By the mid-1990s, in consequence of the Information Revolution (ca. 1980–2000), the role of information and communication technology in organizations had grown to such an extent that one could already discern first-level impacts on organizational configuration, organizational culture, business strategy, management processes, work, and workplace. What might be second-level impacts on organizations (e.g., business models, creativity and innovation, psychological contracts) from the ongoing Digital Revolution (ca. 2000s–)? What implications might there be for the nature of organizing, the quest for the agile organization, leveraging information and communication technology for agility, and agility and leadership?
Considering that the new technologies used in the automation of production in industry and services make extensive use of information and communication technologies, the changes brought about by the latter are considerable. In many cases, the human factor seems to be only marginally taken into account. It is very often up to man to adapt to the machine, whereas one might think that the machine is there to facilitate human work...
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@Michel Héry, “Technology is a useful servant but a dangerous master”, said Lange in his Nobel Peace Prize lecture of 1921. One hundred years later, some have remarked that our social media platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter), for example, were supposed to bring people together but are now better known for invading privacy, fueling propaganda, and destabilizing democracy. In like fashion, the balance of pros and cons of e-commerce, the gig economy, etc., including the automation of production and services you mention, does indeed suggest that people should consider more carefully the choices they make about technology. It may be that the clearest implication from increasing use of information and communication technology is the need to develop the ability of societies to debate the technology and come up with good answers. Toward this, we might consider developing the field of ethics in digital technologies to raise questions about its role in society.
The second level of increased use of information and communication technologies is correlated with the development of the technology of the fourth technological revolution and Industry 4.0 and the implementation of these technologies into economic processes. In addition, the implementation of these new technologies allows you to improve organization management processes. Business entities obtain greater opportunities in many areas of business activity, including in the field of market research, analysis of consumer needs, improvement of manufacturing processes, improvement of supply logistics, production and distribution, analysis of big data sets, creation of business innovations, improvement of communication, development of remote work, etc.
Regards,
Dariusz Prokopowicz
Dariusz Prokopowicz, on the heels of the Digital Revolution, the conjoined Fourth Industrial Revolution that will further automate traditional manufacturing and industrial practices can indeed be considered a follow-on from increasing use of ICT. In relation to the impact of ICT on the nature of organizations per se, especially their workers, I was curious about the implications of new business models based on, say, automated manufacturing, collaborative design, e-fulfillment, e-procurement, e-recruitment, electronic markets, process reengineering, virtual stores, and workshifting.
Despite the advance of technology it is always the human who determines, does, oversees, and evaluates the work whether by other humans or from automation. A strong focus on technology impacts on organization tends to ignore the human processes involved including culture.
Jerry Mulenburg: I agree that ICT does not—or rather need not—evolve blindly under forces beyond our control. Eventually, however fraught with controversy technological revolutions may be, their evolvement is always subject to people and values.
Hermann Gruenwald: I agree that, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the social distancing norms and lockdowns are prompting a surge in the use of ICT for work-from-home, not forgetting gig work, that can only hasten the advent of earlier predictions about the accelerating pace of ICT and its adoption. "Homeoffice" may indeed the dictionary as "homeschooling"" did.
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may be of interest.This article notes that, with increasing impetus from the 1980s, information and communication technology (ICT) has become a powerful driver of change. Past the immediate dynamism that ICT has brought to organizations, the article considers second-level impacts on economy, society, work, and the very act of organizing. The article explains that organizations must now learn to leverage ICT for agility and showcases different interpretations of the changing nature and function of individual and collective leadership.
The impact of ICT on organizational agility goes hand in hand with other Enablers : firm's culture, employees' mindset, orgnanizational structure ...
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may be of interest.This article scrutinizes the intensifying role of information and communication technology (ICT) in organizations from economic, organizational, psychological, social, and technical perspectives. First, the article elucidates first-order, intra-organizational results from past and recent advances in ICT. Second, the article considers second-level impacts of ICT on economy, society, work, and the very act of organizing and submits that organizations must now learn to leverage ICT for agility in situations of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Third, the article maps out core concepts of agility and calls on e-leadership to synergize people and technology in newfound workforce ecosystems, especially with respect to the virtual teams that increasingly characterize the "New Normal".