Information and communications technology (ICT) changes the extent to which organizations have to be located in a particular place, with all – or almost all – the important functions occurring face-to-face in a specific location. Early factories had to be built close to sources of power and if possible key raw materials and workers. Inside the factories the workers themselves were closely watched and monitored. As technologies have developed many of these issues have become less important. When people talk about the ‘global economy’ they often have in mind the ways in which processes of production and manufacture can now extend across continents and time-zones in ways that were not possible in the early days of industrialization
As the impact of technological development is realized what was previously assumed to be the only way of doing something is seen as just one possibility amongst many. At the same time the core aspects become more prominent. An example of this, and one relevant to this chapter, is ‘office automation’. This became a popular idea in the 1980s as computer technology became more widely available and affordable – particularly with the appearance of the personal computer [PC]. This information technology [IT] readily lent itself to many of the tasks associated with the office – typing letters could be done more efficiently and effectively with word-processing software; filing could be done using database software if the material was in electronic form; calculations and estimating could be accomplished with spreadsheets; some document handling could be accomplished using fax machines. The technology was seen as a solution to many problems faced by organizations – small and large – such as delays in sending out letters and invoices, losing important documents, staff shortages, and so on. This led some people to conclude that the office in its previous form would disappear. Why maintain a special space and group of staff, when all the key functions could be carried out by technology? This proved to be as false and unfounded as the idea of ‘the paperless office’. The outcome of office automation was a better understanding of the role and nature of ‘the office’ in organizational life. It was not simply somewhere that letters got typed, and papers got filed; but the site of many other activities, many of which were essential to the smooth running of the organization. The office was a space where people met colleagues and engaged in informal discussions, where rumours and gossip were exchanged, and so on. The office was not simply a place but the location for a whole range of processes and interactions. The introduction of IT and other technology changed people’s ideas about what actually went on at people’s place of work, in many cases altering or challenging long-held the assumptions.
The impact of IT since the 1980s on administrative and secretarial type activities has led to a dramatic restructuring in many organizations. Some of the core functions remain, but with an altered emphasis as a result of incorporation of new technology and new ideas about the role and purpose of these functions and activities.
A similar pattern has come about in many other aspects of contemporary organizations. An increasing range of organizational activities are now bound up with ICT. This has meant that many aspects regarded as essential to the smooth operation of an organization have become topics for discussion and re-evaluation. In some cases these reconsiderations apply to specific types of organization; but in many cases they have a far wider and more general scope.
The general issues develop from the potential for technologies, particularly but not only ICT, to allow a far wider range of options for an organization to exist and function. An early example was the way in which factories reduced the levels of their inventories – i.e. the raw materials or components needed to produce their finished product. The earliest pioneers of this were in Japan, where manufacturers were encouraged to aim for ‘zero inventory’. In other words goods delivered to the manufacturing site were not booked in to stock areas, waiting to be used at a later date – and so consuming space, effort and money. Instead the delivered items were immediately sent to production and manufacture on a ‘just in time’ [JIT] basis. For JIT to work in practice, there needs to be a fairly accurate model of material requirements, together with reliable and responsive communications links between the manufacturer, suppliers and transport (what is now often referred to as ‘logistics’). Without these just-in-time is in danger of becoming just-too-late. But if such facilities can be assured then the potential cost savings and efficiency gains can become a reality.
In the 1970s when these ideas were in their infancy the relevant technology was fairly low-level compared to what is now potentially available – although not universally widespread. The Internet, particularly email, real-time communications, mobile phones, on-line tracking, developments in e-commerce and the like have all had an impact. Initially this impact was centred on the supply and production part of the value chain, but more recently it has also affected the consumer. This has been described by Sviokla and Rayport as the move from ‘market-place to market-space’.
Sviokla and Rayport argue that value for consumers is created by three components which are usually found together, but which with the development of the internet and e-commerce have become distinguishable. Moreover organizations can position themselves to focus on one or two, rather than all three. The three components are; content – what is offered; context – the form in which it is offered; infrastructure – how it is delivered or distributed.
They offer as an example a newspaper. Until recently the first two value components were tightly bound together. The organization that produced the paper was also responsible for printing multiple copies and delivering them somewhere from where they could be sold to the readers. In some cases the final part of the logistics – the delivery – involved it arriving at the consumer’s house in a more-or-less readable condition. With the advent of the Internet, email, RSS feeds and a whole host of other alerting and delivery possibilities all three components have become far more flexible. A consumer can still purchase a newspaper in the traditional manner, but there are also other options including paying for an on-line service by an internet service provider, receiving an email with the document attached ready for printing, headlines and extracts sent to one’s mobile phone and so on. Here again is an example of the way in which ICT and related technologies dismantle existing structures and open up new possibilities.
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