The organizational and human costs of rapid technological advancement

¶ … Technology Updates

The Cost of Technological Advances

The development of technological advances has been significant in the last 50 years but more so in the last 30. According to Moore an early pioneer in silicone technology, the capacity for engineering technology innovation is clearly rapid. Moore set a benchmark for silicone technology claiming that capacity would double the number of transistors on a chip, which determines the capacity for memory every 24 months. This law served as a standard for Intel and other chip manufacture companies, creating a demonstrative goal that was followed almost to the letter from its inception to now (Intel, 2011). This rapid advancement of technology has made many functions and aspects of technology capabilities possible as computers and servers can process more and more tasks and information more rapidly than ever. The result of these advances has been both an extreme learning curve cost as well as an extreme financial outlay for many organizations, both as a response to legal and legislative mandates and the need for competitive advantage development. Though the development of so much capacity and possibilities has made it possible to do and make many things faster and more efficiently than ever before people rarely if ever look specifically at the cost of such technology with regard to human attrition, due to inability to learn and update rapidly enough (Russell, 2011), the loss of organizations based on size and productivity and inability to shoulder costs of upgrading technology and of course likely the most looked at but still neglected financial burden of upgrading technology on a near constant basis. This work will look specifically at these three areas of the cost of technological advance, financial, individual attrition and small organization loss.

Financial Costs and Outcomes

The work will first look at the financial costs of technology advancement, because it is the main aspect of focus for most research and even anecdote and has created a fundamental digital divide between those who can and those who cannot afford to outlay the funds to upgrade on a near constant basis. To better understand this one might look specifically at a very recent social phenomena that is likely in some part associated with the cost of technological advances, the bankruptcy filing of municipalities. Public entities both small and large have been fundamentally hit by the cost of technological advances, as the cost of providing services such as police and fire emergency services that are bound by public demand and legislative/legal mandates to upgrade technology to most rapidly and efficiently meet the needs of the public. These two areas of public outlay often comprise a majority of public spending and when municipalities like currently, Stockton, CA who states that expenditures by the municipality are comprised by 75% on just these two services, police and fire both of whom have been fundamentally challenged by technology advancement costs. The municipality if it does file bankruptcy (Chapter 9) which it is likely to do in a City Council meeting on Monday (March 19, 2012) will become the largest city in the U.S. To do so and it is likely that this is a result in part of the shouldering of demands for technology advances over nearly everything else, including but not limited to personnel and service infrastructure outside technology (Huff Post, March 17, 2012). This issue demonstrates fundamentally how the cost of technology in both the short- and long-term, can financially cripple even some of the largest organizations and contribute to the creation of whole new financial trends that are not likely to be seen as fundamentally good or progressive for society and community. In the long-term the default of Stockton on bonds and other expenses including pensions will effect individuals greatly, and especially those who have served the public good for the majority of their lives and counted on those entities to care for them when they were no longer able to serve. The increased cost of doing business, contributed to by technology upgrade mandates and other factors is resulting in the loss of historical and future stability for individuals and communities at an unprecedented level.

Small Organizations

There is a clear sense that small business in the private sector are the most influential factor in economic development often employing more people that all other areas of business and the public sector. Additionally, these businesses see the highest cost burden when it comes to technology advancements as their smaller scale economies are more affected by outlay for technology upgrade than their larger counterparts or organizations in the public sector. Going back to technology advances in medical record keeping and other areas has resulted in a marked increase in retirement among not only doctors but other allied health care professionals, many who leave simply because they feel fundamentally unable to improve skills to work new technology systems (Ford, 2012). Though many businesses outside the health care profession are feeling the pinch of the costs of technology updates small businesses, the major force of the American economy shoulder a much higher burden and are often not capable of developing competitive advantage without upgrading. Though some would argue that the attrition of these small businesses is fundamentally good in the scheme of the long-term economy as they close and leave room for businesses more capable of competing in a high tech world, the reality is that services and products provided by these small business are being replaced by larger corporations. Looking closely at business trends such as the diversification of large service and product providers one can clearly see that gaining market share by absorbing the customers of smaller businesses that are closing due to both the expansion of larger businesses and provisions as well as the smaller businesses inability to create competitive advantage through technology updates, in the same manner as much larger organizations can ("Wireless needed…" 2010)

Conclusion

Though many like to look at technology development as the greatest of human endeavors of the last 100 years, an arguable point, there are also costs both expected and unexpected are a result of technology development. This work has looked at three areas of this issue, the financial cost, individual attrition and small business attrition due to inability to absorb cost offset of technology updating. Though technology advances have made many things possible that were never possible before the whole picture of the cost of technology advances must be looked at, studied and understood by anyone who seeks to better understand trends in business and society.