Management of Technology in Developing Countries Such as Iran

Management of Technology in Developing Countries Such as Iran

Technology management arrangements of developing countries vary from those of first world ones. The requirement for skill in these states is not growing from within, but somewhat cropping up from new wares imported from first world countries. Technological growth in addition does not consequence from inner data and research, but resulting upon the technology transmission from abroad. In these environments, technology management by customary way is barely effective. These are troubles facing the Islamic Republic of Iran these days and as a consequence organizations controlling the technology management endure non-compliance, then technological development does not trail an accurate trend (Robertson, 2002).

Lack of distinctive management, vagueness of technological precedence's, misunderstanding of policy-making roles and inter-organization implementation and management, tremendous government involvement in all fields and lack of specialist manpower are amongst the vital troubles of the topic (Sveiby et. al 2001). Even though the universities and government have initiated solutions for these troubles, no meticulous result has been come out so far (Bijerse 1999).

Developing countries fail to pursue pro-globalization policies for industrial development, not for lack of good ideas but because of systemic impediments to policy implementation. Table 1.1 lists some of these impediments and suggested strategies to overcome them (Zhao & Xie, 2007). One of the most serious impediments has to do with societal values and institutions ((Riege, 2007). In many developing countries, societal values do not support the underlying values and principles of competitiveness, privatization, capitalism, individualism, and an economy largely driven by the private sector (Spender, 2000). In South Africa, Vietnam, Cambodia, and some of the Arab and Muslim countries, privatization and other related strategies of economic reform are slow and tentative because governments fear that these policies do not enjoy popular societal support (Bijerse 1999). In the case of South Africa, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has a long history of socialist ideology, has members of the Communist Party in its cabinet, and is strongly supported by the trade union movement COSATU which, like most unions the world over, is anti-globalization (Abou-Zeid, 2002). As well, historically, the South African black population always associated capitalism with apartheid. Local industry is also dependent on cheap unskilled labor, especially in the mining and agricultural sectors. Accordingly, resistance to industrial transformation comes from all sides of the South African society (Robertson, 2002).

Therefore, it is imperative that government provides leadership that will bring about changes in societal values (Beveren, 2002). This is not easy and cannot be done overnight. Values can and do change through carefully designed programs such as public awareness, education, demonstration and pilot projects, various incentives, opportunities for influential community leaders and decision makers to travel abroad, and exposing society to different frames of reference. Participation is a very powerful instrument for bringing about sustaining changes in personal and societal values, attitudes, and behavior (Bhatt, 2001).

As the old saying goes, "Tell me and I might forget, show me and I might remember, but involve me, and I will understand" (Storey & Barnett, 2009). Involving various segments of society in those aspects of industrial development for globalization which affects them most will help transform values, belief systems, attitudes, and behavior (Bender & Fish, 2008). In southern Africa where there is increasing pressure on the land, local communities are often in conflict with wildlife conservation because there is not enough land for both human settlement and wildlife (Spender, 2000). In response, several countries have started to experiment with involving the local community in wildlife conservation and management. The communities are asked to share the land with wildlife, and in return, they participate in making wildlife management decisions and share in the resulting economic benefits (Beveren, 2002). As a result, wildlife resources become community resources, and the community becomes the best frontline agent for conservation and fighting poaching.

Overcoming Barrier to Effective Industrial Development and Implementation for Globalization

Impediments

Strategies to overcome

1.

Societal values and institutions

Changes in societal values through:

- Awareness

- Education

- demonstration/pilot projects

- participation

- travel abroad

- incentives

- changes in frame of reference

2.

Political instability/lack of political will, leadership peacemaking/keeping leadership development change in leadership

policy development and implementation

3.

Weak indigenous private sector supportive government policy private sector development privatization entrepreneurship development

4.

Lack of management know-how management consulting contracts management training and development staff interchange overseas executive services

5.

Lack of capital/resources/capacity mobilize domestic savings encourage donors to give more targeted aid foreign borrowing, equity, capital markets

FDI

Improve export earnings

Improve tax collection, government revenue

Build private-public institutional capacities

Recapitalize the financial and banking system

6.

