Is it Moving to Fast?

Technology: Is it Moving Too Fast?

Technology is reshaping the way people live their lives today in profound and sometimes unexpected ways. Indeed, the concept of using something new is always frightening for some people, and even the proponents of technological solutions caution that they can actually do more harm than good when they are not used in appropriate and meaningful ways that justify the investment required to apply them in the workplace. Nevertheless, the trend is unmistakable and the spread of technology is growing, and many businesses may "leap before they look" in order to avoid behind left behind on the race for success on the Information Highway. In order to achieve the best return on investment in technology, then, it is important to understand just what it is and how it can help the ordinary individual or business become more successful. To this end, this paper provides an overview of how technological solutions, particularly computers, the internet, and other information system technological can be used to help individuals and organizations achieve their goals, while identifying the obstacles and constraints that have been associated with the deployment of new technological solutions by some businesses today. A summary of the research will be provided in the conclusion.

II. Perspective One: Technology Must be Supported by Organizational Commitment and Intelligent Choices.

a. Ideas the perspective sets forth. A number of studies have shown that many businesses treat technological integration with the business processes as an unneeded resource depletion; on the other hand, others have demonstrated significant difficulty in understanding the need to invest in and harness its technological infrastructure. Thus, there is some troubling disconnect between chief executives and the urgent need to leverage on the tremendous beneficial impact of communications technology on business performance. Companies that have embraced the great potentials and contributions of communications technology to businesses continue to struggle with choice options of the technology to implement as well as how to align their business venture with current and pre-existing technology.

b. Supporting reasons and evaluation of those reasons. Organizational transformation has been key to significant strategic positioning. Many an organization has employed terms such re-engineering, process improvement, total quality management, and lately empowerment to ensure that they stay afloat and viable in their industry. The implementation of these technological solution initiatives at various at times or concurrently within an organization is intended to strategically orient the business enterprise along a predetermined path. They are intended to offer the firm aggressive or defensive posture in relation to its competitiveness, but such decision cannot be made in isolation from what is taking place in the marketplace. For instance, a company might be well advised to await the arrival of an off-the-shelf software package in a month or two that will do the job that would require a customized application today (Aouad, Kagioglou, Cooper, Hinks, & Sexton 1999).

c. Supporting evidence and evaluation of that evidence. In order to determine when and how, or even if, technological innovation and investment is the key to success, The problem becomes how does a firm know the strategic path that will deliver on this construct? The overall problem solving posture of aggressive dimension must be centered on the premise of crucial characteristics of the organizational decision-making recognizing technological innovation and solutions as a potential opportunity for improvement, rather than as a symbol of success or an shallow effort to keep ahead of the competition. According to Stewart Brand (2003), "Cars, airplanes and telephones were all life-changing inventions, but they had a steady and comprehensible evolution. Computers and biotechnology, on the other hand, are progressing so fast that only an elite few can keep up. Such swiftness could create societal frictions" (Brand 2003:1). Brand suggests that what Western civilization requires today is a "NOT-SO-FAST button"; the proponents of technological determinism have been able to make a strong case for allowing self-accelerating technologies to follow their own life cycle. "Rapid development in computer technology, they point out, has spun off robotics and the Internet -- to the great benefit of industry and human communications. Besides, it isn't so easy for a free society to put the brakes on technology" (Brand 2003:2-3).

d. Values that are implied by reasoning and evidence. It is possible to use today's resources to address tomorrow's problems, but there are steps that must be taken since there are no corporate crystal balls available (yet). In order to accomplish this, an accurate assessment of the need for technology investment, organizations must enhance the robustness of the organization and provide protection of its core skills; knowledge about what types of technology might be most effective is therefore fundamental to cultivating futuristic posturing dimension (Weill 1992). This author points out that knowledge about what types of technology are available and how they may assist an organization is crucial in that it provides perspective of the direction that a firm could be headed if it did things right. Thus, the problems that are typically associated with the research needed to confirm that investment in technology solutions are required, and then what types of solutions are appropriate, have a potentially enormous impact on the performance of the firm. Certainly, such investments have been shown to bolster organizational performance, but there must exist congruence of the strategies of both the business and information technology.

e. How does perspective "present" the reality upon which the thinking is based?

The technological revolution of businesses has different impacts on different industries as such; each industry has to align its business strategy with the communications technology strategy that fits its needs. In the banking industry the most profound effect is the e-banking or e-commerce banking. For instance, ATM, credit cards, debit cards, smart cards, and online lending via the Internet are considered electronic commerce banking. Thus, the reality of these technological innovations in the marketplace and their subsequent implementation in the banking industry require an immediate realignment of banking industry functions in order to remain competitive.

f. Does perspective overlook certain groups or areas of society? Studies to date such as Weill (1992), indicate that a small marginal net gain in the valve manufacturing industry when technological solutions were applied; however, the study was limited to only the manufacturing industry. Although this study is limited to a specific industry, it reflects the degree to which virtually any type of organization can benefit from the innovations becoming increasingly available today. Nevertheless, there appears to be some level of disagreement on the actual impact of technology on business performance across the board.

Loveman (1988) maintains that there is no net contribution to output as a result of investments in information technology without an overall commitment of the company to its successful application. In this regard, congruence of communications technology and business strategies can be of significant importance on the outcome of such investments. Merely investing in computers alone may not transform business' performance landscape. There must exist sound congruence in strategies between the information technology investments and stated business purposes in order for meaningful assessment to be realized. Here again, investments may have various degrees of impact on the business performance at various times depending on the amount of investment, fit of the investment, and length of time allowed for the assessment. Finally, Ballantine, Galliers, and Stray (1994) have reported that investing in computers, at least, does have a direct correlation with increased return on assets.

