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Chapter 16

Information Technology For Management 5th EditionTurban, Leidner, McLean, WetherbeLecture Slides by A. Lekacos, Stony Brook University

John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The Impacts of Information Technology on Individuals, Organizations, and Society

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Learning Objectives

• Describe some of the major impacts of information technology on individuals, organizations, and society.

• Understand the changes that take place in the workplace and the lives of individuals when information technology eliminates geographical

• and spatial barriers.• Discuss the positive and negative effects associated with the

abundance of information made available by IT.• Identify the issues that arise due to uneven diffusion of

information technology across countries and socioeconomic classes.

• Understand the complexity of effects of technological progress on labor markets and individual employees.

• Discuss the impacts of information technology on the quality of life and interpersonal relationships.

• Recognize the legal, ethical, and moral issues that become particularly critical due to proliferation

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IT Positive Effects Only?

• Will society have any control over the deployment of technology?

• Where will technology critics be able to make their voices heard?

• Who will investigate the costs and risks of technologies?

• What about health and safety issues?

• What impact will IT have on employment levels?

• What impact will IT have on the quality of life?

We assume that organizations will reap the fruits of new technology and that computers have no major negative impact. But is this really true?

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Impacts On Organizations

• The manager’s job

• Organizational structure, authority and power

• Job content (Value and Supply Chain)

• Employee career paths

• Supervision

The use of computers and information technology has brought many changes to organizations.

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The Manager’s Job

• Automation of routine decisions• Less expertise required for many decisions. • More rapid identification of problems and opportunities• Less reliance on experts to provide support to top executives. • Empowerment of lower and middle levels of management. • Decision making undertaken by non-managerial employees. • Power redistribution among managers• Thinner organizations.• Organizational intelligence that is more timely, comprehensive,

accurate, and available

The most important task of managers is making decisions. IT changes the manner in which many decisions are made.

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The IT revolution has resulted in many changes in structure, authority, power and job content.

Authority, Power, Job Content

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Impact On Personnel Issues

Many personnel-related questions arise as a Many personnel-related questions arise as a result of using IT.result of using IT.

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Impact On Individuals

• Dehumanization and other psychological impacts

• Information anxiety

• Job stress

• Video display

• Radiation exposure

• Repetitive strain (stress) injuries

• Lack of proper Ergonomics

• Other Impacts …

Information systems affect individuals in various ways. What is a benefit to one individual may be a constraint to another.

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Other Impact On IndividualsInteractions between individuals and computers are numerous.

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Impact Society

• Opportunities for people with disabilities

• Quality of Life improvements

• Improvements in health care

• Crime fighting

IT has already had many direct beneficial effects on society, being used for complicated human and social problems such as medical diagnosis, computer assisted instruction, government-program planning, environmental quality control, and law enforcement.

BenefitsBenefits

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Impact Society

• Scanning crowds for criminals

• Cookies and individual privacy

• Digital millennium copyright act

• Providing Social services

• Possible massive unemployment resulting from the increased use of IT

• The “digital divide” or gap between those who have technology and those who do not.

• Impact of globalization on culture

Use of IT has raised the issues of invasion of privacy.

IssuesIssues

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Virtual CommunitiesA virtual (Internet) community is one in which the interaction among group members that share a common interest takes place via the Internet rather than face-to-face.

Types of CommunitiesTypes of Communities

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Virtual CommunitiesVirtual communities have commercial as well as social aspects.

Financial Viability of CommunitiesFinancial Viability of Communities

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MANAGERIAL ISSUES

• The effects of offshore outsourcing. Offshore outsourcing may be either an opportunity or a threat to an organization. To improve organizational efficiency, companies should explore the opportunities to outsource certain noncore activities to firms in other parts of the world. However, managers should be aware of various legal and ethical considerations surrounding this issue as well as the impact of outsourcing on the size and morale of their workforce.

• Managing and evaluating remote workers. Telecommuting increases the number of employees working away from the office. To manage these employees, it is vital to place a greater emphasis on regular formal communications. Effective performance evaluation is also different and requires a closer examination of the actual outputs produced by each employee.

• Dealing with information overload. In many workplaces, the capacity of information systems to collect and generate information has outpaced the ability of human employees to absorb it. The resulting information overload negatively impacts employees and their productivity. A greater investment in knowledge management systems, decision support systems, and related tools may help to solve this problem.

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MANAGERIAL ISSUES

• Providing high-quality information. As companies continue to rely on increasingly larger volumes of information, the issue of information quality becomes critically important to the success of the organizations. Furthermore, recent laws, such as the Sarbanes–Oxley Act, make CEOs and CFOs personally liable for the quality and accuracy of financial information disclosed to the public.

• Displacement of employees with information technology. In any occupation—blue-collar, clerical, or white-collar—machines are acquiring the capabilities to perform “human” tasks more effectively and efficiently. Although this trend is unlikely to result in massive worldwide unemployment, it can have dramatic results on individual organizations and on individual employees. Thus, managers should be aware of the potentially disruptive technologies that may displace them or their colleagues and subordinates.

• Use of electronic surveillance. Proliferation of computer and white-collar crime impels employers to use information technology to monitor their employees. While electronic surveillance may reduce the incidence of unlawful activities, it may also result in employee resentment and other unintended consequences.

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