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Organizational Performance in a Fortune 500 Company

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Please help outline and draft a 2,800- to 3,500-word explanation of the affect of technology on organizational performance in a Fortune 500 company or comparable major public sector organization

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the affect of technology on organizational performance in a Fortune 500 company

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Here are the reports I have been working from. I could only attach 3 so I have cut and pasted the last one.
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In recent times, technology has become an ever increasing presence in the workplace and it is one of the hot topics among the business world. More and more businesses, large and small, are trying to incorporate the latest technology into their operations. This notion is evidenced by the fact that the popular business publications now have technology sections, and information systems departments are becoming critical components of most organizations. Even this week's issue of Business Week (February 27, 1995) carries a cover story on cyberspace and its application to business. The appeal of the whole information technology arena is that it is designed to make people and organizations more knowledgeable, efficient, and/or profitable.
The scope of technology that an organization can adopt or employ is vast, ranging from something seeming simple, such as buying a personal computer with a word processor, to investing in the latest state-of-the-art computer-aided manufacturing machinery. Regardless of the complexity of the system or the size of the organization, one thing is certain - the incorporation of such technology or information systems will accompany change. Purposely, I have not said that they will cause change because the reverse is also true. Implementation of technological systems can either act as a catalyst for change or be the means of achieving a desired change. Regardless of the motivation, a properly integrated system ideally will take into account the impact on the organization before it is put into place. This paper will look at the relationship between technological advances/information technology and change in an organization. It will also give some examples of how information technology has been implemented in some specific cases in industries such as aerospace, computers, oil and gas, railroad, and manufacturing.
The contribution of information technology and its impact on the organization is emphasized by Nadler, who states "perhaps the largest single influence on organizational architecture and design has been the evolution of information technology."(Gerstein, p.5) Technology certainly has its place among the key elements which shape an organization. The model used by Andersen consultants is typical when it lists technology as an equal attribute, along with strategy, people, and business processes. The interconnectivity of these elements should be obvious, for one cannot be changed in a transformational sense without at least consideration of the others. While the formal structure or arrangements within an organization will likely be affected by the arrival of new technology, this does not have to be the case in all situations. A transformation can also occur through the business changing the way it operates. More specifically, information technology can be linked to changes in factors such as job design, physical layout or location, supervisory relationships and autonomy, cooperation inside and outside the organization, and formation of work teams.
One futuristic idea whose time has come is the notion of the virtual workplace. This concept is based on the idea of employees being able to work independently as a result of having access to information. One article proposes "the virtual workplace provides access to information you need to do your job anytime, anyplace, anywhere. . . employees do not have to be tied to their offices to do their jobs."(Jenner, p.16) The idea of not even having a set office space certainly would be a change from the typical routine of showing up at the office from 9 to 5 (ideally) and performing your work at your desk. Such a plan would obviously be dependent on the job to be accomplished, but it is interesting to think of the supervisory implications. Such employees would have the ultimate amount of autonomy and would have to be managed accordingly. Tasks would have to be more objective or goal oriented and measures of job performance could no longer depend on face to face interaction, but rather would have to be tied strictly on the ability to complete assigned tasks.
It seems to be a common theme that information systems will change even more traditional supervisory relationships. Computer networks allow people to communicate quickly, share ideas, and transfer information without regard to physical locations, or to a reasonable extent, even without regard to the temporal dimension. Therefore, a supervisor will be able to monitor the activities of a larger number of subordinates without requiring them to report directly to him/her. Both David Nadler and Jeremy Main refer to this "span of control" as a measure of how many individuals or teams that a supervisor can effectively manage. Main makes the point that such spans will give way to "spans of communication" which he defines as the number of people that an executive can reach through a good information system.(Main, p.52) Nadler makes the prediction that such an executive could supervise hundreds of empowered individuals and groups.(Gerstein, p.173) It is important to note that again interdependency of people and technology comes up in the form of empowerment. Obviously, such relationships would not be possible under traditional job limitations, but through empowerment of employees, such a stage can be appropriately set. This implies that the employees are properly trained on the technology and that they understand the direction taken by the organization and their role in it. Thus the ...

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