Exogenous variables

Modeling

Risk assessment and management

Environmental scanning

Planning, monitoring, evaluation

Emergency management systems

Diversification: industry, sector, region

International collaboration

Table 1.1

For the weaker nation -- states, a key impediment to effective implementation is political instability, lack of political will, and poor or misguided leadership. Here, any efforts at overcoming these impediments must start with peacemaking and peacekeeping initiatives. These initiatives are usually supported by an international or U.N. force (Zhao & Xie, 2007). The last quarter of the twentieth century witnessed many nation -- states either totally collapsed (for example, Somalia) or on the verge of collapsing (for example, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, Cambodia, Haiti, Liberia, Congo, Rwanda). These countries are in no position to participate meaningfully in the global economy. Unfortunately, they are also in no position to stop the illegal globalization of their economies (Bhatt, 2009).

This is done through the illegal exportation of minerals (such as diamonds), wildlife, drugs, human beings, and arms as well as other illegal trade. Under the Taliban regime, Afghanistan contributed 90% of the heroin sold on the streets of London. There are no short-term solutions or quick fixes for such weak states. Here, the international community must intervene and help build national institutions, develop new leadership, encourage change in leadership, and introduce new policies in support of rehabilitation and eventual development toward legitimate globalization (Bhatt, 2001). After the war, Vietnam's wounds were deep, industries weak, technology backward, infrastructure deplorable, and the country was unable to manage globalization to its advantage. For such countries, it may be advisable to close them off from the global economy until they have reestablished a strong state with credible governance systems (Riege, 2007).

The third impediment identified in Table 1.1 is the existence of a weak indigenous private sector. Before globalization, many developing countries were hostile to their own indigenous private sector, and many years of official harassment and unsupportive public policy have left the local private sector small, unorganized, poorly resourced and managed, and lacking in public esteem and respect. Globalization is not possible without a vibrant local/indigenous private sector (Beveren, 2002). Steps can be taken to support the development of the sector; the most important of which is there must be a significant change in government policy and public support for the private sector. It is not enough for government to retreat from active participation in the economy (OECD, 2002); it must also make sure that it is replaced by a private sector with the capacity to perform and deliver results and the reputation, credibility, and support from the citizens it serves (Bender & Fish, 2008). Therefore, it may be necessary for government to undertake confidence-building measures between the private sector and the general public (Bhatt, 2009).

The fourth impediment is lack of management know-how in either the private or the public sector. The simplest way to address this is through management consulting contracts. There are many global management-consulting firms providing a wide range of expertise (Spender, 2000; Sveiby et. al 2001). Some developing countries have developed their own local consulting firms and may not need to buy the services on the open market (Beveren, 2002). Some other countries prefer a combination of local and foreign consulting firms working together and reinforcing each other's areas of strength. No matter what mode of application a country chooses at different stages of development, it must understand the challenges and limitations of using management consultants (Chua, 2010).

Other strategies for overcoming lack of management expertise include management training and development, staff interchange, and use of volunteer executive services from other countries (Bijerse 1999). With many schools offering MBAs at various locations and on the Internet, the opportunities for management training and development have never been greater and are becoming less expensive. For most developing countries interested in managing globalization, there is room for more creative use of executive interchange both domestically (Storey & Barnett, 2009) within a country but across sectors, industries, or regions (Abou-Zeid, 2002) and internationally.

In addition to lack of management expertise, many developing countries experience generalized lack of capital, resources, and capacity for policy development and implementation. The strategies for overcoming these impediments are listed in Table 1.1 and include better mobilization and utilization of resources both at home and abroad, increased government revenues through a more efficient tax collection system, economic growth, wealth creation, and income generation. They also include building institutional capacities for policy analysis and implementation and attracting foreign capital and FDI (capital, technology, management) (Davenport & Prusak, 1998).

Even after a country has taken steps to overcome these impediments, it may still find itself unable to effectively implement its industrial development policies or enjoy the benefits of globalization. This may be due to a group of impediments collectively referred to as "exogenous variables" in Table 1.1. These are "external" factors over which the country has no direct and effective control (Chua, 2010). The sources of exogenous variables are many and varied. As I have discussed, for weak states they may be associated with internal discord and the inability of the government to hold the country together let alone implement industrial development policies. They may be caused by acts of God, as often happens with small island and coastal states that periodically suffer from massive floods (for example, Bangladesh, India, Mozambique), hurricanes and typhoons (for example, the Caribbean), earthquakes (for example, Turkey), droughts (for example, Ethiopia), land slides (for example, Venezuela), or diseases such as HIV / AIDS or Ebola (Bhatt, 2009).

