FOR THE PAST TWO DECADES, the question of what impact information technology (IT) will have on business organizations has continued to puzzle academics and practitioners alike. Indeed, in an era when the business press has widely disseminated the idea that IT is changing the way businesses operate and the way they relate to customers and suppliers, the question of technology’s impact on the organization itself has gained renewed urgency.
The literature suggests four major classes of impact. First, there is the view that technology changes many facets of the organization’s internal structure, affecting roles, power, and hierarchy. A second body of literature focuses on the emergence of team-based, problem-focused, often-changing work groups, supported by electronic communications, as the primary organizational form.
Third, there is the view that organizations today are “disintegrating” — their borders punctured by the steadily decreasing costs of electronic interconnection among firms, suppliers, and customers. Companies, it is believed, will gradually shift to more market-based organizational forms, with specialized firms taking over many functions formerly performed within the hierarchical firm.
Finally, a fourth view of organizational change arises from a technical perspective. Here, it is argued that today’s improved communications capability and data accessibility will lead to systems integration within the business. This, in turn, will lead to vasdy improved group communications and, more important, the integration of business processes across traditional functional, product,... To read the complete article, login or sign-up using the form below.
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