  to unprecedented levels of performance. Managers
  must master a new agenda for b-web strategy if
  they intend to win in the new economy.
• (Tapscott, Ticol and Lowy, Digital Capital, p17)

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Challenges for Management

• Relationship between people and their work
  changing
• Home-working, hot-desking , mobile and other
  forms of work emerging
• Blurring in online world between work and social
  spheres
• Competitive pressures
• Need to be able to manage networked contributions
  and distributed work

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Managing Distributed Work
Organisational characteristics
Societal
Individual characteristics
FIT
Outcomes
Work characteristics
Organisational
Individual
Technology characteristics
Based on, Boddy, Boonstra and Kennedy (2008),
page 229.
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Replacing or Complementing Skills

• Consider a call centre
• The IS can automate more of less of the call
  handlers task
• Amount of discretion and skill will depend on
  what the IS allows and the flexibility it
  provides
• Consider a modern garage company that services
  cars
• Computerised diagnostics can quickly isolate
  engine faults, speeding the repair process
• Repairs fitting/replacement parts still a manual
  process

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Human Contribution and Management
May enhance managers role
Enhance human contribution
MANAGERS
Information Systems
Limit human contribution
May diminish managers role
Based on, Boddy, Boonstra and Kennedy (2008)
figure 8.5 page 225
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The 21st Century Organisation

• Flat Structure
• Networked business
• Distributed working
• Automation using IS where possible
• IS to enhance and control human contribution
• Partnerships with both Suppliers and Customers
• Concentrating on core value creating activities

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References

• Boddy, D., Boonstra ,A., Kennedy, G. (2008)
  Managing Information Systems strategy and
  organisation 3rd ed. FT Pearson. ISBN-13
  978-0273 -71681-5XXX
• Tapscott, D. Ticoll, D. Lowy, A. (2000) Digital
  Capital, Harnessing the Power of Business Webs,
  Nicholas Brearley Publishing, ISBN 1 85788 209 1.
• Hassall, J C, 1999, Developing Performance Models
  for Co-operative Information Systems in an
  Organisational Context, Doctor of Philosophy,
  Aston University, July 1999

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Lecture 8 The 21st Century Organisation

• Any Questions?