Exogenous variables also include changes going on elsewhere in the world that have profound effects on the fortunes or misfortunes of other countries. These may be technological, economic, political, or sociocultural changes (Carneiro, 2000). For example, changes in technology that makes it possible for the world to produce cheaper and almost equally attractive synthetic products have profound negative effects on producers of natural products (OECD, 2002). Recent examples include wool (for example, Australia), leather (for example, the Middle East), ivory (for example, Africa), hardwood (for example, Ghana, Brazil, Indonesia), cotton (for example, Egypt), and rugs (for example, Iran) (Zhao & Xie, 2007). When this happens, the affected country needs to make immediate and fundamental changes to its industrial development policies and strategies. Technologically advanced countries with strong economies and institutional capacities can make these changes in a relatively short period of time with minimal adverse effects to the majority of the citizens (Bhatt, 2009).

This is what happened, for example, when Switzerland lost world leadership in the production and marketing of watches to the Japanese when they invented digital and more functional watches. But the Swiss economy did not collapse. The affected watch-making firms and communities either adjusted to the new technological changes by producing and marketing watches that would compete with the Japanese or simply exited from the industry and invested in other sectors of the economy. Unfortunately, firms and communities in developing countries have very limited resources and capacities to make the necessary adjustments to technological change (Abou-Zeid, 2002).

Difficulties and Challenges of Technology Management in Iran

Even though the majority current problems of Iran's management of technology are common in other first world countries, particularly oil rich ones, a few of them are well-known, such as the ones detailed below:

Non-endogenous requirements and assets of management of technology system

In first world countries, to deliver a market requirement typically a new technology and innovation is initiated, which needs investment from study to manufacturing stages, the funding gains earnings in return for advertising the new products and this cycle is endlessly repetitive (Skyrme, 1999). In countries like Iran, a market requirement is created after monitoring foreign products rather than on the foundation of local demands, and as a consequence importing foreign technology is unavoidable (Bender & Fish, 2008; Sveiby et. al 2001). In view of the fact that the imported technology in the majority cases is not located on a suitable seat, it compels large extra costs and requires the ability to compete with foreign merchandises. So venture capital investments in such technologies are not cost-effective and government has to be paid the necessary capital from oil funds (Bhatt, 2009). In such circumstances, researching activities are presently ornamental and have no connection to the real needs of the industry. The following diagram shows the difference:

Fig. 1.1

Opportunities for Developing Countries

In the context of globalization, developing countries have the opportunity, responsibility, and challenge to reform and restructure their health services sector to make them efficient, effective, affordable, responsive, and universally accessible. More important, globalization provides these countries the opportunity to rethink their national strategies for industrial development and international trade (Carneiro, 2000). As a labor-intensive industry, health services offer developing countries opportunities to develop and sustain new areas of global competitiveness. It is also relatively easy and manageable to access the global economy and global society. Investing in health is an effective avenue to poverty alleviation (Sveiby et. al 2001). Trading in health services provides poor countries and their governments the resources they need to improve health services for all and raise overall standards of living through quality international trade. To develop successful export strategies, health services operators must benefit from optimal use of forward and backward linkages between domestic production and the foreign markets of health-care services (Davenport & Prusak, 1998; Sveiby & Simons, 2002).

Modes of Trade in Health Services

There are four modes of trade available to countries wishing to trade in health services (Sveiby & Simons, 2002): movement of natural persons, movement of consumers, establishing commercial operations, and cross-border trade. Each of these modes offers different opportunities and challenges to different countries and their current and future potentials for developing countries (Bender & Fish, 2008).

Movement of Natural Persons

This is the temporary movement of health services personnel from one country to another to work as health services providers. It is facilitated by the fact that health care is labor intensive, some countries experience labor shortages, and the training of medical and health personnel is based on universal scientific knowledge, making it possible, for example, for Indian- or Nigerian-trained personnel to work in Germany or the United States with a minimum of reorientation or retraining (Skyrme, 1999). Health-care professionals seek employment abroad for a variety of reasons, including better working conditions, opportunities for professional development, and exposure to new technologies not readily available in their home country. They may also be part of the national strategy for international cooperation and global trade. The movement of health-care professionals can remove shortages in the receiving countries, and remittances can improve the standard of living in the countries of origin (Davenport & Prusak, 1998).