Reading+21

Reading 21
__Technology is a Place__
 * Technology makes the world a new place
 * Kaleidoscope metaphor:
 * When you turn the end of a kaleidoscope you change the entire structure
 * When an organization changes its technological infrastructure it is the same as using our hand to move the end of a kaleidoscope
 * The difference is that the fragments in a kaleidoscope change at random, but changes in human societies are not as blind
 * Some theorists believe that managers are interested exclusively in technology as a means of controlling, limiting and ultimately weakening their work force
 * To fully grasp the way in which a major new technology can change the world, it is necessary to consider both the manner in which it creates intrinsically new qualities of experience and the way in which new possibilities are engaged by the often conflicting demands of social, political and economic interests in order to produce a “choice”
 * Managers emphasize machine intelligence and managerial control over the knowledge base at the expense of developing knowledge in the operating work force
 * They use the technology as a fail safe system to increase their sense of certainty and control over both production and organizational functions

__Informated Organizations/Workplaces__
 * Technology has the power to reorder the organizational rules
 * The need for learning associated with new technologies require new divisions of labor, learning etc.
 * Information developments make work more abstract and less hands on, with stress increasingly shifted to software
 * Informated organizations contrast the concept of automation
 * Focus is more on high commitment approaches to handling the workforce, with emphasis on teams

__The Division of Labor__
 * Organizational theorists have promoted a conception of organizations as “interpretation systems"
 * Because of computers, there is an even greater need for interpretation
 * Computers create a division of labor because they distance the user from other employees and customers
 * An informated workplace is an arena through which information circulates

The Division of Learning
 * Learning is no longer a separate activity that occurs either before one enters the workplace or in remote classroom settings
 * The behaviors that define learning and the behaviors that define being productive are one and the same
 * Learning is not something that requires time out from being engaged in productive activity
 * Learning is the new form of labor

Managerial Activities in the Informated Organization
 * People can be thought to be arranged in circles around a core
 * The skills required at the core are the same as those required from a distance
 * The distance of any role denotes the range of understanding of responsibilities, the time frame spanned by those responsibilities, and the degree of accountability for cross functional integration attached to the role
 * Those who operate on the inner core work in real time on daily operations