Work in the Information Age

1、1 work in the information age john l. krummel 2 if i was asked for one short sentence to describe this presentation it would be “the key to working in the information age is effective communication”. 3 do we shape our working world or is our working world shaping us? information management and its a

2、ssociated technologies is seen as a wondrous evolution for humankind. new breakthroughs utilising information management as a core component are happening everyday. 4 on the other hand our jobs are becoming ever more complex and challenging, requiring steeper learning curves and full of future uncer

3、tainty. 5 about here we could get break out and get involved in discussions concerning culture, consumption, pseudo individualisation, standardisation and whole schools of philosophical thought. we could also get involved with the works of taylor, maslow, daft and lengel, mc gregor etc. but our aim

4、is to discuss working in a information age rather than discuss the work philosophy of humankind. 6 besides “im not here to dull your beliefs, but to sharpen your curiosity” 7 in 1973 daniel bell made the following statement: “in the coming century, the emergence of a new social framework of telecomm

5、unications may be decisive for the way in which economic and social exchanges are conducted, the way knowledge is created and retrieved”. bell, daniel. (1973). the coming of the post-industrial society: a venture in social forecasting. new york, ny: basic. p. 487. 8 “people of the mid-nineteenth cen

6、tury encountered tremendous cultural and social change with the dawn of the industrial age. “the people of the late twentieth century experienced tremendous cultural and social shifts with the advent of the information age.” hill -1992, 1996 /%7erhill/workethic/hist.htm the indu

7、strial age (it was said) was giving way to the information age 9 industrial age jobs: low-discretion (in-ability to choose according to ones own desires) with minimal decision making. tasks were analysed and broken into simple steps which required very little thinking or judgement on the part of wor

8、kers. information age jobs: in contrast, are high-discretion and require considerable thinking and decision making on the part of workers miller, w. f. emerging technologies and their implications for america. usa today, 60-65 10 beginning nineteen seventies and expanding into the eighties “blue col

9、lar” workers began for the first time to outnumbered by their “white collar” cousins. co-incidentally also: the advent of laser printing, “wysiwyg” “macs”, ibm “pcs”, bitmap imaging, graphical user interfaces, barcode scanners, internet (arpanet), floppy disk, ethernet, etc etc. check out: http:/ 11

10、 innovations (especially within the semi conductor area) arising from the seventies allowed business and organisations to capture information in a digital form and manipulate and share that information. the digital age allowed this to begin happening on a truly rapid and global stage. 12 early syste

11、ms were unfriendly when compared to those of today. users had to adapt work routines to the system being used. lots of crashes and downtime due to system failures. systems were expensive. specialists ruled (and were expensive) 13 todays systems: much more affordable more powerful more interactive us

12、er to system, system to user, user to user, system to system. allows for a greater depth of information processing utilising a continuously updating data stream. 14 tomorrows technology will make todays feel like yesterdays 15 work in the information age no longer confined to one industry or area. d

13、ecentralised telecommuting provides mobile offices/work from home scenarios. “virtual office” basic business core complemented by “as needed” specialist consultants with area specific knowledge. “work is something you do, not something you travel to” (anon) 16 endless opportunities we generally hold

14、 to the belief that the flexibility and the opportunities for increased productivity offered by todays information technologies are real benefits. or, are they? there are more businesses using information technology but there are also more information specialists. specialists are available in increa

15、sed numbers but at reduced cost. “business can be seen to gain but the workers loose” 17 the benefits of the virtual office are not obtained simply by arming workers with portable information systems and sending them out of the office. managing people to work well virtually, requires new skills and

16、attitudes on the parts of both organisations and workers. 18 information age organisations need to be: more adaptive. more accepting of changing processes. must spend to stay competitive. must be prepared to use outside expertise rather than rely on internal workforce abilities. has anything really

17、changed? 19 information age workers desirable attributes more adaptive and accepting of emerging innovation. able to create social networks, collaborate with fellow workers and those outside the main business core. 20 side effects because the technology is a global one organisations have to become g

18、lobal to survive or suffer losses to those who are. who buys on the internet? more stressed as continually learning, adapting and networking. student requirements higher and more demanding than previous and online learning requires the purchase and maintenance of physical technology. socialising is

19、becoming part of work. who has time for friends 21 consideration isolation or integration some people are surrounding themselves with modern technology while paying little attention to the needs of others. others use technology to better understand their fellow man to overcome physical distance, est

20、ablishing digital relationships. /ideas/technology/ 22 discussion are we still simple task orientated like we were in the industrial age? are our working and social lives merging? are we becoming more reliant on social bonding to get the job done? is social change driving tech

