Chapter 14
IT AND WORKING PRACTICES
Chapter Contents
2
¾ IS As Support For Management
¾ The Use Of Critical Success Factors
¾ Technological Changes and Development
¾ IS/IT and Employer/Employee Relations
¾ IS/IT and Organizational Structure
IS/IT and Organizational Structure
¾ IS/IT and Job Structure
¾ The Impact of E
The Impact of E‐Mail
Mail
¾ Socio‐Technical System Design
IS As Support For Management
3
Management information needs to meet cretin characteristics
to try and avoid information overload.
Ch
Characteristics
i i I f
Information
i N d ffor
Need
Relevant Control
Understandable Plan
Timely Co-ordinate
Complete Motivate staff
Available to One-odd decision
Manager
Value> Cost
The Use Of Critical Success Factors
4
Critical success factors and performance indicators
¾ Critical success factors: limited number of areas in which
results, if they are satisfactory, will ensure successful
competitive performance for the business
competitive performance for the business.
¾ Performance indicators: quantifiable measures that show
whether or not critical factors have been met.
Measuring performance
¾ Key performance indicators help to show whether or not
critical success factors have been met.
Technological Changes and Development
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Relation between business and technological developments
¾ New technological developments may provide
organizations with some competitive advantage but for a
limited amount of time
limited amount of time.
Proliferation of computers
Most staff now use computers during
workingg dayy
Increasing automation of work
Affects of technology Specifically on labour intensive office
on business based tasks
Reduction in project life cycle
New products introduced more
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idl mobile
bil telephone
l h
Technological Changes and Development ‐22
Technological Changes and Development
6
Information and communication systems
Major trends in information and communication systems:
¾ Decrease cost
¾ Increasing reliability
¾ Reduction in size
Results of these technological development
¾ Increase speed and capacity of technological components
¾ Portability of electronic equipment
¾ Greater connectivity of computers
¾ E‐mail
IS/IT and Employer/Employee Relations
IS/IT and Employer/Employee Relations
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Effect of IT/IS on employee/employer relation looked at
from two aspects :
¾ How it affects the structure of jobs and the organization,
and
¾ How it affect the attitude of employees to their job
IS/IT and Organizational Structure
IS/IT and Organizational Structure
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IS/IT and the chain of command
y Any employee can send message to anyone else e.g. senior manager –
breaking chain of command.
y Organization structure can be ‘flatter’ with fewer levels of management.
y Easier to manage larger organizations, such as global corporations, as the
number of levels in the management hierarchy need not be excessive.
IS/IT and the span of control
y Wider span of control because organization structure is flatter.
y IS can be used to monitor more employees widening span of control.
y However, need to prevent information overload in this information
provision.
y Wide span of control may mean employees feel ignored or not wanted.
IS/IT Job Structure
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Information systems can increase or decrease skill level, or
change the nature of the skills required to carry out the
jobs.
Skills
Can be increased or decrease. De-
skilling results in boredom and luck of
jjobs satisfaction.
Task Variety
Can be increased or decreased. IS can
De-Skilling of Jobs focus on important tasks rather than
repetitive ones.
Autonomy
Again can be increased or decreased.
IS may allow
ll more d
decision
i i makingki
due to greater responsibility.
IS/IT Job Structure ‐ 2
IS/IT Job Structure 2
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Virtual Work Group
y Effect of computers: more time spent at computer rather than
personal communication .
Homeworking (teleworking)
y IT allowing working from home.
y Allow project teams to work together when they are in many different
locations.
y However, employees still want to “meet”, limiting effectiveness of
technology.
Homeworking (Teleworking)
Homeworking (Teleworking)
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Advantage
g For Employer
p y Disadvantages
g
¾ Cost saving ¾ Employee more difficult to
¾ Greater choice of employee for monitor
organization ¾ Employees may be more difficult
¾ Reduction in office interruption to motivate
¾ May limit hours worked
Ad
Advantage
t F E
For Employee
l Di d
Disadvantages
t
¾ More control over planning work ¾ Less involvement with work and
¾ Less travel colleagues
¾ Less stressful ¾ Feeling of isolation
¾ Cheaper – less travel ¾ Feel cut off from information
¾ More choices of where to live needed
¾ Email
E il iimpersonall
¾ Disruption to family life
The Impact Of E‐Mail
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Benefits E Mail
M il Disadvantages
Quicker Encourages
Communication unnecessary
communication
Support Homeworking
Encourages use of
informal language
Message sent anywhere
at any time of day Used too much for
chatting – quick
telephone call better
Provide easy access to any
individual in company
Avoid social contact
Socio‐Technical
Socio Technical System Design
System Design
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Socio‐Technical System Design : is system design to meet human work
requirement .
i t
Human Issues
¾ Good design means:
yHuman use their skills
yJobs have definite beginning and end
g g
yWork in meaningful
yHumans have control over their work – not the computer
yReceive feedback on performance
Receive feedback on performance
Socio‐technical design attempts to meet these objectives.
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Questions?