III. Perspective Two:

Different People and Business Require Different Technological Solutions, but Almost Everyone Can Benefit from Technology.

a. Ideas the perspective sets forth. The beginning of the 21st century has ushered in a new era that is being dominated by technology. However, in order to better understand how individuals and business are being affected by these fundamental changes, it is necessary to categorize technological policy into its different components. These components are:

1) Offensive technological posture;

2) Mechanization and process innovation; and, 3) New product development (Oster 1999).

b. Supporting reasons and evaluation of those reasons. Today, many organizations that have substantial motivations to employ technology often exhibit strong attributes of merely wanting to appear to be on the cutting edge of technology. Such organizations fall into the offensive technological posture (Oster 1990). These types of organizations are frequently regarded as the innovation leaders, but without experiencing any substantive return on their investment for their troubles and investment. However, it is important to note here that an organization can exhibit multiple technological postures simultaneously. The organizations that exhibit these types of attributes do so largely because of their specific core competencies and their comprehension of the role of technology in their unique organizational operations (Foster 1986). Variations in the needs of businesses quite often make it imperative for certain organizations to adopt multiple technological postures.

c. Supporting evidence and evaluation of that evidence. According to Joo (2002), the most common determinant of the offensive or aggressive technological posture for businesses is the need for such businesses to engage in specific strategic initiatives that require the acquisition of certain resources; for instance, the need for research and development (R&D) to be reputable and deliver on the latest innovation, businesses invest handsomely on latest technologies in order to enhance their research initiatives.

d. Values that are implied by reasoning and evidence. Cooper (1997) emphasizes the enormous value of technological policy in computerization and process innovation as a tool set that can provide this leverage to businesses. It then becomes of substantial importance for businesses to examine the business and technology strategies in order to identify how well both strategies can merge on as need basis and across industry boundaries. Business strategy and technological policy relation can be analyzed at two levels. The first level is the appreciation of the relationship between individual business strategy and its corresponding technological policy. The second level of this examination is the establishment of the correlation between technological and business strategic dimensions. In analyzing these strategic and technological policy dimensions, individual business configuration must be taken into account, as it is in effect a dependent variable.

e. How does perspective "present" the reality upon which the thinking is based?

Mechanization and process innovation fundamentally classify the degree of automation business establishments have espoused. This technological posture has direct relationship with capital expenditures on new equipment and machinery (Hayes & Wheelwright 1984). The driving factor on the automation level of organizations generally is the philosophy top-management and CEOs adopt in their technological policies and the business strategy dependency. Thus, the level of mechanization and process innovation reflects the decisions and appreciation of the incumbent executives of the organizations in question. As such, businesses in the same industry may have divergent technological adoption principles. Some companies may enjoy state-of -- the art process technology while others may still continue to thrive on obsolete technology. The organizations that do not adopt more recent technologies must therefore engage in other strategic initiatives to forestall eroding performance under increasingly competitive pressures. It is important to emphasize that the top-management of an organization makes decisions on the technology policy based on their view of the position on the importance of technology as a competitive weapon in their business plan. To the extent that they appreciate such a technology policy as being crucial to the enterprise's success is the extent to which they will be more likely to accept technology as being imperative to the everyday needs of the business.

According to Thurow (1987), mechanization and process innovation are considered as key dimensions of technology policy. The decision on the level of technological mechanization has a direct relationship to the areas of the business that needs enhanced technical infrastructure. It is crucial to note that an organization's stance on the benefits of information technology as a cardinal competitive weapon drives the organization's needs and degree of automation and process innovation. Schimmoller (2001) suggests that aggressive technology posture of an organization must translate to an up-to-date technological infrastructure on the part of the organization. The underlying principle is that this state-of-art technological infrastructure provides a beacon for continuous product innovation and enhancement.

An example of this investment in technology was reported by Zahra and Covin (1993) who noted that.".. several U.S. steel companies have invested heavily in building new production facilities. Minimills have also adopted computer aided designs (CAD) and acquired technology from both domestic and international sources.... paperboard box manufacturing industry's spending on automation and computerization has increased significantly in recent years, resulting in major improvements in operations as well as cost savings. Clearly, automation is a major component of technology policy... " (456). While there are some challenges and obstacles to be overcome on the path to technological solutions for some business, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the days of typewriters and mimeograph machines are numbered.

f. Does perspective overlook certain groups or areas of society?

Technology appears to be helping businesses and individuals alike. Almost all sectors of businesses in today's business environment are engaging in new product development in order to stay ahead of the competition. Virtually all contemporary observers find technological policy in this dimension indispensable to almost most business strategies. Many disciplines are using technology to improve the delivery of their services to the public at large. For instance, expert systems evolved from research in the field of artificial intelligence. According to Grabinger et al., expert systems are practical tools that can serve as intelligent job aids to facilitate on-the-job decision making in tasks such as judging student projects, diagnosing learning problems, identifying and classifying performance problems, or helping consumers to decide among a large number of alternatives.

Expert systems are a spin-off of artificial intelligence and have developed into tools that can be used to improve human performance. However, like most tools used by educators, trainers, and performance technologists, the use of an expert system requires conceptual understanding, practice, and specific development skills and processes to be effective. Furthermore, like most instructional development tools, the most crucial design phase occurs during the early stages of development -- the analysis of a problem and the subsequent structuring of knowledge into a form that is appropriate for entry into an expert system building tool (Grabinger, Jonassen, & Wilson 1990).