21、nology or is technology driving social change? this last question can be considered by a quick look at the philosophical proposition of “determinism”. 23 determinism the philosophical proposition that every event, including human cognition and action, is causally determined by an unbroken chain of p

22、rior occurrences. no mysterious miracles or wholly random events occur. 24 determinism hard vs soft determinism stance (smith and marx, 1994) hard: technology drives social change soft: technology is influential but society has a choice in which tools to develop. lsmith, m. r. and marx, l. (eds), do

23、es technology drive history? the dilemma of technological determinism, mit press, cambrdige, ma. non-determinism stance (mcdermott, 1993, 1991) “free will” - im a child of the 60s social forces shape technology, not causally determined. technologies reflect different degrees of social, political and

24、 economic power possessed by the sponsors and the opponents of particular technologies. lmcdermott, j.: 1991, corporate society: class, property, and contemporary capitalism. interventions: theory and contemporary politics, westview press, boulder, co. (slide stolen from fay sudweeks collection) 25

25、working in the information age if technological ability is important how do we function more effectively utilising an awareness of technology requirements. if social presence is important - how do we function more effectively utilising an increased awareness of the importance of social interactions.

26、 26 communication the information media we choose allows us to: - communicate with the system. - communicate with other users. 27 the problem is in choosing the right methods of communicating. human to machine component (technical aspect) human to human component (social aspect) 28 the media we use

27、to communicate needs to reflect the importance of the communication. “how would you rate these in order of importance?” 1.email 2.video conferencing 3.audio conferencing 4.telephone 5.irc 6.fax 7.telemarketing 8.hand written letter 9.advertising brochure 10.word processed letter you cant, unless you

28、 know the context relative to the question. we cannot proclaim that video conferencing is the best communication media for all communication. 29 we all view the media type differently depending upon the situation. therefore scrutiny of media selection is important but how do we choose? 30 people and

29、 organisations can make bad choices! can be influenced by social and cultural contexts! can be misinformed! can be misled! do not know what they want! do not have a choice! 31 theories and models of communication needs can assist in determining the closest match to suit the requirements. however! 32

30、 theories and models abound for describing technological and social interactions and suitable for analysing and choosing information age requirements “there are theories and theories that debunk theories and models and models that anti-model other models” 33 despite the overwhelming and often contra

31、dictory evidence that these can create, theories and models provide a means of addressing the relationship between technology and society and prompt questions about agency, determinism, and autonomy (how much of an influence does technology have?); and teleonomy (the science of adaptation) (does it

32、have a particular, inevitable, end?). for a more in depth discussion go to: /wiki/theories_of_technology 34 you have already covered several theories in this course and also during your other studies you will have uncovered several more. media richness social influence two othe

33、rs to further illustrate and briefly show how technological and sociological issues shape our working world. technology momentum theory diffusion of innovation theory 35 technology momentum theory when a technology is young, deliberate control over its use and scope is possible and enacted by societ

34、y. however as a technology matures, and becomes increasingly enmeshed in the society where it was created, its own deterministic force takes hold. thomas p. hughes, technological momentum, in albert teich, ed., technology and the future, 8th edn., 2000. 36 diffusion of innovation french sociologist

35、“gabriel tarde” originally claimed that sociology was based on small psychological interactions among individuals, especially imitation and innovation. tarde, g. (1903) the laws of imitation, translated by e.c. parsons with introduction by f.giddings, new york, henry, holt and co. 37 diffusion of in

36、novation diffusion of innovations theory was formalised by everett rogers in a 1962 book called diffusion of innovations. rogers stated that adopters of any new innovation or idea could be categorized as innovators (2.5%), early adopters (13.5%), early majority (34%), late majority (34%) and laggard

37、s (16%), based on a bell curve. each adopters willingness and ability to adopt an innovation would depend on their awareness, interest, evaluation, trial, and adoption. rogers, everett. (1995). diffusion of innovations. fourth edition. new york, ny: the free press. 38 rounding off our working life i

38、s an ever changing procession of tasks. in the early years the tasks we performed were typically steeped in tradition and (hunting, gathering, mining) evolving around cultural and social values. as society evolved tasks expanded becoming more intricate in nature requiring more finesse and craftsmans

39、hip, still, they were linked to social and cultural values. during the industrial revolution tasks became more simplified and automated as machinery evolved. social and cultural values became linked to industrial processes. today the tasks are more steeped in innovation where the need for workers is

40、 to rapidly adapt to changing consumer processes. simple tasking has given way to multitasking. social and cultural values can be seen as linked to consumer processes. 39 the way we communicate is central to our current information processing requirements. communication methods are more numerous in our current era than we were previously exposed to which in itself creates problems in knowing the right medium for effective communicatio