The role of Current Technologies

As the developments of technology and Internet, the role of IS/IT in organizations become more and more important. According to many researches and experiments, we can see that both the Organizational Environments and the Technology Environments are very important for an organisation, which wants to be succeed on its businesses.

Organizational Environments [1]: those forces outside its boundaries that can impact it, forces can change over time and are made up of Opportunities and Threats. Opportunities are opening for managers to enhance revenues or open markets, just like new technologies, new markets and ideas. Threats are issues that can harm an organisation, e.g. economic recession, oil shortages. Organizational Environments includes the External Organizational Environment, the Internal Organizational Environment, and the New Work Enviroment.

IT "enables" advances in organisational performance, Technology Environment is needed in business processed and performance. Technology Environment includs Software trends, Hardware trends, Data trends, and Communications trends.

Personally speaking, I think there are three current technologies: The External Organizational Environment, The Internal Organizational Environments, and the Software trends, which have the most impact on the way work is done.

All outside factors that may affect an organization make up the external environment. The external environment is divided into two parts: Directly interactive, and Indirectly interactive. [2]

1> Directly interactive: This environment has an immediate and firsthand impact upon the organization. A new competitor entering the market is an example.
2> Indirectly interactive: This environment has a secondary and more distant effect upon the organization. New legislation taking effect may have a great impact. For example, complying with the Americans with Disabilities Act requires employers to update their facilities to accommodate those with disabilities.

The External Organizational Environment includes the new digital economy (B2B,B2C), Globalisation (the world isa marketplace), Ecosystems -- web of relationships around companies, The Idea Economy (ideas, IP and knowledge), Deregulation -- entry of new companies, Faster Business Cycles: information move fasters, thus increasing the speed at which events take place and the pace at which individuals and organisations respond to events.

An organization's Internal Environment [3] is composed of the elements within the organization, including current employees, management, and especially corporate culture, which defines employee behavior. Although some elements affect the organization as a whole, others affect only the manager. A manager's philosophical or leadership style directly impacts employees. Traditional managers give explicit instructions to employees, while progressive managers empower employees to make many of their own decisions. Changes in philosophy and/or leadership style are under the control of the manager. The following sections describe some of the elements that make up the internal environment.

The Internal Organizational Environment includes skills and talent shortages, demand-pull systems: customer drieven business processes, team-based working, and so on. The internal environment will impact the internal organization, if these internal environments can develop well, then the organization also will develop in a correct direction and make itself being successful.

The Sofeware trends in technology environment will become more and more important in oganization:

1>It improve the productivity of in-house programmers who created transaction processing systems.

2>Programming issues:

-- Modular and structured programming techniques.

-- Life cycle development methodologies and software engineering.

-- Introduction of rigorous project management techniques.

3>Prototyping: quick development of a mock-up

4>Purchasing software became viable alternative to in-house development

5>Paying attention to applications other than transaction processing

6>End users develop their own systems.

Overall, all of those environment are very important in oganization whether organizational environments or technology environment.

References:

[1] Warren Weber (8/1/00), "Organizational Environment". Retrieved January 31, 2009, from the World Wide Web:

http://www.csupomona.edu/~wcweber/301/301slide/ch03301/index.htm

[2] "Principles of Management: The External Environment". Retrieved January 31, 2009, from the World Wide Web:

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/CliffsReviewTopic/The-External-Environment.topicArticleId-8944,articleId-8859.html

[3] "Principles of Management: The Internal Environment". Retrieved January 31, 2009, from the World Wide Web:

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/WileyCDA/CliffsReviewTopic/The-Internal-Environment.topicArticleId-8944,articleId-8860.html